Iman experiences chronic pain and chronic illness and was first diagnosed as a teenager

She talks with Brooke about how she has had to relearn who she is and learn how to navigate the world in a completely different way  

She chats about the vital role of community, how it helped her to connect with others and how when you are forced to adapt and do things differently you can create beautiful art that shows who you truly are

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• The biggest struggle as a teen was that everyone expects you to get better, but that wasn’t my reality 
• Now it’s about finding the hacks that can help me in the world as a disabled person 
• It’s a privilege being able to look after yourself and sometimes as a disabled person that’s not possible 
• Being part of a community makes me feel less isolated and alone and it’s empowering to be connected to other people
• When you are forced to adapt you can create beautiful art because you have to create something different 
• Being disabled has taught me how to really know myself 
• Disability is so much more complex than people think and finding myself within disability has been key 
• Disability made me feel like I’d lost my identity and it also made me put it all back together in a better way 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Sometimes I can do things and sometimes I can’t’ 

‘I’ve learned so much more about my identity through disability’

‘Realising I was disabled helped me to be kinder to myself’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Disabled & Proud Podcast

ABOUT THE HOST

Disabled and Proud is the show that brings listeners a different perspective on disability. Each week this podcast highlights an awesome disabled guest speaking about their own disability; why they are proud to be disabled and why they are proud to be themselves. 

The conversations in this show will look at what challenges these amazing people face socially, mentally, physically and life in general. This show is raw, open, honest, funny, welcoming and educational. 

Disabled & Proud does exactly what it says on the tin! And whilst we are creating this space for disabled people to be unashamedly themselves, without need to conform to society, this is also not about toxic positivity. This show will be shining a big, bright light on disability without it being “Paralympic or pity”. 

As you will hear disability is WHOLE, COMPLETE & PERFECT and whilst the topic of disability can be quite heavy - and we definitely don't shy away from the bad days - this podcast is also about having fun too! Our aim is to play a part in reclaiming the word disability - turning it from inadequacy to perfection!

INSTAGRAM! https://www.instagram.com/disabledandproudpodcast/?hl=en: https://www.instagram.com/disabledandproudpodcast/?hl=en