'Never Give Up': Disabled Mobility Consultant and Athlete Delivers Inspiration

Most people think if they were in an accident and permanently wound up in a wheelchair, their life would be over.

Pete Zarba says that's when his life began.

"When you become disabled, you can lose your freedom to make choices, you give up a lot of who you are in exchange for a government disability check. It comes at a high price," said Zarba. "You have to give into the system or create your own path."

Zarba, now 55, became a quadriplegic at age 20 in a car accident. His legs are immobile, and he has limited use of his arms and hands.

It not only didn't stop him, he's an athlete and one of the big motivational speakers in disability arenas, such as the Abilities Expo, a convention geared toward empowering the disabled, held this past weekend in the in Edison. Zarba inspires people when he isn't working at his bread-and-butter job, that of being a mobility consultant for the Long Island-based Bussani Mobility.

The firm helps the disabled find the right motor vehicle for their needs, such as the one Zarba drives, which he operates with hand controls. 

He turned a chance meeting at Bussani 30 years ago into a career. 

After his accident, Zarba dropped out of Syracuse University and went home to Long Island to his family, where he worked full time at rehabilitating himself. He enrolled at nearby Hofstra University to major in business.

One Friday afternoon, he was looking forward to a party at Hofstra, but he was having problems with the lift and door mechanism on his specially-equipped van. Bussani Mobility was the company that did the warranty work on the van.

Zarba brought the van over to be repaired. "I showed up and said, fix it, because I wanted to go to the party," he said. John Bussani, the owner, was trying to tend to the repair, but the phone kept ringing and he kept being interrupted.

"I said, can I answer the phone for you and you can fix my van? I took a lot of messages that afternoon."

A New Career

Zarba did such a good job at it that Bussani called him on Monday and offered him a job. "He said, you want to come back so I can get some work done?" Zarba laughed.

It started a 30 year career for Zarba, who is now sales manager for the company's three stores with 12 sales people and 20 mechanics.

Bussani was a genius with mechanical things, motors and pumps and wires, Zarba said, but he wasn't into taking care of the office and sales work. That was Zarba's speciality, who majored in business. 

"I was uniquely qualified for taking care of that. We spent a lot of time identifying problems, needs and gaps, with mobility issues, and taking creative ways to keep people mobile. 

"It was interesting work. I never got tired or bored with it," he said.

Make no mistake, Zarba added. Disability is expensive, and the way the system is structured, it's hard to the disabled to make it without reliance on government assistance.

By working with Bussani, Zarba said he felt like he was "gaining control of who I was and how I'd make ends meet, as opposed to feeling more like a casualty or victim of the system.

"It's a difficult system for people to break out from. There are disincentives for people to say no to what's handed to them. People want to be productive members of society, but they need Medicare and Medicaid to pay for medication, for the wheelchair. 

"Trying to be truly independent, to work, it's a real big hurdle for people to have to address."

Mobility beyond wheelchairs is part of being making it on your own. Zarba's firm is a member of the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association (NMEDA), an industry watchdog group that helps the disabled determined what they need for their unique situation.

"People want to know which products would be best for their unique needs. It's a hard thing to do over the Internet," he said. 

"We take a professional look at what people can and can't do, and we make professional recommendations. We know the ins and outs to get them what they need."

Mobility Has Grown Up

It's gotten better for the disabled, with the and a general consciousness-raising among the population that the disabled can be very abled, indeed, with a few modifications to their situation.

Even the van conversion industry has gotten sophisticated.

"In the old days, we'd build them with blow torches and saws, cut, weld, and paint them, and build on site. Now there are tons of opportunities that weren't there before," Zarba said. 

His firm uses companies such as the Braun Corporation, which build and modify vans in large quantities, as well as manufacture generic conversion vans that "are popular across the board," Zarba said.

With his extended family, as well as his wife and two children, Zarba feels he's blessed and he hasn't missed out on a thing.

It's all about how you see life, he said, and what you choose to do with the hand you're dealt.

"I think part of it is choosing the right path, that it's nobody's fault, that all there is is you and how you look at it. With being challenged, if you are lucky enough to get to the other side of it, it changes you," Zarba said. 

"You have a sense of purpose and immediacy, a heightened awareness of how wonderful things are. 

"I think it's very motivating."