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

by Lachi (Author), Tim Vandehey (With)

With style and straight talk, musician and activist Lachi redefines disability as a cultural movement, an empowering identity, and a blueprint for innovation that you can't afford to ignore.

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 celebrating. In this book, Lachi welcomes readers into the vibrant world of Disability Culture.

I Identify as Blind pulses with energy. Through magnetic storytelling, pop-culture deep dives, and historical insight, Lachi challenges mainstream views on disability 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 an invitation to a cultural movement--welcoming everyone to celebrate disabilities as a source of power and pride.

Come for the laughs, stay for the mic drops.

Author Biography

Lachi is an award-winning recording artist, producer of a Grammy-nominated album, public speaker, and the first openly disabled National Trustee of the Recording Academy. She is the CEO of RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), which has partnered with Netflix and Live Nation. Named a USA Today Woman of the Year and a "dedicated foot soldier for disability pride" by Forbes, Lachi hosted the PBS American Masters series Renegades, has appeared on Good Morning America, and she has spoken at The White House. She lives in New York City.