The 2012 Paralympics: What Will London Bring? - Adaptive Beds Josh Basile Blue Water, White Water
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Adaptive Beds Josh Basile Blue Water, White Water
The 2012 Paralympics:
What Will London Bring?
life beyond wheels
newmobility.com AUG 2012 $4
JOSH BASILE:
Sharing the B Y T I F F I N Y C A R L S O N
SCI Connection
I
t’s not often a quad is seen rolling the
halls of the U.S. Congress — in protest
maybe, or for a special event — but Josh
Basile, a C4-5 quad, became a regular
on Capitol Hill this past spring when he
had the opportunity to work with one of
the biggest supporters of disability legisla-
tion in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Tom Harkin
— a Democrat from Iowa who has been a
champion of disability rights since winning
his first term in 1985.
Basile’s journey — from breaking his
neck in 2004 after being tossed by a wave
to working alongside some of the most
powerful people in the U.S. government at
the age of 26 — was no small feat. But even
more impressive is the transformation, or
re-working, rather, of his original life plans.
Growing up in Montgomery County,
Md., Basile had one of those idyllic child-
hoods. “My childhood was filled with sports,
girls, and a little studying in between,” he
jokes. He fell in love with tennis and went to
play for the Skidmore College tennis team, a
AAA-tier school in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.,
after graduating from high school.
He thrived on living life to the nth de-
gree when in school. “I was very active, al-
ways on the move, didn’t like to stay still.”
After Basile’s injury while on summer vaca-
tion with family at Bethany Beach, Del., he
channeled his restlessness into his recovery
process, pursuing small accomplishments
to stay motivated.
“From the beginning, I was absolutely
focused on getting better. I took the small-
est accomplishments and turned them into
big achievements, like getting off the ven-
tilator, saying my first word, drinking my
first soda, eating my first meal, blowing a
cotton ball an inch further through a straw
and completing 10 shoulder shrugs.” Ten
months after his injury, when he realized Josh Basile’s journey has so
how difficult the first few months of having far included launching two
websites for people with SCI
a spinal cord injury can be, Basile decided
and working on legislation
to found the Determinded2Heal Founda- with disability champion
tion — to help those with spinal cord inju- Sen. Tom Harkin (left).
AUGUST 2012 13
ries and their families understand the over- Park, where he studied for another two and quadriplegic in my area, Tim Strachan,
whelming world of SCI. a half years, graduating cum laude with a who broke his neck on the same beach as
Knowing his Skidmore days were be- bachelor’s in communication and found- I did, attended Montgomery College, then
hind him, Basile enrolled in Montgom- ing the University of Maryland Student College Park where he was a communica-
ery Community College near his parents’ Society for Stem Cell Research while there. tion major, graduated from Georgetown
home six months after his injury. “I began Law, got married, and now has two little
taking a poetry course to see if I was ready, Law School Beckons girls. I wanted to follow in his wheel tracks.
It was motivating to see someone else go
and to provide an outlet to express myself.” A bachelor’s degree was just the beginning down that road and come out on top. His
He discovered he was more than ready. of Basile’s educational pursuits. Toward actions made the path seem more realistic
Basile went on to take classes for two and the end of his Montgomery College days, and possible.”
a half more years at MCC, then transferred he decided he eventually wanted to go to And law made sense for his abilities.
to the University of Maryland, College law school. “I was motivated by another “I chose law because I’m limited in what I
can do physically, but mentally I’m stron-
ger than ever,” he explains. “I felt that my
best asset was my voice, and I decided that
the best way to bring my voice to the next
level would be through a legal education. A
law degree allows me to pursue many dif-
ferent career paths. I like the idea of having
options.” Basile chose to attend David A.
Clarke School of Law, a public interest law
school in Washington, D.C.
Upon entering law school, Basile
learned quickly things were going to be
different. “I was surprised to find that all
of my previous study habits and routines
would not be compatible with law school.
Law school involves absorbing and simpli-
fying hundreds of pages of dense material
in a short period of time. I was forced to de-
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in order to adapt to these new conditions
and survive law school. During my first
semester I found myself trying hundreds
of different techniques and study habits to
see which were the most effective and most
time efficient.”
Technology has played an important
role in his studies. “All of my textbooks
are in electronic form. I have copies on
my iPad and on my laptop. And my iPad
is fastened to a goose-neck arm attached
to my wheelchair, with the iPad always
on my lap throughout the day,” he says.
He also uses several different apps on
his iPad to take notes. “I use one special
app that actually allows me to take notes
and audio record the class. When I come
home to revisit my notes, all I have to do
is click on any of the words that I jotted
down and it will automatically resume
the audio recording at the moment that I
wrote that specific word down.”
