When Lachi walks on stage wearing a gorgeous gown and rocking a bejeweled Glam Cane, she is rewriting mainstream rules.
As an award-winning recording artist, global media personality, and decorated founder and CEO of the U.N.-recognized networking platform, Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities (RAMPD), Lachi—who identifies as blind and neurodivergent—is reshaping disability culture for the 21st century. “My job is to amplify intersectional pride and to combat the stigma and erasure of the disability identity through music, storytelling, fashion, and power building. RAMPD equips the music and live entertainment industries with the resources and tools needed to make those spaces more inclusive for music professionals and creators with disabilities, neurodivergences, and chronic conditions,” she said.
Lachi’s childhood environment prepared her well for a life embracing and advocating for disability culture, identity, and pride. “My mother … always advocated for my independence when I was young,” she said. “She was a community builder, professor, and fashionista who prioritized education.”
Embracing focus, drive, and creativity as part of what she calls her “Big Dis Energy,” Lachi and her Glam Canes shine radiantly as she trailblazes down a visionary path.
“I thought having the cane would make me less confident and hinder my trajectory as a budding entertainer,” Lachi said. “But actually, using the cane skyrocketed my confidence. It’s my tool of independence, allowing me to navigate wherever the heck I want while combating erasure. Using it contributed to my success in music, to my rise in Recording Academy (GRAMMYs) leadership, and to my eventual appearances on Meta, Microsoft, and Mastercard accessibility ads and on our PBS American Masters series exploring disabled renegades. So now, I find myself a leader in the music industry, a globally touring public speaker on disability, and a face for tech access.”
As a Trustee at the Recording Academy, Lachi uses her position to encourage music professionals to embrace their disabilities and neurodivergence while using her platform to promote disability inclusion within pop culture. Lachi is a strong power-building advocate, laying down the woodwork for a world where disability identity is not viewed through a pathologized or charity lens, but a cultural one. Lachi believes the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is more than just a law that ensures disability rights. It is crucial for social and cultural transformation. “It’s really a mechanism beneficial to all of humanity.”
For Lachi, being part of the legacy of the ADA is an opportunity to advance equity not just in the United States, but worldwide. “It is an opportunity to truly showcase the depth of humanity globally,” she said. Lachi believes that joy and celebration are the most powerful tools for advocacy.
“Let’s get dolled up, sing amazing songs, tell ridiculous jokes, have a great time. I believe that joy is the most brazen way to turn a difficult topic into something not so scary, not just for advocates, but for everyone.”
Yanxin Li is a reporter with The SBU Media Group, part of Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism Working Newsroom program for students and local media.
Read all 35 stories of the New York-based leaders profiled in our ADA 35 edition.