I am stunned and delighted by this development. Look for reviews of the books I came across in the near future.
The importance of role models for kids with disabilities seems to be one of my pet topics lately. Thinking along those lines, I was toying with the idea of writing some short biographies of famous individuals with disabilities that concerned adults could share with kids. Before I actually started research, however, I realized that the bio project may be unnecessary. In the past two weeks, routine reference work has led me to non-fiction books with biographical information on six individuals with disabilities. Note that NONE of these sources stemmed from reference queries asking for information on disabilities--information on positive role models with disabilities just happened to be included in information on other types of topics, such as sports and art.
I am stunned and delighted by this development. Look for reviews of the books I came across in the near future.
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Just after having reviewed a "Little Critter" book that included children and adults with disabilities in a book where the focus was learning about communities in general, rather than specifically on disabilities, I came across a book about libraries that completely ignores both customers and staff with disabilities. Although this book highlights libraries which are doing important work in serving their communities, by completing ignoring all disabilities, the author and illustrator are, at best, overlooking many, many people who could (and, perhaps, are) benefit from library service. The disabled population as a whole is often overlooked--and this can lead to inaccessibility. I've started the "Non-Inclusive Book List" to bring attention to the fact that very many good books about libraries and library skills ignore customers and staff with disabilities. I definitely welcome suggestions for the "Non-Exclusive Book List" and the other book lists as well--I'm sure there are many more titles, both good and bad, that could be included on the list.
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AuthorThe content on this website mostly comes from my perspective as a youth services librarian with disabilities. The further I travel along life's road, the more entwined these two parts of my identity become. Librarian: I have an MLS from Rutgers University and have working in public libraries for nearly 20 years. The focus on my career has always been youth services. Disabled: I've been disabled more than twice as long as I've been a librarian. My experience started at birth when I was immediately diagnosed with cleft palate. Also present was a non-verbal learning disability (NLD) for short. This was not formally diagnosed until I was 19, leading to years of frustration. My Tourette Syndrome was not present at birth, but surely started young as I don't ever remember living without it. The Tourette was also not diagnosed until adulthood, further compounding my frustration. Coincidentally, I was also diagnosed with IBD (more commonly known as Chron's\Ulcerative Colitis) at the age of 19. That was another easy diagnosis--as with cleft palate, they look and they see it. Archives
September 2015
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