Creating a Disability Inclusive World: Conversation with Tiffany Yu, Author of The Anti-Ableist Manifesto
"I kept getting the question, ‘How can we show up better for the disability community?’ And depending on who you are, the answer is different. That’s why I wrote a book about it.
I hope this book can contribute to the conversation, not just about policy change, but about shifting hearts and minds, perspectives, and attitudes around disability."
- Tiffany Yu, Founder & Author
Tiffany Yu - Bio
Tiffany Yu is the CEO & Founder of Diversability, an award-winning social enterprise to elevate disability pride; the Founder of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter, a monthly micro-grant that has awarded $92.5k to 93 disability projects in 11 countries; and the author of The Anti-Ableist Manifesto: Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change, and Building a Disability-Inclusive World.
She serves on the NIH National Advisory Board on Medical Rehabilitation Research and LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games Working Group. She was a Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit. At the age of 9, Tiffany became disabled as a result of a car accident that also took the life of her father.
She started her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and has also worked at Bloomberg and startups in media and real estate. Her TED Talk, How to Help Employees with Disabilities Thrive, has over one million views. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, USA Today, Marie Claire, and Forbes.
Contact & Social Links:
TikTok: @imtiffanyyu
Instagram: @imtiffanyyu
LinkedIn: Tiffany Yu
Tiffany Yu Website: https://www.tiffanyyu.com/
Diversability Website: https://mydiversability.com/
Buy the Book: https://www.tiffanyyu.com/book
Summary
What if the way we think about disability is holding us back from true inclusion?
It’s not just about policies or accommodations—it’s about the quiet assumptions, the words we use, and the culture we create. How do we move from seeing disability as a problem to solve to recognizing it as a valuable part of the human experience?
That’s exactly what I explore with Tiffany Yu, author of The Anti-Ableist Manifesto and a disability advocate who’s redefining inclusion.
Tiffany shares why she wrote her book, how ableism shows up in our everyday lives, and what we can do right now to challenge it.
This isn’t just a conversation; it’s a call to action. Tiffany offers simple yet powerful shifts we can all make—from rethinking the words we use to advocating for accommodations and creating spaces where everyone feels valued. Whether you’re navigating your own journey or looking for ways to support others, this episode is packed with inspiration and practical tools to help you take that first step.
And don’t miss Tiffany’s reflections on storytelling, self-worth, and why inclusion isn’t about lowering expectations—it’s about breaking barriers.
If you’ve ever wondered how to truly show up for the disability community, this episode will give you the clarity and confidence to make a meaningful impact.
Takeaways
Rethink the Words You Use - Language matters. Tiffany explains how ableist language—like casually saying, “I’m so OCD”—can harm and how asking better questions, like “How can I best support you?” creates more inclusive conversations.
Advocate Effectively with Simple Phrases - Use Tiffany’s "I would benefit from" framework to advocate for your needs. For example, “I would benefit from having an agenda before the meeting” makes requests feel collaborative and stigma-free.
Challenge Assumptions About Disability - Don’t assume what someone can or can’t do. Focus on outcomes and embrace the fact that there are multiple ways to achieve the same goals—whether in the workplace or daily life.
Inclusive Design and Accommodations Break Barriers, Not Expectations - Tiffany shares how accommodations aren’t about lowering the bar but removing unnecessary barriers so everyone can participate fully.
Share Your Story - Tiffany reminds us that storytelling is a powerful way to reduce stigma. Whether it’s a one-sentence version or a longer reflection, sharing authentically helps others feel seen and empowered to share their own stories.
Start Small, Think Big - Tiffany’s Me, We, Us framework offers a roadmap: Start with yourself, expand to your community, and contribute to broader systemic change. Small steps can lead to big, lasting impact.
Key Definitions:
Ableism:
"A system of oppression that devalues someone based on how their body and/or mind works."
It’s upheld by societal assumptions, language, and systems that create barriers for people with disabilities.
Anti-Ableism:
"The actions we take to value people equitably based on how their bodies and minds work."
It’s about challenging biases, shifting attitudes, and creating access through intentional efforts.
Inclusion:
"Creating environments where everyone can fully participate, regardless of how their bodies or minds work."
Inclusion involves removing barriers, fostering equitable participation, and embracing diverse ways of achieving outcomes.
Inclusive Design:
"Having multiple design variations to create a desired outcome."
