Question

Deaf Poets Society poetry editor Cyree Jarelle Johnson, who was diagnosed with lupus in college, said that the experience of being disabled can be “incredibly isolating” in a world that often views sickness as a tragedy.

Johnson noted that not all people who are deaf or have a chronic illness consider themselves disabled, and that the word “disabled” can encompass a wide variety of experiences.

“I think that there’s a misconception that sickness is inherently tragic, and I don’t feel like my life is tragic. I feel like my life is lovely. Sickness is a huge part of my life, but it’s not the only part of my life,” Johnson said.

In one or two sentences, describe how these details support a central idea of the text.

Answer 1

These details—Johnson’s lupus diagnosis, her comment that being disabled can be isolating, and her point that not everyone with illness identifies as disabled—underscore the central idea that disability and chronic illness are varied, personal experiences rather than a single condition. Her rejection of the notion that sickness is inherently tragic and insistence that her life is “lovely” reinforces that illness does not define a person’s whole life.