Growing up with a cousin who was paralyzed from the waist down after a farming accident in France and another cousin who is blind, Yannick Benjamin already had familiarity with the disability experience. One night at the age of 25, while helping an older gentleman get up two steps that led to the upper level of the dining room of a brand new hotel, Benjamin wondered why there wasn’t an accessible path. Little did he know that he would be faced with the same reality days later. After finishing work one day and driving back, Benjamin was in a car accident that also left him paralyzed from the waist down. “Within a couple of seconds, my life did change,” he said.
But it did not change in a negative way, according to Benjamin. He could not imagine a life where his chair dictated his fate. Instead, he was ready to conquer the challenging times that were to come. Benjamin’s family members were all involved in the hospitality business, and he had devoted the last decade of his life to it, so there was no way he was going to let his calling in this industry change.
“I really admire my mom and dad,” Benjamin said. “I kind of had this drive to want to be like that, not just professionally, but also in the same way that they lived their lives with virtue.”
Benjamin found comfort in opening the Beaupierre Wines & Spirits store in the same inaccessible Hell’s Kitchen building in New York City where he was born and raised. Now, the store is a barrier-free place of family-oriented values that fosters social sustainability and enhances the quality of life for people with disabilities, as well as other marginalized communities.
A world-class sommelier, Benjamin co-founded Contento, a restaurant in East Harlem with the ethos of “accessible for all.” The restaurant served as an example of proper etiquette and social accessibility with its modifications for wheelchair users, a menu in Braille, and adaptive flatware. However, the costs of the American healthcare system and the lingering effects of the pandemic unfortunately forced its doors closed last December.
Even so, Benjamin continues to be a strong leader in the disability community. He co-founded Wheeling Forward, a nonprofit dedicated to helping recently disabled people navigate health and social service systems on the way to an active life in the community. From this effort stemmed Benjamin’s nonprofit, Wine On Wheels, which brings people together from across the hospitality industry to pour wines, socialize, and raise funds to support people with disabilities to realize their full potential.
To empower disabled people, Benjamin believes we must embrace our history. “ I think what we can do better,” he said, “is being able to tell the story of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Explain to all our friends the importance of the ADA and why we need to continue to grow it and protect it, because eventually, everyone, somehow or some way, will benefit from it.”
“62 million Americans identify as having a disability,” Benjamin underscored. “It’s just too big of a number to ignore, and it’s only growing.”
Read all 35 stories of the New York-based leaders profiled in our ADA 35 edition.