Example: Designing tools or processes that adapt to various needs, such as tactile watches or speech-to-text technology, to make environments accessible for all.
I Would Benefit From’ Framework:
Transcript
Intro (00:00)
Tim Reitsma (01:41)
Well, Tiffany, I am excited to have you on the show for a variety of reasons. I'm a huge fan of yours. I've now read your book. I've highlighted a bunch of things in your book and we're gonna get into it. But before we do so, why don't you introduce yourself to the audience and tell us a little bit about who you are, the work you're doing. And one, maybe one thing that maybe the audience might not really know about you.
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (02:05)
Yeah, so hi everyone, I'm Tiffany Yu. Yeah, how do I start? I've been calling it a portfolio career. So I do a handful of different things all aligned with the mission to increase visibility and access in the disability community. I wrote a book called The Anti-Ablest Manifesto, Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change and Building a Disability Inclusive World. And I run a nonprofit.
called Diversability, which is a large community focused on tackling and ending the cycle of social isolation for the disability community. I run a micro grant for disability projects called the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter. We can go into all of that, I guess, as we dig into the podcast. But my entrance into this space, why I care so much, is at the age of nine, I was involved in a car accident where my dad was driving and he unfortunately passed away.
and I acquired a handful of injuries, including permanently paralyzing one of my arms and much later being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which is a non-apparent disability, a mental health disability. And I share that not because those of us who have disabilities have to go telling everyone our stories, but I do think it provides a little bit of context as we enter this conversation of the lens through which I am coming into this conversation.
because I am someone who did acquire my disability. And I wanna highlight that that experience may be a little bit different from someone who has known who their entire lives all they've known is living with a disability because there may be some aspects of grief. There may be some unlearning shame, unlearning internalized ableism that kind of gets all wrapped up in that. And maybe something people...
Did you ask to share something that people might not know?
Tim Reitsma (04:00)
Now putting you on the spot right here, we didn't prep for this, but I'm curious.
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (04:04)
Yeah, I think I'm goofier and more ridiculous than most people see. I think they see this like buttoned up advocates and and yeah, I've been I call it PFJ play fun joy and over the last couple of years I've been on this journey of trying to introduce more play into my life. For me that's getting outside, going traveling, hiking, different things like that. But yeah.
really, really trying to center PFJ, Play Fun Joy, more Play Fun Joy into my life.
Tim Reitsma (04:38)
I love that acronym, Play Fun Joy. Thanks for sharing. I know I totally put you on the spot and I know we're centering the conversation on anti-ableism and what does ableism mean? maybe we start there. I think we should start laying the foundation and just get into the definition, ableism and anti-ableism. And what does that mean? And why was that the catalyst for the title of this book?
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (05:03)
Hmm. So ableism is a system of oppression that devalues someone based on the way their body and or mind works. That definition may be a little bit different than if you go look it up in the dictionary. And one thing you'll find throughout the book is that I don't necessarily ascribe to dictionary definitions, because I feel like they oversimplify things or they even will use language that continues to disempower the disability community.
which effectively then turns to anti-ableism, which, similar to anti-racism, is really rooted in the actions that we can take where we are valuing people equitably based on the way their bodies and our mind works. So in terms of how the title of the book came to be,
I had four years ago now started a series on social media called the Anti-Ableism Series. And it was inspired by another one of my friends, Nicole Cardoza, who had started a newsletter called the Anti-Racism Daily. And in the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020 and a lot of elevated consciousness around anti-racism,
intersectionality and interest in other systems of oppression and how they all intersect and create this compounded unique experience of oppression for many people came to light. And so I started thinking about, okay, I don't know if I can write a newsletter every single day. That was Nicole's, something that Nicole was very gifted at, but I do enjoy talking and this platform TikTok.
at the time was really focused on short form video, right? Less than a minute, sometimes even 15 seconds. And I was like, I think I can make a couple pieces of content. And I kept getting the question, how can we show it better for the disability community? And depending on who you are, the answer is different. And effectively, that's why I wrote a 250 page book about it.
