Tips for “enjoying your handicap”

Virginie Delalande was born in silence. Meanwhile, We predicted failure to him. Meanwhile, She chose life. Consequently, And she is not the only one. Nevertheless, “We think that the handicap encloses. Nevertheless, But in reality, it forces to create. Therefore, Inventing, every day, a life that looks like us. Moreover, To draw on resources that others never discover ”, she writes in Kiff your handicap! (Dunod), in bookstores on August 27, 2025. Furthermore, In this second book, this deaf lawyer and speaker combines her own history with dozens of other people with disabilities. In addition, Women and men we thought ” tips “enjoying your handicap” boundaries “, But who revealed resources that no one had taught them.

“It is not a book on disability. Similarly, It is a manifesto on freedom ”, assures her author. Moreover, 224 pages to deconstruct stereotypes. Meanwhile, release speech, offer concrete keys to no longer undergo your handicap and find its own path to fulfillment! For example, Interview with this inveterate optimist.

Handicap.fr : Kiff your handicap! However, is an ode to the difference. Therefore, You encourage readers to make a ” power “. How did you get there?
Virginie Delalande: I took decades to see the gift hidden behind my handicap, to find my right place … For example, and this quest was painful. Furthermore, But it allowed me to discover a form of power which now guides my life: that of fully assuming who I am. Meanwhile, with my strengths and my weaknesses.

To get there. I had to stop fighting against tips “enjoying your handicap” myself, to want to correspond to a model that was not mine, and learn to transform my differences into levers. My advice? Start by changing your look at yourself. Dare to explore what your difference has taught you precious: patience, creativity, empathy, mental strength … Then use these resources as tools to build a life that really looks like you.

I specify: that does not mean denying the difficulties or saying that “Everything is in the head”. It is essential that society also changes its structures and mentalities. But, in the meantime, resuming the wheel of his life, even in small steps, is an act of powerful freedom.

H.FR: So you have not always considered your handicap as a force. When did the click occur?
VD : No way. I was born deaf, and up to my 7 or 8 years, I lived it without asking questions. For me. it was simply one tips “enjoying your handicap” more color in the palette of human diversity – like wearing glasses, having red hair, different skin or divorced parents. One day, I discovered how full of society could be. During the first 20 years of my life, I especially felt the weight, the barriers, the frustration … and even often shame.

The click came the day I agreed to let go of my ego. this part of me who wanted to save appearances and prove that I was “Like everyone”. I understood that my deafness had given me precious skills: Read between the lines. perceive emotions before they are even said, invent solutions where there is none …

H.fr: in what this second work is distinguished from the first, Give up ? Never !released in 2020?
VD : Give up ? Never ! is above all a biography. I answered the question I was often asked: “How did you do for …?” “, tips “enjoying your handicap” and offered an immersion in the daily life and the interiority of a deaf deaf person.

Kiff your handicap! is a practical guide. He combines concrete experiences and exercises for everyone to leave with new keys to explore. And, above all, this book is not an end in itself but the start of something even greater …

H.FR: Do you think that French society has evolved in its way of considering the handicap since the release of. your first book?
VD : Yes … but not fast enough. We finally begin to understand that real inclusion is not limited to awareness: it also incorporates talents. performance and leadership that people with disabilities can bring. Social networks have helped make our voices, our stories, our claims more visible. But, in the field, reception and opportunities still depend too much on the individual sensitivity of the interlocutors. And there remains a major blockage: see tips “enjoying your handicap” disability as a cost rather than an added value.

What I also see is a paradox:

• When a person knows me, she does everything to make me feel good.
• When she doesn’t know me, I still come up against invisibilization and prejudice.
  And this is the problem: we should not need to be known to be fully seen and recognized.

H.FR: What concrete changes do you hope to provoke in your readers, whether they are disabled or not?
VD : Whether they regain the wheel of their lives. never leave anyone again – not even their own doubts – decide their value or their limits. This does not mean to fend for yourself: on the contrary, you have to ask, be respected, co-construct with others. But it starts with an inner choice: that of no longer let yourself be drawn by the outside look. We have stayed too long in silence. tips “enjoying your handicap” passive acceptance, which has the consequence that too many people speak and act in our place without meeting our real needs.

H.fr: You say: “This book will turn your heart, your head and maybe your life.” For what reasons?
VD : Because we realize that we are not alone in living this inner tumult. this feeling of injustice, these misunderstandings in the face of others, their prejudices, their ignorance. Because we recognize ourselves in these trial and error to find solutions … and that we finally discover that there really are. And. above all, because it is a good good to feel understood, to say: “Ah, it’s not just me”and to leave with options to transform what, until then, seemed inevitable.

H.FR: What were the greatest difficulties or surprises in the writing process?
VD : Find a tone that is both fun to read, clear and useful. I wanted each page to make you want to tips “enjoying your handicap” continue and to offer at least a concrete tool. And the surprise was to see how the strongest returns came from passages where I dared to be completely transparent.

H.fr: Deeply optimistic. this book also addresses a darker part of your story, when you have “Touched the bottom”, you say, and “Programmed your absence forever”. How was it essential for you to mention this step?
VD : First, because this moment is an integral part of my story. It was a shock, a rocking point, which sparked deep awareness in me. Then. because by exchanging with disabled people, now fulfilled, I discovered that the vast majority of them had also crossed intense mental distress. This is where I understood that many live this in silence. Talking about it is not dramatizing: it is breaking silence. shame, break up isolation and affirm that there is one after possible.

H.FR: A third work in perspective?
VD : Better tips “enjoying your handicap” than that! This book is the starting point for a movement “Kiffe your handicap” To regain power over our lives. dare to take the place that we really deserve. This movement will be available in conferences, support and collective initiatives.

© Book cover “Kiff your handicap! »»