As librarians and scholars, we have regularly encountered stories of who we should be and what we are not – perspectives shaped by myths and inaccurate conceptions of disability. Our experiences navigating librarianship and academia have affected us mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially, often leading us to self-doubt. The crip tax has burdened up with additional invisible and emotional labor due to the medical-industrial complex, medical gaslighting, and scientistic racism. The harms of such silencing, erasure, and rejection are well documented. Words do matter, stories help us know and understand who we are, but the stories told about us are not our stories. Critical Race Theory and Crip Theory highlight the importance of counternarratives and the necessity of challenging deficit-based discourses that subjugate and categorize people as abnormal and/or disabled. For this reason, we are reclaiming the narrative for ourselves and cripping self-acceptance.

In this act of resistance and crip positivity, we choose to recognize our authentic realities as the core of reclaiming our crip identities and honoring the ways that we engage with the world around us. In doing so, we incorporate a human-centered focus on accessibility and disability inclusion. Through the framework of intersectionality, the panelists will discuss the impact of the crip tax, share individual journeys toward self-acceptance, and offer perspectives on lived experiences while also asking questions of one another to highlight their distinct narratives.

Additionally, they will reflect on and address three essential questions:
1.) What does it mean to be yourself authentically?
2.) How can one fully embrace and accept ourselves and others?
3.) How do you live in a world that deems you as broken?