Rebekah Taussig will challenge everything you think you know about聽disability as she invites us into her experience of living in a body that looks and聽moves聽differently than most. 鈥淲hat would聽it mean for聽disabled聽folks if society saw us as acceptable, equal, valuable parts of the whole?鈥 she writes in her memoir,聽Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient聽DisabledBody聽(HarperOne).
Taussig, who has been paralyzed聽since the age of three, is a mom, wife, author,聽disability advocate and聽educator with a Ph.D聽in creative nonfiction and聽disability studies. Before pivoting to writing, speaking, and聽consulting, Taussig taught passionately for almost a聽decade from freshmen in high school to upper-level college classes and聽continues to offer writing workshops.
She is also one hell of a fighter on a mission to show that聽disabled聽people have incredible value; as she argues, a more inclusive world聽is a sturdier, kinder, more imaginative world聽for all of us.
A storyteller at heart with a great sense of humor, Taussig invites us to think bigger and聽more critically about who has a seat at the table and聽the barriers that bar others from inclusion. She鈥檚 held聽talks and聽workshops at the University of Michigan,聽Davidson College and聽Yale University on聽disability representation, identity and聽community, and聽her writing appears in publications from聽TIME聽to聽Refinery29. She鈥檚 been a guest on a myriad聽of podcasts and聽also runs the Instagram platform @sitting_pretty, where she crafts 鈥渕ini-memoirs鈥 for her more than 50,000 followers to contribute nuance to the collective narratives being told聽about聽disability in our culture. Taussig is the recipient of the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award聽in Literary Nonfiction for聽Sitting Pretty.
Topics:
- Rethinking What Accessibility & Inclusion Look Like
- Why Accessibility Is Important to All of Us
- Leadership: There is Nothing Artificial About AI 鈥 Access & Inclusion
- Healthcare: Transforming the Patient Experience