I've been doing a lot of podcasts and always at the end of the podcast, there's like, what's one thing you want to tell people about how they can show it better? And in I believe in the conclusion of the book, it introduces the anti ableist manifesto art. And there are 33 statements on there, plus statements on there of different ways that we can all show it better that actually correspond with chapters in the book. So depending on who you are, the answer may be a little bit different, but
Essentially, I thought about attitudinal change. Here in the US, we've had a law in place for over 30 years that has been there to essentially protect our rights in public spaces, employment, education, et cetera. And yet we're still seeing bias and discrimination and prejudice happen on a daily basis. So it made me realize while one part of systemic change is that policy part,
The other part that needs to catch up are the hearts and minds, perceptions, perspectives, and attitudes around disability. And so my hope is that the book can contribute to that conversation as well.
Tim Reitsma (08:18)
Well, I completely agree with you. Invisible condition was really founded on two aspects to end the stigma, which is education and story. And what I have found is, and I'm curious if you found this as well, is when we step out vulnerably and say, hey, here's my story, and it's not a story of, hey, look at me and what I'm doing, but it's a story of this is who I am. It almost gives other people permission to share. And have you found that as well as is?
taking that first step, whether it's on social media or through your nonprofit, it invites a conversation, doesn't it?
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (08:52)
Yeah, and actually I used to use that exact same similar wording around giving other people permission to let them know that their stories matter. And a big part of my own journey was I became disabled at nine years old and it wasn't until I was 21 that I actually shared the story of the car accident and my disability publicly. And I think I had internalized for a long time that
My story didn't matter, my voice didn't matter, no one cares, right? But essentially, I think that the reason why most of us do share is so that other people can see themselves in our stories and know that, you know, I've been reflecting on this idea of value and letting people know that just by existing, you are 100 % valuable and worthy, right?
and I think that that's part of what I'm hoping people aspire to as we move further in this work around our own views of the disability community. But, but yeah, I, I, I even think about like the early days of diversability and one of the things around everything that we're doing has been not seeing it exist.
So we created it, right? And when I couldn't find spaces for more disabled people to share their stories, we were like, why don't we start hosting events? And we started hosting, I don't know if you ever heard of the moth, but we started hosting these like moth style or Ted style events that were these five minute talks from our community members sharing their stories. And for many of them, that was the first time that they had.
shared their stories publicly or Diversability may be the first disability community that they've ever joined. So both the work you're doing around narrative change, storytelling, education is super important because I think that we need this marrying of us sharing our stories in our own ways with people receiving them who may not be aware of what the disability experience is like.
And if the only examples that you have are these heroic or tragic tropes with no in between, I like to say that many of us are just ordinarily human. And so, yeah, I'm excited about podcasts. I'm excited about all different forms of media, social media as the new media in some ways for us to be able to tell our stories in our own ways and realize that now essentially
All of us have a microphone and a camera if we have access to a smartphone.
Tim Reitsma (11:48)
Yeah, the ability to share our story is, is unlimited now. There's, there's very few limits. I think we limit ourselves. And I was talking with somebody who's got such a compelling story to share and they're, so afraid to share. And, you know, it's, it's on their time. It's, they will share it when, when they're comfortable sharing, but a story of misdiagnosis to having to undergo a complex brain surgery. And.
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (12:15)
Hmm.
Tim Reitsma (12:17)
There's so, so many stories and specifically in the business world and the story in the business landscape, we enter in the workforce and we're almost, at least I'm generalizing here, programmed to say, you know, don't share, vulnerably, don't share that about yourself because you will miss out on opportunities. I felt that discrimination. I have heard many people coming on the show to share that discrimination as well. And, you know, I love what you said about language and how you've redefined ableism in your own words, because I have found
some online dictionaries are ableist in their own fashion. Just Google normal person and you'll understand what I'm getting at here. The definition of a normal person is somebody without a physical or mental disability. And so if that's the language that we are conforming to, we will continue to live in an ableist society. So I really want to focus conversation because I think your book highlights this very, very well is becoming an
becoming anti-ableist. Now we could spend probably a couple hours just unpacking what that is and you've written numerous chapters on this. I'm not gonna ask what is one thing that stands out from one of the chapters, but I'm curious from your perspective. Sure, let's go there. What is that one thing that when you're writing it down and you just want people to really understand this and how to become anti-ableist.
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (13:29)
You could ask me what my favorite chapter is.
Yeah, I guess I'll take a step back and I'll share that the book is written through a framework called Me We Us. And this is a framework that I learned a handful of years ago when I, through social impact spaces about how we can make transformative change.
