Meet Tiffany Yu of Los Angeles, CA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany Yu.

Hi Tiffany, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My work is rooted in my lived experience as a disabled Asian woman and in the disconnect I saw early on between how disability is lived and how it’s often understood.

When I was nine years old, I was in a car accident that permanently paralyzed my arm and took my father’s life. I learned early on how disability is often misunderstood as something to be fixed, hidden, or pitied. I encountered not only barriers navigating a world that wasn’t built with disability in mind, but also assumptions about what I could or couldn’t do, who I was allowed to be, and how visible—or invisible—disability was supposed to be.

It wasn’t until later, through community and unlearning, that I began to see disability not as a personal flaw but as a social and cultural identity shaped by systems, access, and attitudes. That shift changed everything. I started sharing my story publicly and quickly realized how many disabled people were craving language, visibility, and connection—and how many non-disabled people wanted to support but didn’t know how.

That realization led me to found Diversability, a disabled-led social enterprise dedicated to elevating disability pride, power, and leadership. What began as small community gatherings grew into a global platform for storytelling, leadership development, and culture change. Along the way, I’ve partnered with companies, nonprofits, and media organizations to rethink accessibility and inclusion—not as a checkbox, but as a practice rooted in equity and respect.

Those experiences ultimately became the foundation for my book, The Anti-Ableist Manifesto: Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change, and Building a Disability-Inclusive World. The book weaves together my personal story, community wisdom, and concrete actions to help readers identify ableism and actively challenge it in their workplaces, relationships, and everyday lives. It’s written for disabled people who want language and validation, as well as non-disabled people who want to be better allies but don’t always know where to start.

Today, my work spans writing, speaking, content creation, and community-building, but the throughline remains the same: shifting how we understand disability—from something to overcome or accommodate, to a vital and powerful part of human diversity.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. Much of the challenge hasn’t come from my disability itself, but from the ableism embedded in our systems, expectations, and cultures.

I’ve faced assumptions about my competence, leadership, and ambition—often being underestimated or treated as “inspiring” simply for existing rather than being taken seriously for my work. As a disabled Asian woman, I’ve also navigated compounded bias, where race, gender, and disability intersect in ways that can make visibility feel both necessary and risky.

There have been very real structural barriers too—lack of accessibility, limited funding for disabled-led work, and pressure to fit disability into palatable or marketable narratives. Early on, I struggled with internalized ableism and the belief that I needed to overperform, self-edit, or make myself smaller in order to be accepted.

Building Diversability and sustaining community-centered work has also meant navigating burnout, especially in a culture that values productivity over care. Learning to set boundaries, ask for support, and design work that is accessible to myself as well as others has been an ongoing process.

These challenges are exactly why I wrote The Anti-Ableist Manifesto. They’ve shaped my belief that disability justice isn’t about individual resilience—it’s about changing systems, redistributing power, and creating cultures where disabled people can lead, rest, and thrive without having to prove our worth.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work focuses on disability culture, anti-ableism, and leadership—shifting how disability is understood, represented, and valued. I’m a disability advocate, the founder of Diversability, and the author of The Anti-Ableist Manifesto: Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change, and Building a Disability-Inclusive World.

Through Diversability, I’ve built a disabled-led global community rooted in disability pride, storytelling, and collective power. What began as a desire to find community has grown into a platform that supports leadership development, culture change, and cross-sector impact. That work has spanned partnerships with companies, nonprofits, and institutions that want to move beyond surface-level inclusion toward more equitable and accessible systems.

he Anti-Ableist Manifesto offers a practical framework for recognizing and challenging ableism in everyday life—from workplaces and media to relationships and leadership. Through the book and my ongoing Anti-Ableism Series on social media, I focus on fostering allyship while centering disabled people as experts of our own lives.

In 2025, I was named to the inaugural Forbes Accessibility 100, which recognizes global innovators advancing accessibility and disability inclusion. That acknowledgment reflected more than a decade of work across community-building, content, civic leadership, and disability-led innovation, including supporting projects in multiple countries and serving in advisory roles focused on systems change.

What I’m most proud of is helping create language, space, and pathways where disabled people feel seen, valued, and powerful—and where non-disabled people feel invited into the work of allyship rather than overwhelmed by it. I approach disability not as a niche issue, but as a vital lens for understanding equity, leadership, and what it means to build a world that works better for all of us.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
I define success not by titles, awards, or numbers, but by the impact I can have on people and systems—especially for disabled communities. Success is creating spaces where disabled people feel seen, valued, and empowered, and where nondisabled people can learn to be better allies without centering themselves.

It’s also about building sustainable, inclusive systems—whether through Diversability, my book The Anti-Ableist Manifesto, or community initiatives—that shift culture rather than relying on individual heroism. When I see disabled voices amplified, barriers being dismantled, and understanding growing across workplaces, media, and communities, I know that work is succeeding.

Ultimately, success comes down to how I show up in the world. At the end of the day, I ask myself: Do I like what I see when I look in the mirror? Am I showing up with integrity? Am I honoring my values and my community? It’s about living and leading in a way that aligns with who I am, the impact I want to have, and the world I want to help create.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://tiffanyyu.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/imtiffanyyu
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/imtiffanyyu
• LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/tiffanyayu
• Twitter: http://x.com/imtiffanyyu
• Youtube: http://youtube.com/@imtiffanyyu
• Other: http://tiffanyyu.com/book

Image Credits
Headshot: Meg Marie Photography, With award: Akintayo Adewole, Holding book: Kenzo Le, Climbing wall: Ryan Barayuga