Imani Barbarin (born March 1990) is an American writer, public speaker, and

disability rights The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all disabled people. It is made up of organizations of disability activists, also known as disability advocates, around ...

activist who also goes by the username Crutches and Spice. She is active on her website and on

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, such as

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Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

(X) and

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

Career

In 2014, Barbarin launched the website Crutches and Spice as a space for her to write about her experiences as a disabled Black woman.

Social media

, Barbarin has spearheaded several

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...

s to promote discussion of disabled issues and experiences. In 2018 she started #DisTheOscars to call attention to the lack of disabled representation. In 2019 she started #AbledsAreWeird, encouraging disabled people to share their experiences of abled individuals misunderstanding their needs and experiences. In January 2021, she started the hashtag #MyDisabledLifeIsWorthy in response to remarks by former

CDC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and is headquartered in Atlanta, ...

director Rochelle Walensky about the "encouraging" fact that most deaths caused by the

omicron variant Omicron (B.1.1.529) is a Variants of SARS-CoV-2, variant of SARS-CoV-2 first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa on 24 November 2021. It was first detected in Botswana and has ...

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

were in disabled individuals. Barbarin joined TikTok in 2020, where she began posting both comedic and educational videos. By February 2022 she had 140,000 followers on

and 370,000 followers on TikTok. In late 2022, Barbarin criticized Twitter policy changes after the company's acquisition by Elon Musk.

Other work

Barbarin works as a communications manager for a disability legal office in Philadelphia. She also writes for online newspapers and magazines and has speaking engagements at universities. In 2020, Barbarin hosted the five-episode

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

''Vote for Access'', which investigated the difficulties of voting while disabled. In May 2022 she appeared on MetroFocus to discuss her push to reinstate

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

's mask mandate. In October 2022 she headlined the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference alongside Schuyler Bailar. In January 2023, she was a guest on ''The Assignment with Audie Cornish'' during an episode discussing

long COVID Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

. In April 2023, she was part of the short film ''Unlucky in Love'' for the 2023 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge.

Personal life

Barbarin grew up in a suburb of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. She was diagnosed with

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

at age 2. She attended Eastern University where she earned a degree in creative writing and a minor in French. Barbarin has a masters in communication from

American University of Paris The American University of Paris (AUP) is a private university in Paris, France. Founded in 1962, the university is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education in Europe, and the first to be established in France. The university ...

. Barbarin is

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

Accolades

* 2022 – The Root 100 Honoree

References

External links

Official website

Crutches and Spice blog
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barbarin, Imani 1990 births Living people 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American women writers African-American bloggers American disability rights activists American writers with disabilities American TikTokers American University of Paris alumni American women bloggers American bloggers Eastern University (United States) alumni LGBTQ TikTokers People with cerebral palsy Writers from Philadelphia American activists with disabilities American LGBTQ writers American queer writers LGBTQ writers with disabilities