🌿 Health & Wellness

Working With a Disability — Without Letting It Define You

There was a time I resisted the word “disabled.”

I didn’t want it attached to me.

I didn’t want it to shrink me.

I didn’t want it to explain me.

But acceptance isn’t surrender.

It’s clarity.

I have good days.

I have hard days.

And both can exist without canceling my value.

What I’ve realized recently — once again — is that my voice is powerful.

Not loud.

Powerful.

Years ago, I sat behind a microphone on the radio. I learned how to listen between words. I learned how to hold space. I learned how to speak calmly when someone on the other end needed grounding.

That skill didn’t disappear.

If anything, it sharpened.

Now I use it differently.

On the phone with patients, I listen first.

I acknowledge what they’re experiencing.

If it’s appropriate, I share a small piece of my own story so they know they’re not alone.

And I promise what I can deliver — not more, not less.

“I will do my best to get you a timely response.”

And I mean it.

Working from home has allowed me to bring that steadiness without my body being the distraction.

I don’t have to calculate stairs.

I don’t have to measure how much discomfort I can endure that day.

I don’t have to split my focus between pain and professionalism.

I can just do my job well.

Accepting my disability didn’t reduce me.

It refined me.

It forced me to understand my limits — and my strengths.

It taught me that impact doesn’t require physical presence.

It requires presence.

And I am present.

Grateful that I can still earn.

Grateful that I can still contribute.

Grateful that my experience still carries weight.

A disability may change how you work.

It does not change your worth.

Are you living with limiting capabilities in mobility or communication?

Please know — you still bring value.

Get creative. Discover how you best produce acts of value. Integrate steps that allow you to maneuver in ways where your presence — even if it looks different — makes a difference to others.

Sometimes we need the opportunity to show that we bring value to the workplace… or beyond it.

I would truly love to hear your thoughts.

— Lady Flava