The purpose of the Common Read Program at Colorado College is to create a common intellectual experience for incoming undergraduate students, to introduce them to our core values as an academic community, and to teach them how to engage as members of our community of scholars.

2025-2026 Common Read

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the 21st Century, edited by Alice Wong

In Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century (2020), Alice Wong brings together writers, thinkers, and activists with disabilities in this groundbreaking anthology, which introduces new scholars to critical disability perspectives. The essays in Disability Visibility reflect on how intersectional systems of power inform the livelihood of us all—disabled and temporary abled alike.

As new students transition to Colorado College, Wong’s collection will help you reflect on your own body and life as you live and learn in Colorado Springs. Fun fact: about 32% of our student body works with Accessibility Resources. That includes students with temporary disabilities, too: concussions, mobility impairments, and other embodied states where access needs may change. These essays, which center critical disability consciousness to reflect on everything from climate change to human-animal relations, speak to the importance of care and community.

You can learn more about the text through the Tutt Library LibGuide. If you are a member of a department, program, or office hosting programming related to the Common Read and would like your event added to the website, please contact Brett Gray: bgray@coloradocollege.edu.