He also uses Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Professional to type, as well as his favorite
program, Kurzweil 3000, which reads aloud
electronic books. “I typically have to read
14 NEW MOBILITY
around 60 pages a day per class (300 pages system — the legislation clinic —and knew and shut down. I was 100 feet away from
per week). Without this reading software, I exactly what he wanted to do: work with the HELP committee office with 10 min-
would probably fall asleep halfway through the HELP committee, the Senate Commit- utes remaining before the interview.”
all my reading out of pure exhaustion.” tee on Health, Education, Labor & Pen- He ended up calling the office assistant,
sions, chaired by Sen. Harkin. who put his chair in manual mode and
To the Hill After receiving a reference from Profes- pushed him to the interview. “I waited at
the table thinking that this could not get
Basile knew attending a public interest law sor Robert Burgdorf, one of the original
any worse. Luckily, I nailed the interview
school in Washington, D.C., would bring drafters of the ADA, Basile landed an in-
and let the supervisors know of my wheel-
some exciting opportunities, but he had no terview, but getting to the interview was a chair problem. And the next thing I knew,
idea what was in store when he signed up hilarious disaster. “As I got off the elevator the top supervisor was wheeling me to
for two semester’s worth of mandated clin- in the Hart Senate building, my wheelchair my car, which was about a half-mile away
ics. Basile got his first choice in the lottery computer control system short-circuited through different elevators and hallways.”
The supervisor’s name was Andy Imparato,
the disability policy director on the HELP
Experience it committee and former executive direc-
tor of the American Association of People
with Disabilities. “During that time, I had
TO BELIEVE IT an extra 10 minutes of one-on-one time
with him, which added to my interview.”
Basile was awarded a legislative clerk-
ship position with the HELP committee
that lasted from January to April 2012. “I
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Technology’ and ‘The State of Olmstead
Enforcement,’ as well as conduct research
for hearings and legislation,” he says. “I also
researched and drafted legislation expand-
Meet Jenny: ing minority-owned small business oppor-
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Television Producer &
tunities for the disability community and
Outdoor Enthusiast,
attended multiple meetings with nonprofit
Denver, CO
groups, government agency officials and
disability associations.”
Being able to work with the HELP com-
mittee exposed him to the inner workings
of the government. “I’ve learned that tim-
ing is everything and that compromise is
necessary,” he says. “And I learned that Sen.
Harkin is a great man and champion for
the disability community. He tries to make
sure every piece of legislation addresses or
includes a disability component.”
www.QuickieQM710.com Wearing Another Hat
Test drive the Quickie QM-7 base today, tell us what you Amidst his law school studies, Basile has
think and we’ll send you a free t-shirt while supplies last. been quietly plugging away on another
project — SPINALpedia — an offshoot of
the nonprofit he founded, Determined-
2Heal. During the summer of 2007, a re-
search associate at the National Rehabilita-
SpiderTrac™ Suspension allows user to smoothly go over curbs.
tion Hospital introduced Basile to Brittany
BELIEVE IT! Martin, 26, whose father had a spinal cord
injury. She was also passionate about creat-
ing a support network for those with SCI.
800.333.4000 w w w. S u n r i s e M e d i c a l . c o m She had been affected early on — when
she was only 12 — by her dad’s injury.
16 NEW MOBILITY
“Immediately after the accident I was ter- was made instantly. “Josh and I got along videos are categorized by mobility level —
rified,“ she says. “My little brother died off the bat, sharing the SCI connection in partial to full arm control, partial to full
on the scene. When I saw my dad the first addition to the commitment to want to hand movement, full or partial leg move-
time the next day, I began to understand help more people,” she says. They decided ment, full to partial trunk control, and
what was going on, but it wasn’t until the to create a mentoring network together ventilator-use.
final verdict of paralysis from the doctor’s soon after their first meeting. They uti- Basile and Martin are taking advantage
mouth that I began to process it.” lized Martin’s original plan — a mentoring of the rise of video sharing and prevalence
From the onset, Martin wanted to be website that networked hospitals — with of video taking (like with cell phones) and
there for her dad. “I committed myself pret- the goal of improving the quality of life for giving people a place to put information
ty early to the idea of helping my dad recov- people with paralysis. that will be immediately relevant to oth-
er. I liked feeling a part of that and feeling It took three different versions of their ers. “Mentoring happens naturally, but it
like I was valuable in the wake of the whole website and experimenting with different
shouldn’t be left to chance in terms of be-
trauma. The first thing I said to him when types of software to get to where there are
ing ‘lucky enough’ to get hurt somewhere
I saw him the next day was, ‘Dad, you have today — a finely categorized collection of
near a good hospital or with a mentoring
to get better and come play with me,’ and streaming videos. “The idea was very dy-
program,” says Martin.
he cited those words many times during his namic and constantly changing, based on
For Basile, juggling school and creating
recovery as words that kept him going.” external factors,” adds Martin. “Once we
As their family adjusted to the injury, heard about hospital bureaucracy, we gave an extensive video network have certainly
Martin went on to attend Harvard to study up the idea of networking hospitals and been a test. “It’s been extremely tough,” he
linguistics. It was there that she received took another avenue through videos.” says. “I consider my schoolwork to be my
support to get her idea for a SCI mentoring Their end product is a site that contains three meals of the day, but SPINALpedia is
resource off the ground. “I had been work- thousands of spinal cord injury videos by my dessert.” From choosing a career in law
ing on the original concept of SPINALpe- people with SCI. “YouTube is too unspe- to creating SPINALpedia, Basile has been
dia during the spring semester of 2007 in cific if people want to find content that’s focused on paying it forward.
a social enterprise class,” she says, “I ended actually useful,” says Martin. “Josh and I “Many people who came into my life
up getting some money from Harvard that are working to save people time, filtering after my injury showed me what was
summer to try to develop it further.” useful content and teaching people things possible. Now I have an opportunity to
When Basile met Martin, a connection others may have taken years to learn.” The give back.”
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AUGUST 2012 17
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