NCD Celebrates the Life and Legacy of Carrie Ann Lucas

The National Council on Disability honors the life and legacy of disability rights attorney and advocate Carrie Ann Lucas, who passed away Sunday, February 24, at the age of 47.

Lucas is survived by her four children and her partner.

Lucas was a tireless advocate for the rights of parents with disabilities and spent much of her professional career defending parents with disabilities in the social welfare system. A pioneer in the field of legal representation of parents with disabilities, NCD relied upon many of her expert insights during the writing of NCD’s 2012 Rocking the Cradle report on the parenting rights of people with disabilities.

Lucas, the single mother of four adopted children with disabilities, provided NCD with keen personal and professional insights over several years, and shared her experiences at several NCD Council events, including an NCD quarterly Council meeting as well as a policy briefing held at the White House.

Lucas was also an outspoken critic of efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide, particularly in her home state of Colorado, warning of such legislative efforts’ dangers for people with disabilities. NCD has a longstanding policy position in opposition to the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and is currently working on a bioethics series of research reports, which includes a revisit of the topic.  

NCD celebrates Carrie Ann Lucas’s life, acknowledges her incredible contributions to the disability community, and extends its heartfelt condolences to her family for their profound loss.