Listen to and learn from disabled perspectives: Resources

Disability doesn’t make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.

– Stella Young

Disability is not a brave struggle or ‘courage in the face of adversity.’ Disability is an art. It’s an ingenious way to live.

– Neil Marcus

Taking up space as a disabled person is always revolutionary.

Sandy Ho

Listen to, learn from, and share the many disabled activists, authors, actors, thinkers, and creators of our time. Make space for their perspective and allow them to change your view on the world.

The following list is not an exhaustive list; there are so many voices and perspectives from the disability community emerging every day.

• Documentary: Crip Camp on Netflix
• Stella Young’s Ted Talk – “I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much”
• Judy Heumann’s Ted Talk – “Our fight for disability rights – and why we’re not done yet.”

• Follow activists and influencers (Instagram handles below)
  • @bumpandhustle (Kat Inokai)
  • @amanda.leduc
  • @nina_tame
  • @disability_visability (Alice Wong)
  • @zach.anner
  • @crutchesandspice (Imani Barbarin)
  • @theheumannperspective (Judy Heumann)
  • @disabilityreframed (Ashley Harris Whaley)
  • @thecatchpoles (James & Lucy Catchpole)
  • @sitting_pretty (Rebekah Taussig)
  • @shaneburcaw
  • @daniizzie
  • @ableismistrash

• Books for adults:
  • The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida
  • Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig
  • Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong
  • Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judy Heumann
  • Amanda Leduc’s books – The Centaur’s Wife; Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability & Making Space; The Miracles of Ordinary Men
  • Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma
  • If At Birth You Don’t Succeed: My Adventures with Disaster & Destiny by Zach Anner
  • The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall In Love With Me by Keah Brown

• Books for children:
  • We Move Together by Kelly Fritsch and Anne McGuire
  • What Happened To You? by James Catchpole
  • Mama Zooms by Jane Cowen-Fletcher
  • Can Bears Ski? By Raymond Antrobus
  • A Kids Book About Disabilities by Kristine Napper
  • El Deafo by CeCe Bell
  • This Beach Is Loud by Samantha Cotterill

• Television  – Representation matters! These shows/films feature disabled characters played by disabled actors:
  • Special
  • Speechless
  • Breaking Bad
  • Stranger Things
  • A Quiet Place
  • CODA

• Podcasts:
  • The Accessible Stall with Emily Ladau
  • The Heumann Perspective with Judy Heumann

• Follow hashtags on social media
  • #SayTheWord
  • #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs
  • #TheFutureIsAccessible
  • #AbleismIsTrash
  • #DisabilityRights
  • #DisabilityAwareness

Do you have a suggestion not listed above? Please share in the comments section below.