About Sarah

My involvement with the disability community started when I was a teenager, when I started volunteering with the Association for Community Living in my town. I was involved in a befriending program with one of the developmentally disabled women supported by the organization. My thought at the time was that the volunteer experience would look good for when I applied to social work programs at university, but I soon learned that this volunteer “work” wasn’t work at all - Kathy (name changed) and I came to consider each other family, and remained friends for over 20 years until her death in 2018.

By that time, I’d acquired disabilities of my own. Just a few years after I met Kathy, I discovered that I had a blood vessel abnormality in my brain called an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) that required brain surgery to correct. The surgery was successful, but a few days afterward I had a stroke that left me with a severely weakened left side. I had to learn to walk again and, almost 25 years later, I still have very little use of my left arm and hand.

I knew that a stroke after the surgery was a possibility. Surgery was still the best option. And while having a stroke in my early 20s threw off my life as I’d planned it (to the extent that I’d planned it), it also brought countless opportunities for learning about myself and the world, for meeting people with huge hearts and incredible stories, and let me discover that my passion truly lies in using my writing to advocate for those who don’t have the privilege that I do.

I’m an atheist, so I don’t talk about being blessed, but I’m truly fortunate to be where I am today, with not only my own freelance writing business, but a platform on which I can share what I’ve learned about disability history and the people who have shaped it.