March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month. According to the Brain Injury Association of America, more than 5 million people in the U.S. live with a permanent brain-injury related disability. Emaly Ball is one of those individuals.
In 2012, when Ball was 17, she was diagnosed with a moderate to severe brain injury after a car accident. “It changed my life,” Ball said. Following her injury, Ball had to relearn to do everyday tasks like brushing her hair. She also utilized a wheelchair for a period of time. Doctors told her she likely would not be able to attend college. She proved them wrong by attending the University of Nebraska at Kearney that fall.
“I was mad at the world for telling me I couldn’t go [to college] so I went right after,” Ball said.
Ball has sustained three other brain injuries since her initial diagnosis in 2012. She experiences symptoms including mental fatigue, difficulty with reading comprehension, and struggles with time management. Having a system and working with disability services helped her stay on track while in school. Despite experiencing hard times in pursuit of her degree, she became the first person in her family to graduate from college.
“When it came time to have the graduation, it was surreal.” Ball said. “For my graduation from high school, I was lifted in a wheelchair across the stage. This graduation I didn’t have anything. It was just me.”
She went on to earn a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Family and Communication Services. While working on her degree she would sometimes struggle with understanding the material, but she persevered.
“Getting my masters was the hardest thing I’ve ever done aside from relearning how to walk,” Ball said.
She now works as a manager at Mosaic where she helps support individuals with disabilities. She is also a strong advocate for the brain injury community.
Her advocacy work began in college when a professor asked her to do a presentation on brain injuries for disability awareness week. She then became president for Collegians for Integration and Accessibility where she worked to bring awareness and promote the rights of students with disabilities. She went on to work with the Nebraska Injured Brain Network, and she is now Council Chair for the Nebraska Brain Injury Advisory Council (BIAC). The BIAC is sponsored by the Nebraska Department of Education. According to the council’s website, its mission is to “engage, integrate, and inspire brain injury stakeholders to help achieve the Statewide Vision for Brain Injury Policies and Services.”
Ball says she has learned a lot from being on the BIAC, including how every individual with a brain injury is unique and deals with different symptoms. She wishes more people understood how prominent brain injuries are and practiced more empathy. That’s part of the reason why she shares her own story and engages in public awareness and education.
“It’s not the person that’s disabled, it’s the environment that is disabling to that person,” Ball said. “And we can change the environment.”
Madison Wurtele is an attorney at Disability Rights Nebraska where she works on a broad range of legal advocacy activities on behalf of individuals with disabilities. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking and spending time with friends and family.
Photo by Rebeca Alvidrez on Unsplash
