“My name is Isabella Kres-Nash, I am a student at Brown University, but I am from Seattle Washington, my pronouns are she-her-hers, and I identify as a multiracial black woman.” This is how Isabella says she introduces herself when speaking publicly. Until recently, Isabella felt this introduction adequately covered who she is in a nutshell. Then she began to feel that something was missing. Isabella has a disability.
“Even though I have been disabled since birth I am only now beginning to incorporate that language into my identity. Incorporating disability into how I speak about myself has not been an easy journey.”
Isabella says she never felt a connection to a community of other people with disabilities before she arrived in Washington DC for her internship with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). And once she was introduced to that community, Isabella admits it was a bit of a culture shock. Isabella says the disability community is different from other identity-based communities. “This difference is because society frames disability as a solitary experience, or that because we have specific diagnosis we cannot identify with the struggles of other people with different disabilities,” she shares. And while she feels this way of seeing the disability community is common among both people with disabilities and able bodied individuals, Isabella also thinks this view is “incredibly dangerous.”
Instead of compartmentalization, Isabella wants unity.
“The future success of the disability rights movement depends on our ability to come together as a permanent community. Not simply to accomplish a goal, like the passage of the Disability Integration Act (DIA) or push an agenda, but to build long lasting connections across disability.”
Well said, Isabella.