In fiction, children with disabilities are often still segregated, labeled, lonely and lost. These titles will help bring your school’s library into the age of inclusion.
Bryan Boyce is founder and director of Cow Tipping Press, a social venture that creates writing by people with developmental disabilities. A graduate of Grinnell College, he taught high school English in Lesotho and the Rosebud Lakota Reservation before serving as Assistant Director of Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano. As the sibling of a brother with developmental disabilities, Bryan knows firsthand the value and richness of exchange across neurological difference. He seeks to give others this opportunity—an alternative to presuming deficit and pity—through the often inventive, radically self
“A Painter Named Kennedy” provides students with a narrative about the experiences of one young man with a disability. This toolkit structures a class reading of the story.
Laura Linn's article explores how Rosa Marcellino, a nine-year old with Down syndrome, and her family worked to eliminate the phrase "mentally retarded" from official use. "Rosa's Law" is living, legislative proof that their hard work paid off.
I broke a toe recently. Woke from a deep sleep, ambled around my apartment for just a few moments and then thump! I hit my foot on a piece of furniture. As I hobbled around in the days that followed, lost in the effort of just getting about, I thought “this is what it must feel like to be old.” And then—“this is what it feels like to have a disability.”