And the reason why I structured the book in this way is that for me chapter 34, which is Get Civically Engaged is my favorite chapter because it's the way that we can show up and create change. But in order to get to chapter 34, you have to start with chapter one. And essentially what I mean by that is if you do not
fundamentally believe that disabled people are your peers, your classmates, your colleagues, your leaders, your elected officials, your recruiters, your hiring managers, then we're not going to get to chapter 34. we're going to essentially what chapter 34 means to me is we're going to implement policies in place, but we don't believe them. So through the me we us framework, it says, okay, let's start from the beginning.
Chapter one is about disability is not a bad word. I talk about the dictionary definition of disability, how I don't necessarily relate to it. A lot of times it uses the word impair, which I know a lot of people in the disability community, that word feels disempowering for them. It then, you know, and every single chapter ends with self-reflection questions, because I wanna meet you where you are. So.
Of course, you know, being able to go out and mobilize and show up in solidarity with the disability community has been super important to me. But if the starting point is let's get aligned on language, let's take a critical look at the ways in which even the words that we use to define certain things. Who was in the room? What were their demographics? Did they know any disabled people? Were any of them disabled themselves?
And if those perspectives were there, would they have used that language? Would they have used that language? So the whole book is my favorite. But yeah, my hope is that it feels approachable. So every chapter is about seven to eight pages or averages seven to eight pages. Some are longer than others. I think the what is anti-ableism chapter is like three pages. So that brings the average down, but.
I wanted the book to be able to meet you where you are, because if I come to you and I say, let's go start showing up at City Hall or sign this petition or show up at this protest, maybe that feels overwhelming and daunting to you, because essentially, ableism is all around, and it's upheld by all of these systems of oppression that have all existed for a very long period of time.
Right? So if there are these small steps that we can take that then in community with each other can lead up to these bigger steps, then I think that's how we can create more lasting change. But again, it starts with that fundamental belief of seeing people like me, seeing people like you and your podcast guests as people who can share their stories without fear of being discriminated against or...
treated inequitably or treated unfairly or dehumanized or seen as less than or broken. And again, as you can tell, I talk a lot, but I guess to, you know, even your idea of looking up the idea of a normal person, if there are over a billion people globally living with disabilities, I find it very hard to believe that
Tim Reitsma (17:24)
I've... go ahead.
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (17:43)
over a billion people are not normal, right? Living with a disability is a very normal part of my own human experience. I will say, I had been disabled for 27 years, this month marks 27 years, and I've been doing this work, or DiversAbility's first iteration started in 2009, so that's 15 years ago. I have seen change. I have seen more people being open about their disabilities. I've seen more media like,
podcasts, the emergence of social media start to...
I was going to use the word democratize the disability experience, but make the disability experience more accessible so that I'm starting to see a cultural shift away from these medical and charity and tragedy models toward more, how can we create our external environment to better support people whose bodies and our minds work a little bit differently?
Tim Reitsma (18:37)
Yeah, it's, you know, my body, my mind works very differently than others. And this is my normal. And that's what I tell people is, I live with Crohn's disease. I live with arthritis and depression and anxiety. So my normal is very different than your normal. Living with Crohn's disease, having three surgeries to remove a large parts of my insides, I function very differently. And until I found my voice in that, it was hard.
I was putting so much brain power into hiding that aspect of myself. And a friend of mine just, he said it so eloquently and I'm gonna completely ruin how he said it. But you think about how much effort is put into hiding the things that make us who we are in society with our friends in the workplace. And what if we just remove that barrier of hiding and masking? Think about how we might show up. Think about how much empathy we...
we already have for others, but might have for, you people have empathy for ourselves if we can't show up to events or if we can't function at work in the same way as other people. You you hit on something that I'm truly passionate about, which is language and the words we use. And you've written a whole chapter on it and I gravitated towards that chapter because that is one of the foundations for a keynote that I deliver to organizations is how the words we use have impact.
and how you said, it's like, well, what's wrong with your hand instead of reframing that and getting curious. And I think if we're gonna hone in for the next little few minutes here just on being anti-ableist, I feel that the language we use has a tremendous amount of impact. If we pause and we reframe things and we teach people how to reframe those questions, which often don't have ill intent, maybe there's a little bit of ignorance in there, but often with no ill intent,
we can start shaping that narrative and shifting that narrative. And so when somebody says, hey, where do I start? And I think of language and education as well. How do you reframe or how do you educate somebody to reframe?
