Disabled Not Dead: N.S. woman helps others navigate living with disabilities, chronic pain

The folks from the Disabled Not Dead Society talk about how they are helping those with mobility limitations and chronic pain.

A Nova Scotia woman is advocating for people living with disabilities, or chronic pain that challenges their mobility, with her Halifax-based nonprofit.

Kimberley Nearing cofounded the Disabled Not Dead Society in February of last year. She had to stop working 13 years ago because of her birth defect. At the time, there was some confusion over whether she could volunteer or not.

“When I started the process, it was one pension saying you have to volunteer, one pension says you’re not allowed to volunteer. And my doctor was filling out the paperwork and he’s like, ‘I don’t understand, you’re disabled not dead,’” she told CTV Morning Live’s Crystal Garrett.

“And it really stuck that I have this disability, I’m not able to be gainfully employed anymore, but now I have this time that I need to fill and find a new meaning, and so I’ve been giving my time as much as I can to the disabled community.”

Nearing describes the society as “a for us, by us” organization.

“All of us are living with mobility limitations or chronic pain. And we don’t actually go by diagnosis, which is not normally what happens. Normally you have a diagnosis and then that’s who you reach out for support, but we found that being disabled you always have the same challenges whether it’s chronic pain, how to deal with chronic pain, how to get around with mobility (limits), all of that kind of stuff,” she said.

Tia Upshaw, the CEO and cofounder of Black Women in Excellence, went to high school with Nearing and recently got back in touch with her.

“I was at a Team Works event a few weeks back, Access to Success, and it’s around entrepreneurship, and leadership, success, for individuals who are currently disabled or dealing with mental health,” she said.

“As soon as I saw her, I started following her on Instagram, and Facebook and I saw what she was doing. And you know I have a love for social media, but for not-for profit.”

Nearing says back in the ‘80s and ‘90s when the two were growing up it was expected she would live at home and not be a “valuable” member of society.

“I bought my own house eight years ago, I live on a half-acre. And there’s such a negative connotation about disability, like I’m a walking wheelchair user, so I split my time sixty-forty, sixty in per cent in the chair, forty per cent out of the chair,” she said.

“So we provide socials where we go out and meet as a group, sometimes it’s their first time being out in their chair and they just didn’t know they could do that. We do wheelchair skills because I was never taught. I got my wheelchair in 2019, the very end of 2019, we all know what happened in 2020. So I didn’t have that support, so we created that support.”

The society also has a mentoring program. More information on their services can be found on their social media pages.

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