It’s easy for people with disabilities to feel as if they don’t have a voice. Bermudian Ashlee Brady-Kelly is urging them to speak up.

The 23-year-old has cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus, a condition which results in water on the brain.

This did not stop her from graduating from the Community College of Vermont — with a 3.75 GPA. She was also selected from a graduating class of 500 to speak at the school’s commencement ceremony on June 6.

“It was definitely an experience I will never forget,” Miss Brady-Kelly said. “I begged my fellow graduates not to give up and put aside their dreams and that’s really what I’ve been telling myself over the last five years — to not give up on everything I had set out for myself.”

Speaking before an audience of more than 3,500 was “nerve-racking” until she reminded herself why she was doing it, she said.

“I realised I wasn’t on that stage just as Ashlee, but to be a voice for my school and the graduates,” she added. “It wasn’t about me. It was about so much more than myself.

“I told them, ‘Yes I’m in a wheelchair temporarily and have a broken leg right now, but I have a voice that needs to be heard’.

“Unfortunately individuals with disabilities can sometimes feel as though their opinions are overlooked or don’t count.

“But for the audience to have listened and received it and then stand up for me at the end, it proved I could have an impact that far exceeds just an academic level.”

Her disabilities were a constant challenge as she worked her way through school.

“They don’t make everyday life easy,” she said. “The physical condition I have is cerebral palsy and that’s what everyone notices in my gait and how I move and that makes everyday life difficult, like getting around and just being able to maintain my physical independence.

“But it was the primary condition, the hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, which was a bigger setback.

“I’ve had ten surgeries in the past five years to make sure everything was running as well as it could. That put a hold on my academic career.

“I started Bermuda College in 2010 and for every semester I was in school I had to take a semester off to heal and recover from the surgeries, so it was difficult to continue on and not get discouraged.”

Family and friends motivated her to keep striving for bigger and better things.

“They keep me grounded and remind me I’m not the only one going through this,” she said. “Sometimes I only see it through my eyes and not the big picture. I go through the surgeries and the pain, but my family also has to see me go through it and keep me motivated and happy, and often I underestimate how hard it is on them.”

Miss Brady-Kelly is working to become a social worker and inspire those with disabilities.

When she was younger she often heard people say they would try to fix her. Although she appreciated the sentiment, she now accepts that her conditions cannot be fixed or stripped away — nor would she want them to be.

“Believe it or not, my medical conditions have given me so much personally and emotionally,” she said. “Growing up I needed someone to just understand what it takes to get through the day and understand that what I do isn’t easy.

“As hard as my life has been though I know it wasn’t in vain if I can touch a population that many people don’t. When I go into social work and go into the hospitals I can tell people, ‘I know this is hard and I know this because I’ve done it myself’. I am hoping that moves them.”

Miss Brady-Kelly is in the middle of a year-long recovery from a broken leg. In January she’ll head to Champlain College in Vermont to pursue a bachelor’s degree in social work.

Eventually she hopes to return to Bermuda to fill what she sees as a void in local practice.

“It’s not because [medical professionals] don’t want to help, but because it’s a small island there aren’t the resources to,” she said.

“Being able to experience what’s available in the United States and witnessing some of that, I hope I can bring this knowledge back home one day to help the population.”