"This nonfiction book for teens provides a history of disability, describes types of disabilities and examines the challenges faced by people living with disabilities"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

This nonfiction book for teens provides a history of disability, describes types of disabilities and examines the challenges faced by people living with disabilities. - (Orca Book Publishers)

Key Selling Points

• This book aims to help readers understand what a disability is, what it’s like to be a person with a disability and how to become a better ally for people with disabilities.
• Do blind people really hear better? Can guide dogs interpret traffic signals? Can a woman in a wheelchair have a baby? These and other common questions are broken down to help all readers better understand the disability experience.
• Disability advocates are becoming much more vocal and there is a lack of nonfiction books for teens that approach the subject from the inside.
• Hannalora Leavitt is a writer who has been visually impaired since the age of 11.
• 650 million people around the world (10%) live with a disability.

People with disabilities (PWDs) have the same aspirations for their lives as you do for yours.

The difference is that PWDs don’t have the same access to education, employment, housing, transportation and healthcare in order to achieve their goals. In The Disability Experience you’ll meet people with different kinds of disabilities, and you'll begin to understand the ways PWDs have been ignored, reviled and marginalized throughout history. The book also celebrates the triumphs and achievements of PWDs and shares the powerful stories of those who have fought for change.

The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Kirkus Reviews

An overview of disability history and culture. Leavitt, herself legally blind, begins by contrasting the impairment-focused medical model of disability with the social model, which incorporates the challenges that people with disabilities encounter in everyday life. Using person-first language, she applies the social model to a vast array of topics. Subjects include the treatment of people with disabilities throughout history; the meaning of disabled culture; assistive technologies and adaptations; and challenges faced by contemporary people with disabilities in work, school, and medical settings, such as ignorance, inaccessibility, and discrimination. She bolsters her exploration of physical, sensory, and intellectual disabilities with statistics enumerating disabled populations in the United States and Canada. Sidebars highlight athletes, artists, and entrepreneurs with disabilities, and expressive cartoons illustrate common scenarios; both photos and art feature ethnic diversity. The author's personal anecdotes provide additional insight. Unfortunately, Leavitt occasionally overgeneralizes: Although people may find learning braille challenging, she asserts that she learned it at age 10, "so how hard can it be?" and the preference of many autistic people for identity-first language is not addressed. However, her candid discussions of contemporary issues, such as low employment rates and medically assisted dying, are nuanced and hard-hitting, and her acknowledgement of disability in the LGBTQ+ community is refreshing. She ends on a hopeful note, offering ways for nondisabled readers to advocate for people with disabilities. A candid introduction to the multifaceted experiences of people with disabilities. (glossary, resources, photo credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18) Copyright Kirkus 2021 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.