Issue of Accessibility

Throughout my undergraduate and graduate research on disability-related children's books, I've learned how difficult it is to access these books at my local library.  I've often had to travel an hour or further just to get my hands on specific titles.  I think this is very unfortunate, especially since the number of people with a disability is growing worldwide and disabilities are becoming increasingly more present in our classrooms (United Nations, 2009).  If children are to feel valued in schools, they need to see themselves reflected in the books that they read and hear about.  A possible reason for the issue of accessibility is that not enough disability-related children's books are being published.  An article entitled, "Newbery Books Lack Characters with Disabilities, Study Says," by Debra Lau (2011) stated:

Although there have been more kids with disabilities portrayed in Newbery Medal-winning titles in recent years, there still remains a huge discrepancy between the number of characters in Newbery Award-winning books and how many children in the general population attend special education classes, says a new report.

If more publishing companies were to publish more disability-related children's books and if more of these books were to be awarded, then perhaps it would not be so difficult to get a hold of such books.  Fortunately, Amazon offers many of the titles that you will be reading about in this blog spot at a discounted price.  Although I would not consider all of the disability-related books inclusive, these books are still available for all to access and read through.  In my upcoming blogs, I will be sure to share my thoughts on all of the disability-related books offered on Amazon so that all my readers will be able to read these books for themselves.

If you would like to read Debra Lau's (2011) complete article, 

which also comments on the issue of inclusivity, you can read it here!