Imani Barbarin

Barbarin grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia.[3] She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age 2.[2]

She attended Eastern University where she earned a degree in creative writing and a minor in French.[4] Barbarin has a masters in communication from American University of Paris.[3]

Barbarin works as a communications manager for a disability legal office in Philadelphia.[2][3] She has written for Bustle,[5] Cosmopolitan,[6] Forbes,[7] The Philadelphia Inquirer,[8] Refinery29,[1] and Rewire.[9] She has spoken at American University,[10] Brock University,[11] George Washington University,[12] Miami University,[13] University of Minnesota,[14] University of North Carolina Chapel Hill,[15] University of Oregon,[16] University of Pittsburgh,[17] and Western Washington University.[18]

In 2020 Barbarin hosted a five-episode podcast called Vote for Access, which investigated the difficulties of voting while disabled.[19]

In May 2022 she appeared on MetroFocus to discuss her push to reinstate New York City's mask mandate.[20] In October 2022 she headlined the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference alongside Schuyler Bailar.[21] In January 2023 she was a guest on The Assignment with Audie Cornish during an episode discussing Long COVID.[22]

Barbarin has been involved with some small acting projects, including a short film for the 2023 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge.[23]

Barbarin identifies as queer.[3]

In 2014 Barbarin launched the website Crutches and Spice as a space for her to write about her experiences as a disabled Black woman.[24]

Barbarin has spearheaded several hashtags to promote discussion of disabled issues and experiences. In 2018 she started #DisTheOscars to call attention to the lack of disabled representation.[25] In 2019 she started #AbledsAreWeird and encouraged disabled people to share their experiences of abled individuals misunderstanding their needs and experiences.[26][27] In January 2020 she started the hashtag #MyDisabledLifeIsWorthy in response to remarks by Rochelle Walensky about the "encouraging" fact that most deaths caused by the omicron variant of COVID-19 were in disabled individuals.[6]

Barbarin joined TikTok in 2020, where she began posting both comedic and educational videos.[24] By February 2022 she had 140,000 followers on Twitter and 370,000 followers on TikTok.[28] She criticized Twitter policy changes after the company's acquisition by Elon Musk in late 2022.[29]

• 2022 – The Root 100 Honoree[30]

• Official website
• Crutches and Spice blog
• Imani Barbarin on TikTok