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (20:43)
So there are a couple different categories around language. And the first is, you touched on asking better questions. And I think if you attend any disability educational seminar, the person facilitating will always say, when in doubt, ask questions. And I want to encourage people that when in doubt, ask better questions.
So the example I share in the book is you could ask a question or I'm gonna share three types of questions and they're all questions. So one question is, what's wrong with your hand? The second question is, what's your disability? And the third question is, how can I best support you? Those are all questions. Those are all connected to the fact that I have a paralyzed arm.
they just all have different undertones and some provide more information than others that are useful for other people. So what's wrong with your hand has an undertone already that something is wrong. And I don't think anything's wrong because I've been living in this body for almost 40 years. I've been living in a disabled body for almost 30 years. And then the second question, what's your disability?
Not only is it intrusive, but it doesn't provide that much information to the other person other than medical information about you versus how can I support you focuses more on access on co-creating overcoming barriers in a situation to make it so that everyone can participate. Again, those are all questions, right? But hopefully your listeners can understand that there's different weight to those questions.
That's kind of the first category. I think the second category is the ways that we use disability terms so flippantly. So that could be saying, I'm a little OCD or I'm a little ADD today if you do not have those diagnoses. Using those in a casual manner like that makes it harder for people who
may have those disabilities to potentially seek help. It also diminishes maybe the real challenges that someone who lives with those disabilities has because their external environment isn't more supportive. It could be the same way that we use mental illness as an insult, you know, if someone will come and...
I mean, no one's ever said this to me, but I've seen it said like, that person must be mentally ill or they must not be well. And if I do hear that, I will sometimes step in and say, hey, you know, I live with a mental illness. Two questions to potentially ask yourself in that situation is what are you really trying to say? And, or I guess three questions you could reflect on. One is, are the words you're using
putting negative value judgment on a disability experience, in this case, mental illness. But the second question could be, what are you really trying to say? Which then lends to the third question, is there an alternative, are there alternative words that you can use instead? And these didn't make it into the book because originally, I wanted every single chapter to start with a quote and some of them do.
But for the language chapters, I had a couple of quotes in there and one was from a disability advocate named Sinead Burke and she says, language.
Now I'm trying to remember the quote. was like language doesn't
I forget what the quote is, but the general idea of the quote was that language shapes our culture. So the language that we use informs how we view certain things, in this case, disability. And then there was another quote that I was going to include in the book that said, using ableist language doesn't make you a bad person, it makes you a person. But if you have the privilege to at least try, then why not try? So this is my own attempt at saying language is something that
Yes, it can be our starting point into this conversation. I don't want to totally wrapped up in language that we don't lose sight of the broader systemic issues that many disabled people still continue to face. But if we can at least start there where so much of our culture is shaped, then let's start and let's try and let's learn together.
Tim Reitsma (25:25)
Yeah, there's different starting points that we could come into and whether you're an individual, maybe you're in the workplace, there's different areas and different ways you can start. And so for those who are curious, you gotta pick up the book because you could almost open up any chapter and go, okay, I need to start here. And I think the point is the recognition and starting, figuring out, okay, how can I change myself? Maybe how can I change my organization? I just wanna switch a little bit into organizations because
You know, so many studies out there that show, you know, if organizations focus on disability inclusion, those companies will outperform the market. Their people are going to stay longer. They're going to make more money. And yet based on all my research, there's still so much work to be done here. What holds organizations back and what would you tell those organizations to say, Hey, now's the time we need to be focusing on disability inclusion. And
buy a copy of my book or let's do some consulting. But, know, aside from that, the obvious, but what would you say to an organization who's maybe struggling with this conversation?
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (26:31)
Yeah, that's a good conversation. I mean, that's a good question. I think where I start is one of the learnings I had throughout this process is the way that discrimination shows up uniquely in the disability community is through the guise of kindness. It says, I'll help you, but I won't hire you. And it looks kind helping someone, right? And that is kind.
But if it doesn't move from helping to meaningfully supporting someone's livelihood, like that's part of the attitudinal shift as well. So I do have a five minute Ted talk out called, how to help employees with disabilities thrive.
