By Rebecca Wood, Contributing Writer
The 2021 Common Reading Lecture featured Nadina LaSpina. LaSpina is a memoirist and activist for disability rights. In 2019, she released her memoir, “Such a Pretty Girl: A Story of Struggle, Empowerment, and Disability Pride.” LaSpina grew up in a small town in Sicily. As a baby she contracted polio and became paralyzed from the waist down.
Nadina LaSpina is an activist in the visibility rights movement and works with Disabled in Action, ADAPT, and The Disability Caucus.
Nadina LaSpina began the lecture by speaking about polio and how the world has adapted since her childhood and even before.
“I contracted a virus, the Polio Virus. Like the Corona Virus, the Polio Virus was very contagious, and I had to be isolated immediately.” LaSpina connected with listeners by relating her experience in childhood with the polio virus with our experiences with the Covid-19 Pandemic.
She mentioned that polio is eradicated in the U.S. but in some countries, such as Afghanistan, they still face an epidemic. She discussed how the U.S. has adapted since having a disabled president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who also had contracted polio.
Roosevelt hid his disability during his presidency. She explained that the country was hesitant to accept a disabled president and expanded by saying that the U.S. has struggled in many circumstances to adapt.
The topic for this year’s common reading was chosen because we all faced major adaptations this past year. Everyone must learn to adapt within their lives, whether it is adapting to a new sibling, moving away from home, living through a pandemic, becoming a parent, and endless other scenarios that force us to adapt.
Nadina LaSpina spoke about how she and her family had to adapt while she was growing up because her parents and siblings had to adapt to having a daughter or sister with a disability.
“Because I was so little when I contracted polio, I didn’t remember a time when my body functioned differently. I lost the ability to walk at 16 months old. To me, my body felt okay the way it was.”
The way LaSpina described her childhood stood out to me because she mentioned that people would look at her and say “What a shame, she’s so pretty” and her mother once said, “she could never be happy.”
After hearing this from her mother, LaSpina made it her goal to be happy in life, she knew she could be happy just like anyone else and she was able to do so, despite her mother and countless strangers’ beliefs.
LaSpina explained that the world is not designed to accommodate disabled people. LaSpina works within the disability rights movement to help educate the world on disabilities and make it a more accessible place for everyone.
“I have been arrested countless times, but always for civil disobedience. Never for anything else,” LaSpina said while discussing her transition into activism for the disabled community.
The online seminar concluded with a Q and A session where viewers were allowed to type their questions. LaSpina stated that any residual questions that she was unable to answer due to time limits could be emailed to her and she would send back her responses.
