What Makes a Human Human: Understanding That Everyone Belongs

In this powerful episode of the Connecticut Book Festivals Podcast, Jed welcomes back Mary Keating, lawyer, poet, and author of Recalibrating Gravity, to celebrate Disability Pride Month and reflect on the legacy—and limits—of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Mary shares the story of the car accident at age 15 that left her a paraplegic and completely changed her life in a single moment. With warmth and candor, she recalls how her “can‑do” family refused to sideline her, including her mom’s memorable insistence that she still come downstairs and set the table—an early lesson that she was expected to contribute, not retreat.

Jed and Mary dig into the everyday realities of an inaccessible world: housing that can’t be entered, events held up flights of stairs, and public systems designed as if disabled people don’t exist. They highlight how many mainstream conveniences—like curb cuts, captions, touchscreens, and voice control—originated from accessibility innovations that benefit everyone.

Mary reads two deeply moving poems from Recalibrating Gravity: “Happily Ever After,” which captures the loneliness and isolation of disability, and “What Makes a Human Human,” written after a dehumanizing moment in a Yale Law classroom. Both pieces illuminate how architecture, policy, and casual language can either erase or affirm someone’s humanity.

Throughout the conversation, Mary and Jed return to a hopeful challenge: we can all be “architects of change” by noticing who’s missing, speaking up, and insisting that disabled people are not afterthoughts but full participants in our communities and stories.