My hope is that we could fill the world with real stories of disability until the collective cultural narrative shifts and expands .
stuck in cul-du-sacs , shot straight to the moon , and I never really know where I ’ m going next . I ' m not sure that ' s the kind of path people want to follow ? But , for what it ' s worth , here are the touchpoints that have guided my journey as a writer : read , read , read ; say yes to all the things that interest you , even when you don ' t know where they ' ll lead ; tune your ears to the sound of your own inner knowing and shake loose the outside chatter . We all have stories to tell , and the world needs those stories . That doesn ' t necessarily mean that you have to share them with the great wide world , but knowing them for yourself is an incredibly powerful act .
What message would you share with the world about living with a disability , and the importance of inclusivity ?
For a very long time , disability has been framed as a sort of separate experience from the " normal , average " person . If you have a disability , suddenly you ' re catapulted into a distinct , distant category of human . In many real and tangible ways , we ' ve built the world according to this way of thinking . What I ' ve found , though – especially since my book came out a few years ago and I ' ve had the chance to travel and meet with so many different groups of people – is that disability is actually at the very heart of what it means to be human . We all live in bodies that age , break , slow , scar , change and get sick . We move in and out of different levels of dependency from birth to death . And every human alive will experience disability if they live long enough . I think when we look to disabled folks – when we listen to their insights , stories and perspectives – we learn how to build sturdier , more sustainable worlds . When we build our spaces and communities to include disability , we build spaces that hold all of us .
Rebekah Taussig is a Kansas Citybased writer , teacher and “ human person ” who believes that words and stories matter .
With a PhD in Creative Nonfiction and Disability Studies , she writes on disability , and the broader theme of being human .
She recently published a memoir in essays , Sitting Pretty : The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body .
Find her at www . ebekahtaussig . com
My hope is that we could fill the world with real stories of disability until the collective cultural narrative shifts and expands .
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