About

Hello! My name is Ishaan Singh Ahuja, and welcome to Disability - A New Ability. I’m a high school student on Long Island with a deep interest in science. Outside school, I love playing the piano and viola, and was on my school’s tennis team. This blog is my way of documenting my journey learning about the field of healthcare, from understanding the intricate body systems to how society and culture impact our health. 

 

My interest in understanding different mental, neurological, and cognitive disabilities started when one of my best friends received an autism diagnosis back in elementary school. The diagnosis clarified how he tackled academic and social challenges, and I started to probe how neurodivergent brains process information differently from neurotypical ones. 

 

As I started my research journey, one question stood out: Where do mental disabilities originate? We can look to genetics for the answers. This blog digs deeper into the topics I scratched the surface of during a genetics course at Johns Hopkins University, including the evolution of genetic mutations, which may be the reason behind some disabilities. As a musician, I often wonder why some people are born with musical talents and others are not. Now, I think about how one can use one's musical talents to support and help people with disabilities learn.

 

I further explored my interests in disabilities and how our bodies and systems work through a course from Duke University and shadowing two local pediatricians. The course’s exploration of the body’s many complex and simultaneous systems truly intrigued me, while my shadowing experience gave me a feel for what it really means to be a doctor and opened my eyes to the social, cultural, and socioeconomic factors impacting our health every day. That’s how I found my way to medical anthropology.
 

Through this blog, I hope you’ll take away two things: 1) A new perspective like I understood after my experiences I talked about in this about page, in addition to my interest in the fields of neuro and cognitive science, on the healthcare system and how factors of our everyday lives affect our health, and 2) Our society’s attitudes toward disabilities, both from a biological standpoint and a social one, where our society’s thoughts on people with disabilities have evolved and changed over time. But most importantly, I hope you learn that being different isn’t bad; instead, we should embrace people from all backgrounds and walks of life, no matter their looks or struggles.