Read to Achieve
All about Read to Achieve
The Read to Achieve program at UTC introduces students to the academic and intellectual culture of university life. The program provides a positive reading experience for students, faculty, and staff, one that holds at its core the belief that reading is an integral part of the university experience. Likewise, the program fosters a sense of community among students, faculty, and staff.
Because the selected Read to Achieve book is not intended to be specific to any one academic discipline, students, faculty, and staff find the book and its subject matter a touchstone for reference and discussion across the campus. The chosen book always focuses on various topics surrounding diversity and inclusion.
About the 2023-2024 Book and its author
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From The Twenty-First Century, by Alice Wong, is a collective anthology of short essays, interview transcripts, articles, blog posts, creative prose, and more. This text represents accurate and respectful portrayals of diverse cultures and identities, introducing UTC students to conversations in and around disability representation. Wong is an advocate for disability representation and activism. In 2020, she was named by the Time magazine as on of 16 people fighting for equality in America. The committee felt that this text is rich for program development and has a connection to multiple departments, as those profiled touch on a variety of interdisciplinary topics.
Praise for Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From The 21st Century
"Disability rights activist Alice Wong brings tough conversations to the forefront of society with this anthology. It sheds light on the experience of life as an individual with disabilities, as told by none other than authors with these life experiences. It's an eye opening collection that readers will revisit time and time again." -Chicago Tribune
"By its very nature, the disability community is incredibly intersectional and diverse, including people from all walks of life, backgrounds, and cultures. Disability Visibility reflects that diversity with its contributors, giving a look at a wide range of experiences and types of disability." -Book Riot
Quotes from Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From The Twenty-First Century
"These stories do not seek to explain the meaning of disability or to inspire or elicit empathy. Rather, they show disabled people simply being in our own worlds, by our own accounts. Disability Visibility is also one part of a larger arc in my own story as a human being."
"There is so much that able-bodied people could learn from the wisdom that often comes with disability. But space needs to be made. Hands need to reach out. People need to be lifted up. The story of disabled success has never been a story about one solitary disabled person overcoming limitations-despite the fact that's the narrative we so often read in the media. The narrative trajectory of a disabled person's life is necessarily webbed. We are often only as strong as the resources and privileges we have."
"Disabled people have always existed, whether the word disability is used or not. To me, disability is not a monolith, nor is it a clear-cut binary of disabled and non-disabled. Disability is mutable and ever-evolving. Disability is both apparent and non-apparent. Disability is pain, struggle, brilliance, abundance, and joy. Disability is sociopolitical, cultural, and biological. Being visible and claiming a disabled identity brings risks as much as it brings pride."
"Advocacy is not just a task for charismatic individuals or high-profile community organizers. Advocacy is for all of us; advocacy is a way of life. It is a natural response to the injustices and inequality in the world."
