Breaking Stereotypes about Disabled People-Victims or Heroines

On an unremarkable summer night at the age of fifteen, Mary Keating got into a 1965 Mustang convertible driven by a boy she barely knew. She never walked again.

In her memoir-in-verse, Recalibrating Gravity, Keating explores life before, during, and after her spinal cord injury, bringing readers into the lived experience of navigating ill-fitting wheelchairs, poorly designed buildings, well-intentioned loved ones, the medical-industrial complex, and our ableist society. It’s not a story of tragedy or triumph, but of adaptation, persistence, and the daily negotiations required to live fully in a world not designed with disability in mind.

Keating earned her JD from Yale Law School, worked as an attorney at IBM, spoke at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting on working with disabled lawyers and clients, and founded her own law practice—twice. Along the way, she married a man she has known since fourth grade, survived thyroid cancer, learned how to scuba dive, and published widely in journals and anthologies. Her book is a reminder that disability is an ordinary and integral part of human life.