Trained as a social worker, Fiorito worked in the Illinois Department of Social Welfare and at the Jewish Guild for the Blind in New York City, where she helped start an outpatient psychiatric clinic for disabled children in the 1960s. She was active in the
American Council of the Blind. The Mayor's Office of the Handicapped in New York City opened in late 1972, with Fiorito as its first director. "I shall represent the disabled to this government, not this government to the disabled," she declared at her appointment. Fiorito testified at a Congressional subcommittee meeting on the
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program in 1975. With
Judith Heumann,
Fred Fay,
Ralf Hotchkiss,
Lex Frieden, and others, she co-founded the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities in 1975, and served as its president, with
Frank Bowe as ACCD's executive director. She was one of the leaders of the
504 Sit-In protests in 1977, and her experience working with both government officials and activists was important to the protests' successful resolution. Fiorito worked in
Washington, D.C. at the
Department of Health, Education and Welfare for nineteen years, beginning during the
Carter administration. She was vice-chair of the federal task force on
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. She retired from government work in 1996, but continued to lead the Alexandria Commission on Persons with Disabilities, and do publicity for the Alexandria
League of Women Voters. == Personal life ==