Feb 01, 2007 — Continuing this year's theme of "People First: literature by and about people with disabilities" on our monthly call-in on contemporary literature, our guest is Nancy Mairs. Mairs is often credited as a founder of the new field of "disability studies." She became wheelchair-bound as a result of degenerative multiple sclerosis. Waist-High in the World is a remarkable set of essays where Mairs presents a world that privileges the needs of non-disabled "normals" over those with physical disabilities. She becomes an advocate on behalf of those, like herself, for whom every raised curb, every set of stairs, every toilet is an insurmountable obstacle and a sign of the insensitivity of the able-bodied majority. Ellen Rocco and Chris Robinson host.