And in it, I share three things that any organizations can do. So as you mentioned, yes, we have the business case for disability inclusion. Yes, if you prioritize and champion disability inclusion, it will positively impact your bottom line. We have research about that now. It's a $13 trillion global market if you include our family and friends as consumers.
But then I think about kind of what I shared in the book. And I apologize, there's a fly somewhere, so I've been trying to swat it away. So the three things are, and I actually think they're still just as relevant. I think this talk came out maybe a year and a half ago. And number one is to stop making assumptions.
And there is some research that came out, again, a couple of years ago, that asked hiring managers and HR leaders, what's the reason why you're not prioritizing disability inclusion or incorporating more disability inclusive policies? And the top three answers were that they were unsure if the disabled person could or could not do the job. So even at the point of entry, we are assuming what someone can or can't do.
I even look at my own personal experience of someone who has a paralyzed arm, which means I type with one hand. If I, and I started my career in investment banking, if going through the interview process, they made assumptions about my capability, if I was capable of financial modeling, creating pitch decks with one hand.
maybe I would not be here having this conversation with you, right? I even look at my own professional experiences and I don't wanna be the exception anymore. I've had incredible work experiences and I feel so grateful and I'm also curious why there aren't more of me out there, right? So.
So that's number one is stop making assumptions. Number two is to embrace flexibility or number two is to rethink accommodations and number three is to embrace flexibility. Around accommodations, I've been thinking a lot about the definition of inclusive design. So the definition of inclusive design is having multiple design variations to create a desired outcome. Multiple design variations for a desired outcome.
I believe in the book I use the example of telling time. So the desired outcome is to be able to tell time. I share the example of a company that created a tactile watch. So it has little bumps on it with magnetic balls so that a blind person can wear a watch and tell time. Yet it's not accessible for me who only has one arm. Perhaps with an elastic band or some other sort, but I can also ask my phone, which I have with me at all times to tell me the time.
or I can buy a watch again with an elastic band. Again, desired outcome is telling time and multiple design variations could be the tactile watch, my phone, asking Siri or Google or Alexa, know, whatever. There's so many different ways, all of that to say there are so many different ways to get the time. You could ask someone else. If we take that into the workplace, the desired outcome is doing your job.
We just have different ways of doing it. I've actually been using the example that I feel like has been landing with some people I've been talking to about eating steak. So I really enjoy a nice steak. Yet for a long period of time, and again, with my background in financial services, I would go to these client dinners where they would bring out this entree of steak or even have a bread basket where, given the fact that I can only use one hand, I couldn't.
pull the slice of bread off the bread loaf, or when the steak came out, I wouldn't be able to cut it. Ultimately what happened was I ended up not eating or skirting around it or eating whatever I could or putting in, like, I do not, I still do not know how to cut a steak with one hand. Maybe there's some innovation out there, but it's, know, the meat is depending on how you get it cooked, but anyway, I'm going too much. So.
Now, in my more empowered, liberated state where I do feel more comfortable advocating for my access needs, if I do order steak, I will ask the server or I will let the server know like, hey, if it's okay, can you ask the kitchen or the chef to cut it before it comes out so that I'm able to eat it? And I've never gotten any pushback for any of that. And now I can enjoy my steak. So again, if we think back to inclusive design, multiple variations,
desired outcome is eating the steak, we all have different ways of doing it. Relay that into the workplace. That is how I think about accommodations. It doesn't change what your task to do or your performance expectations, and it doesn't lower the bar. I've been hearing people say it lowers the barrier, which I love, but that's what accommodations are. They allow you to do your job equitably, right? And I...
Also think about in the early days of when I first started in investment banking, we had an ergonomic specialist come and do an assessment of all of our workstations. And for a lot of my colleagues, they got second monitors, or we all got second monitors. We got a keyboard wrist pad. I got a left-handed mouse. I also got a foot stool because I'm also petite. And I guess for extended periods of time, don't want your legs hanging off.
I'm sharing all of these because then at the end they said, would you benefit from speech to text technology in case you think it might put too much strain on your one hand to be typing for long periods of time? Fascinatingly enough, became disabled at nine at 21 was the first time I had ever heard of speech to text technology, right? And that's actually how I wrote the first draft of this book. So.
