Perseverance in Profile
CARRIE BASAS— DISABILITY RIGHTS ADVOCATE BY TOM CALARCO
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Carrie Basas will bowl you over with her enthusiasm. She has so much to say and so much she wants to do with her life, which is devoted to helping others who have been dealt a little “inconvenience” in their life, like herself, in the form of some physical, genetic, or health limitation. Carrie’s hurdle was Larsen’s Syndrome, a congenital condition that severely limits a person’s ability to walk. The author of numerous journal articles, book contributions, and two books dealing with disability rights, she has become an important scholar and activist in the disability rights movement.
“T DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JULY/AUGUST 2011
Basas had 38 surgeries before she was fi ve, and was
placed in a special education class with kids who had a variety of mental and physical limitations until third grade. “My parents didn’t give up,” she says, “and fought to get
me mainstreamed and out of special ed.” Her years in high school were diffi cult because her
condition brought attention upon her, but she distinguished herself as an outstanding student and was known as the “disabled smart chick.” T ough she was beginning to become aware of disability issues in high school, she says she was brought up by her parents to be as normal as possible. “T ey didn’t want me to connect to disability,” she says. At Swarthmore College near Philadelphia, known for its
Quaker origins rooted in egalitarianism and social justice, Basas took ownership of her disability. She was taking a class in community economic and political activism. Her professor was a lesbian who had been a labor organizer. Basas had been working on a national women’s health project for the class. “Why aren’t you working on disability rights?” her
he only thing about my disability that is an inconvenience [to me] is how others treat me because of my disability and how society has been constructed to isolate and alienate people with dis- abilities,” she says.
professor asked. Her professor’s query had more than simple pedagogic
intent. T e professor revealed her recently developed hearing loss and saw in Basas someone she could commiserate with. It led Basas to an epiphany. She realized that by ignoring her inclination for social justice, she was isolating herself from others who had atypical limitations to overcome. By uniting and forming networks, she realized, they could help each other in dealing with these limitations. During an intern-
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