I Identify as Blind: A Brazen Celebration of Disability Culture, Identity, and Power

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. (Jan.)