All of that to say, just rethinking accommodations, a lot of them are not high tech or expensive. The majority of them cost $0. If there is a cost, the median cost is $300. But again, those are there so that you can eat the steak or tell the time or do your job. Finally is embracing flexibility. So that could mean that, you know, some of us really enjoy and thrive
working from home, where maybe we have our workstation set up in a way that work best for us, or we have a chair or a bed that works best for us. I often call it work from bed, but I know that was a very long, probably longer than the TED talk, you would have gotten all that information and less than how much in depth I went into here. But I feel like for organizations,
Just continuing to focus on those three things will be a good start. But again, it's that the point zero is that attitudinal change where we are not a community that only needs to be helped. Many of us want to be hired too. And we want to contribute and we want to contribute to society and feel valued in the workplace, which is also where you create a lot of...
your communities and things like that.
Tim Reitsma (34:46)
So workplaces, well, Tiffany, I love that you go into the detail because that invites me into the story and makes me think, you know what? This is an amazing story. I have permission to share my story now and I'm not gonna share it right now, but it gives that sense of permission. So workplaces, if you're listening to this or maybe you're an individual and are struggling in the workplace, send your manager, I'll link Tiffany's TED Talk in the show notes.
But tell them to stop making assumptions. Tell them that accommodations is not a bad word. It's not scary. And tell them to embrace flexibility. Because you know what? If I have those three things in the workplace, I'm going to perform. And with those three things, I'm going to create so much impact in an organization. And I know so many people who live with a disability, live with an invisible condition, can also create that value in their organizations.
if organizations just do those three things and it's not that hard, that's the thing, it's not that hard. And so if somebody's listened to this, an individual who's struggling to tell their story, maybe struggling with finding their voice, their advocacy voice, what would you tell them? What would you share with them?
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (35:57)
piece of advice I got when I would get nervous about sharing my own story, the first thing I'll say is because it's your own story you can't mess it up. And I feel like we have a lot of fear around sharing parts of our story because of how we'll be judged, but remember that it's you and your journey. And I did a lot of, I did some research
around the difference between vulnerability and oversharing. And because I was curious if I was oversharing parts of my disability journey. And what I learned is that vulnerability is sharing parts of yourself that you feel fully embodied in, sharing the things that you've been through and maybe what you've learned from them. While oversharing is, let me share parts of myself and maybe
and hope that you still pick me, right? It's placing weight on the other person to validate your worth when you are already worthy. So I wanted to share that first thing. But if you are someone who wants to figure out ways to better advocate for yourself, I do talk about this in the book. I call it, I would benefit from. And my hope is that we can create an I would benefit from world.
where you can go to a space and say, I would benefit from the kitchen cutting my steak before it comes out. I would benefit from an agenda for this meeting. I would benefit from recording this so that I can revisit it later. If we move to an I would benefit from culture, it means that we are prioritizing access first so that those of us who have
disabilities and don't yet feel a level of psychological safety to be transparent about them can advocate for what we need. I will put an asterisk in there and say, if you are in the US, in order to have your rights protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act, you do have to disclose to receive reasonable accommodations. But if we can just create workplace cultures in an overall world that just prioritizes that
all of us have access needs and we can show up in whatever way we need to, then maybe that doesn't become such a hurdle and such a barrier and such a struggle that so many people are facing. We actually did an event at Diversability earlier this year where it was talking about your rights in the workplace. And the law firm shared that one of the top disability legal issues that they work on is
reasonable accommodations and not having them met. yeah, so I still think that's why we come back to rethink accommodations. Accommodations actually are just there to promote equity. Accommodations are a form of inclusive design in some ways. Again, it's that rethinking that, hey, granting someone accommodations lowers the barrier, not the bar.
Tim Reitsma (39:11)
I think even the accommodation or the assumptions accommodation and flexibility maps to an organization and it also maps to an individual. If I assume that if I share with you that you're going to have a negative reaction, I'm gonna shut down. If I assume that if I ask for an accommodation, you're not gonna grant it, I'm not gonna ask. And if I assume that you're not gonna be flexible. So even if I impose those on myself, it's completely adaptable to an individual.
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (39:39)
Yeah.
Tim Reitsma (39:40)
We need to step out. I love that you defined vulnerability and oversharing. You just step out in that vulnerability and it will be sometimes met with some resistance and that's okay. That's on them. It's not on you. And so it's on that individual, right? We can control the words that we're using. We don't necessarily control how they land or react. So I love to end every episode with this question is stigma. Our lofty goal here in Invisible Condition is to end the stigma. How can we end the stigma?
