"[3]Because her family's home was not accessible, Saviola lived at Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island during her teen years.

Saviola was part of creating the hospital's ward for young adult patients, with more age-appropriate routines, activities and outings.

For her freshman year, she and another Goldwater patient attended classes remotely, by telephone, and took tests by mail, an arrangement "believed to be the first of its kind used in a hospital in the state".

Her fellow speakers included disability rights activists Sandra Schnur, Maria Nardone, and Frieda Zames.

[6] Her advocacy work was credited in 2019 at the opening of a new radiology unit at NYC Health + Hospitals' Morrisania location in the Bronx, which featured accessible examination tables and mammography equipment.

[1][15] She helped found Concepts of Independence in 1977,[16] which The New York Times described as a non-profit corporation "to enable users of home care services to interview, hire, supervise and dismiss their own assistants.