I was a great public speaker. Whether large audiences or small ones, I could innately sense the tone of the people that I was speaking to. Are they cautious, eager, uninterested, or sincere? I transformed cautious people into engagement, sincere ones into action. At base, I understood language—the pauses, the reflections, the changes in the mood. For me at that time, language was visceral, through my body not through my mind. Then, when I was 37 years of age, I had a stroke in the operating room for brain cancer, and, ironically, the center for language in the brain was impacted. I now have aphasia and, more limited, apraxia, which are language and speech disabilities.
June is National Aphasia Awareness Month. For most people without disabilities including these, it is only possible to learn it theoretically. As the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences explained, you can learn that in the left hemisphere in the brain there is a section that controls speech production and articulation—how you use words accurately—and there is another section, through the neural pathway, that controls comprehension—receiving new knowledge and storing it into your own. But, for me, now disabled, I had to relearn language in practice.
In an inpatient rehabilitation center, I spent hours every day to understand the letters of the alphabet (A, B, C, D) or the months of the year (January, February, March), or, tacked up in my room, my partner’s name (Justin Wood) or my work (Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs). As I moved from inpatient to outpatient, I became better at reading, writing and basic comprehension. When I saw the picture of sunglasses, I could write down sunglasses.
More challenging was advanced comprehension:
“If the notebook is blue, touch the circle. If not, touch the bicycle.” I frequently had to repeat the question or I got it wrong a few times until I selected the right one. Circles, stars, arrows and triangles puzzled me every time. In my brain, I couldn’t understand the difference between circles from arrows, from concrete to abstraction.
The big leap happened when I returned to work, six months after my trauma. Talking with colleagues on a new project or after-work drinks forced me to react in a non-structured way. I couldn’t guess what people would say; I just had to respond, sometimes correctly and quickly and other times slowly and methodically. Large meetings or convenings were more challenging still. Multiple people, varied thoughts. I spoke little, but I was processing it all and I could now understand the certainty of language. In my brain were words that formed sentences, in my mind was comprehension—the context, the meaning — and in my voice were sounds that others could hear. I learned that language is created in your brain, not in your heart. It’s not magic, it is fact.
Ten years later, I was appointed as the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and, for the first time ever, I have lived experience to bring to this job. For example, work is key to recovery, but the data on employment with aphasia is bleak. “Individuals with post-stroke aphasia consistently have lower rates of return to work than those post-stroke without aphasia” – 34% versus 58% — according to a reviewed article from Australian researchers. In MOPD, we see a problem and identify a solution. We developed NYC: ATWORK, which is an employment program that recruits, pre-screens, and connects New Yorkers with disabilities to jobs and internships with established business partners in both the public and private sectors. The goal for NYC: ATWORK is to expand it so we can help more people with disabilities secure long-term jobs and career trajectories. We also do disability etiquette trainings for city agencies and external stakeholders on the diversity of people with disabilities, including speech and language disabilities, and we are expanding our work on policies and strategic communications, moving from individual actions to collective strength.
For me, the most remarkable thing is that your brain can change over time. Called neuroplasticity, the brain will adapt to create new pathways when you are injured. People with disabilities, in all its forms, are adaptable and resourceful too. If you are blocked in one direction, you can find another pathway to move forward. I now do public speaking again. I don’t do it as precisely and perfectly when I was younger. I’m more thoughtful and nuanced instead. I’m like Glenn Gould’s later Bach variations; introspective versus brash. I may make mistakes or pause a little bit too long, but I am self-aware about my needs, the communities I serve, and all of their multiple sounds and chords.
Nisha Agarwal was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities by Mayor Mamdani in February 2026. Throughout her career in public service, advocacy, and law, Commissioner Agarwal has worked to advance equity and expand opportunity for New Yorkers.
Most recently, she served as Executive Director for Policy and Communications at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Division of Mental Health. She previously served as Deputy Executive Director for Impact and Senior Advisor at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), a global legal aid and advocacy organization.
Under the de Blasio administration, Commissioner Agarwal led the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, where she advanced major initiatives including IDNYC, the City’s municipal identification program, and Cities for Action, a national coalition of local elected officials advocating for immigrant communities. She also served as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives, supporting efforts to strengthen civic engagement and expand DemocracyNYC’s work across immigration, disability, and justice-involved communities.
Prior to her service in City government, Commissioner Agarwal led the Health Justice Program at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, served as Deputy Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Popular Democracy, and was Executive Director of the Immigrant Justice Corps.
Commissioner Agarwal received her A.B., summa cum laude, in Social Studies from Harvard College. She was awarded a British Marshall Scholarship and earned a degree from the University of Oxford, St. Antony’s College. She later received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was a Skadden Fellow.
Opinions expressed are solely those of the writer(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Able News at The Viscardi Center and/or The Viscardi Center.