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (39:49)
Mmm.
Tim Reitsma (40:10)
What is one thing that we can do today to strive to ending the stigma that surrounds disabilities and invisible conditions?
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (40:17)
think what came to my mind is sharing our stories and how we share them. So interestingly enough, it took me over 10 years to start sharing my disability origin story. And one of the things that I've been reflecting on is I have a 10 minute version of the story and I have a one sentence version.
My one sentence version is, hey, my arm is paralyzed, or my one sentence version is, I got into a car accident, my arm's paralyzed. It doesn't hurt. I have to add that it doesn't hurt because my hand looks different. But there's nothing in that one sentence. Then we just move on to the next thing, right? And so I feel like part of addressing the stigma is how we talk about our own stories. I will acknowledge that the way I became disabled,
The car accident was tragic, someone passed away. But I don't think that my existence as a disabled person is tragic. I think part of the reason why I'm so open about living with PTSD and living with mental illness is that being mentally ill is still very highly stigmatized. I got diagnosed in 2019, which is 22 years after what would be considered the traumatic incident.
And that's 22 years of not being more aware of how I could better heal and understand that my mind works a little differently. And...
I hope. I guess what gives me hope.
is that I've been doing some version of this work for 15 years. I have very diverse networks from Georgetown where I went to school to workplaces that I've worked at to the disability community that I love. And I have seen friends that I've known for almost 10 years start to share more openly about their vision disorder. And this is like on LinkedIn, this, which
you could consider like the place to keep it professional. I have friends who are sharing on LinkedIn, again, that I've known for 10 years about the time they were hospitalized for their mental illness or the fact that they're still going through postpartum right now. And it's been really tough as a new mom. And I think by opening that up,
that creates more pathways for people to realize that they're not alone and to remove the stigma that more of us are disabled than we think. I did a podcast a couple of years ago where they asked me, it was a dating podcast, and they asked me if I'd ever dated someone who had a disability. And I said, every single person I've dated had a disability.
whether they were living with a digestive related disorder or related disability, or they were living with a mental health disability. They all had disabilities. Maybe they didn't identify as such, but they were, right? And so even that 1 billion number, I wonder if that's an undercount, but.
It has been so ingrained in our culture that disability is this bad thing and all of the different associations with it, whether it's the non-apparent conditions or mental illness or chronic illness, that as we're starting to see this cultural shift of more of us being open about it, and now I'm even seeing the shift in my own personal networks of friends who have been living with their disabilities now being more open about it.
Tim Reitsma (43:41)
you
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (44:05)
I think that will hopefully start to create that trickle effect.
Tim Reitsma (44:08)
beautiful. Thank you for that encouragement, that encouragement to understand our story, to write it down in one sentence. I know that I'm gonna do that this afternoon, the day that we're recording this is, you know, I've got a longer version, but what is that one sentence? Where can people find you? I know people are going to go, Tim, 45 minutes isn't enough to hear from Tiffany. We need to hear more. We need to learn more.
Where can people find you if they want to connect and just learn more about what you're up to, what you're doing?
Tiffany Yu (she/her) (44:40)
So the best place to go is my website, tiffanyu.com. My last name is spelled Y-U. And there you'll find more information on the book, any upcoming dates that I have. You'll also see links to all of my social channels there as well. So you can follow all my updates there. And if you wanna keep it professional, can also follow me on LinkedIn.
Tim Reitsma (45:00)
Sounds good. And don't worry, we're gonna have all those links in the show notes. Just head to invisiblecondition.com or on your favorite podcast platform, you'll have all the links there. Tiffany, amazing to have you on. I know you're extremely busy as you're toing around for this book and just the work that you're doing. And I appreciate you spending some time with us today and for coming on. And for those who are listening, you know what keeps Invisible Condition going is just your generosity, your support. Please subscribe to the newsletter.
That's where I'd love you to head to, go to invisiblecondition.com slash subscribe. That's where we highlight amazing episodes like this, put links to amazing resources like Tiffany's book, but also I share openly and vulnerably about myself and my journey, as well as just give you some support about how to disclose and how to advocate for yourself. So with that, Tiffany, thanks again for coming on and I hope everyone has an amazing day.
