Rebekah Taussig lost the use of her legs as a toddler during cancer treatment. Growing up in a wheelchair, she didn’t see herself reflected in TV shows, ads, books, or movies. But what she did see was disability depicted as a frightening deformity, held up as inspiration for those in “typical” bodies, or even as an indicator of some kind of innocence or magical power – and none of that represented her lived experiences.

She talks to the Library’s Kaite Stover about the eight essays in her book, Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary, Resilient, Disabled Body, that largely deal with Taussig’s shifts in self-perception and her relationship with the world around her. They also discuss the public consequences of ignoring differences in ability; everyone, she says, lives in a body with limitations, so conversations about accessibility benefit a far larger population than most imagine.

The talk is part of the Big Read 2025, a free, city-wide reading and public engagement initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with Arts Midwest, that aims to broaden our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.

Taussig is a lifelong Kansas Citian and author of a forthcoming children’s book, We Are the Scrappy Ones. She’s also an educator and disability advocate with a Ph.D. in English, focused on creative nonfiction and disability studies, from the University of Kansas. She runs the Instagram account @sitting_pretty, writes for her Substack This Too, and co-produces the weekly podcast Scratch That.

ASL interpreters at this presentation.

Big Read 2025 is supported in part by The National Endowment for the Arts Big Read, the City of Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund, and the Estelle S. and Robert A. Long Ellis Foundation. NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. El Proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperacion con Arts Midwest.