I Identify as Blind
A Brazen Celebration of Disability Culture, Identity, and Power
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- 10,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
With style and straight talk, musician and changemaker Lachi flips disability and neurodivergence into an empowering identity, a cultural movement, and an innovation engine
What if the most taboo parts of our identity—the parts we’re taught to mask—are exactly the ones that hold our greatest power? Lachi is an award-winning singer and leader who awakens the world to this truth: Disability has long shaped our culture and is an identity worth brazenly reclaiming. In this book, Lachi reveals why dropping the stigma is the ultimate glow-up, and inspires readers to celebrate the boldest parts of themselves.
I Identify as Blind pulses with energy. Through magnetic storytelling and pop-culture deep dives, Lachi challenges mainstream views on disability and neurodivergence with humor and heart. Because visionaries with disabilities have always driven progress. The book features trailblazing figures like Senator Tammy Duckworth, Breaking Bad star RJ Mitte, Microsoft executive Jenny Lay-Flurrie, and so many more. Lachi even takes readers behind the scenes at Coldplay concerts, since after Chris Martin developed tinnitus, he transformed his concerts into some of the most accessible in the world. Each story reframes disability not as a deficit but as a wellspring of collective strength. And inventions created for people with disabilities benefit everyone—from audiobooks to curb cuts to the internet. (Vint Cerf helped develop the first commercial email service, because he had trouble communicating by phone.)
With punchy humor and radical honesty, Lachi dismantles stereotypes and builds a new narrative of Disability identity. I Identify as Blind is just what the world needs right now: an invitation to a cultural movement that celebrates disabilities as a source of power and pride.
Come for the laughs, stay for the mic drops.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her buoyant debut memoir, musician and disability rights activist Lachi lays out how her blindness and neurodiversity are not barriers to success but instead key parts of her identity and sense of community. Born with vision loss and later diagnosed with ADHD and OCD, Lachi spent much of her youth trying to mask or downplay her disability before embracing it in adulthood, having realized that being open about her needs and using assistive devices made moving through the world much easier. Since coming out as disabled, Lachi has built a music career, founded the advocacy and consulting group Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities, and started a fashion accessibility company, Glam Canes. She tells her story with a healthy dose of humor (Lachi quips that she's "less Viola Davis and more Maya Rudolph") and real talk about the frustrations, joys, and mundanities of life while disabled. She also incorporates interviews and anecdotes from other disabled activists and artists, including "Mother of the Disability Rights Movement" Judy Heumann, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, and Master Chef winner Christine Ha. Along the way, Lachi makes a strong case that all people should be invested in disability rights, since most people will, at some point in their life, find themselves under the "big umbrella" of disability identity. It makes for an inviting and entertaining account from a powerful voice in disability rights.
