Celebrating disability awareness & acceptance: Books, videos & activities for early learners

By Children’s Librarian Shelley Harris

October is a big month! Many kids are excited for Halloween, of course. We finally enter an autumn that will last a while; that’s usually pretty great. Sometimes we even see a few snow flurries, which is probably more exciting to me than to others. 

And of course, every year, Jenny and I love to celebrate Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC), Down Syndrome, and ADHD Awareness Months! These are all important to us because of our loved ones who use AAC, have Down Syndrome, and have ADHD. Which now includes me! I was diagnosed with ADHD recently, after a lifetime of misconceptions and misunderstandings.

We also celebrate because communities are much richer when everyone is part of them. We raise awareness because people don’t always realize whose voices are missing. Find a few ways to celebrate and learn together below!

Read these books

So often, people limit themselves to reading about “others” during special months, or, perhaps, only reading books with disabled characters when they or their child will interact with a disabled child. These books are most often about a disabled character, without being from their perspective.

This does everyone a disservice, disabled or not. The best awareness is to meet and know disabled people, in real life and in books. To understand that everyone can be a hero, it’s important to read books where people who do not look or live like you are the heroes.

• Every July, we refresh our Disability Reads bibliography for kids. The books selected for this list feature disabled kids telling their stories and experiences, in ways that acknowledge that disabled children are part of reading audiences. Many of them were written by disabled creators. 
• We also have a handout to use together to determine if a book about a disabled character features good representation, or if it is harmful to a disabled reader and perpetuates stereotypes. The handout is for families, caregivers, and teachers, and children as young as preschool have successfully used it to analyze books!

Watch these videos

Let’s look at videos that can be used with kids to validate themselves or introduce new topics. You can start with this short video about starting conversations with kids. 

Disabilities are not a bad thing or a good thing. They are just a normal thing, a normal part of many people’s lives. This video offers an introduction to what a disability is and what we can do with our curiosity about new things.

We Move Together is another great book that normalizes disabilities and introduces the concepts of disability justice and disability community. The (disabled) creators put together a phenomenal reading guide with discussion points and activities, including a scavenger hunt through the book.  

What else can you do?

Normalize disabilities! The Nora Project defines a disability as needing to do an everyday task (eating, thinking, seeing, etc) differently than most people. Talk about the different ways these tasks can be done. 

Look around you and find what can be changed to allow everyone to participate. How many stores have a step to go up or down to enter? Does a store have a doorknob that is hard for some to grip, a lever that is easy to push, or doors that open on their own for everyone? Are the sidewalks clear for wheelchairs, or are there tables and chairs set up that block the walkway? What can you do about these unfair things when you see them?

Enjoy these videos that kids and caregivers can watch together.

• Swingset Mamas share music on Facebook, using AAC on screen. 
• Joe is a speech therapist who has fun songs and activities with AAC. I especially love Slow and Fast!
• Amanda Hartmann has book and activity videos with AAC. Pranking Dad is a classic!