Celebrate Disability Pride Month with the Schneider Family Book Award.

Photo from ala.org

July celebrates Disability Pride Month in the United States, and as librarians do, I was looking for books that would help our users celebrate. The first place I started was looking at winners of The Schneider Family Book Award. The Schneider Family Book Award, endowed to the American Library Association in 2003 by Dr. Katherine Schneider and her family, honors authors or illustrators for their work that "embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences." These winning books highlight the lives and experiences of people with disabilities, with an understanding that people with disabilities have full lives beyond their disability. 

Dr. Schneider stated in her speech for the first presentation of the award in 2004, "in the 1950s when I was in grade school, the only media mentions of blind people were of Helen Keller, Louis Braille, and the seven blind men who went to see the elephant. Other disabilities fared no better. Fifty years later we're here to celebrate the fact that the situation has dramatically improved." Now, 21 years later, 98 books have been honored by the ALA with the Schneider Award. 

The 2025 theme of Disability Pride Month is "We Belong Here, and We're Here to Stay." What books are you highlighting this month to show everyone that they belong?

Learn more about the Schneider Family Book Award here. [Schneider Family book Award. ala.org/awards/books-media/schneider-family-book-award. 2025.]

Tuesday Tips - Wheelchair Users Representation

Sam Jones is the Youth Services Librarian at the Beaver Dam Public Library. She shares tips to make your job easier in her Tuesday posts.

Last week I found this article at the Book Riot blog titled Representation of Wheelchair Users on Book Covers: Still a Long Way to Go by Grace Lapointe. It highlighted previous work and conversations had by others, like Autumn Wise, Corinne Duyvis and Kayla Whaley. Lapointe also showed different book covers with wheelchair representation that she liked. Check it out! 

How Can We Support Our AAC-Users?

Recently, Chelsey Roos posted on the ALSC blog about how we can better enhance the library experience of AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) users. 

She writes: "October is AAC Awareness Month! AAC stands for “augmentative and alternative communication,” and it’s often used to refer to a tool that can help someone communicate without speech, like a picture board or a tablet with a communication application. It can be as simple as a white board, or as high tech as a computer that can detect the user’s eye movements and translate them to speech. Someone who is non-speaking, or has difficulty speaking, can use their AAC to communicate with others. "

To read her clear explanations, tips and suggestions, stop here. [Supporting AAC-Users in the Library. Roos, Chelsey. ALSC blog. October 14,2022.

Zoom Program - Augmentative and Alternative Commuication

Kristine Millard is working on her MLIS at UW-Madison as well as managing a lab that studies early language development in toddlers with autism. Periodically, she shares resources relating to developmental disabilities that you might find useful.

When I was working in a library, Thursday mornings were a favorite. Someone who knew my schedule might have thought it was because those were my outreach days. Don’t get me wrong, heading out to daycares and 4K classes was a great part of the job. Returning to see a small school bus in the parking lot was, too. That’s when the developmentally disabled students came to the library. They always had the best manners and our staff made sure they knew they were welcome and that we were happy to help find what they were looking for.

Sometimes there were non-verbal students in the group. As I got to know them, it was clear they were still able to share with caregivers what kind of library materials were important. Some used an adaptive communication tool that looked a lot like an iPad but was much more robustly configured for their needs. Whenever a new book was added to the collection within their interests, I only needed to see the look in their eyes to know I was handing over a winner. 

The Waisman Center has a Saturday event coming up on October 15 from 9-11 am that is free and open to the public on Zoom. This year’s Augmentative and Adaptive Communication Day with the Experts is going to include two presentations that may appeal to librarians. First, a self-advocate, Mike Hipple, will share: A Drive Through AAC Communities: Learning Why it is so Important to be in Communities on this Journey. I’m looking forward to hearing how community organizations are doing well with serving AAC users, and where we can do better. I make no guarantees about libraries getting a mention, but we all have community partners we can work with.

After Mr. Hipple speaks, a Speech Language Pathologist will share thoughts on Literacy for AAC Users. 

I checked with the event coordinator, and there is no limit to the number of people who can join the Zoom session. I hope to see you there virtually (October 15 @ 9:00 am - 11:00 am)!

Adapted Books and Sign Language

Kristine Millard is working on her MLIS at UW-Madison as well as managing a lab that studies early language development in toddlers with autism. Periodically, she shares resources relating to developmental disabilities that you might find useful.

In September, the http://wfdeaf.org/iwdeaf2022/ hosts various events to build awareness and acceptance. Like me, you may occasionally insert sign language into fingerplays, and other elements of storytime while wanting to know more about this language and how to truly communicate with it. If your library subscribes to Transparent Language, you already have a tool at your fingertips to help with this. 

While you work toward fluency, you can still share Sign Language in your storytimes. My favorite book to use with signing is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? By Bill Martin, Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle. 

I printed these notes and made an adapted book with the signs taped right on the pages. Do remember you will need multiple copies so you can repeat each animal. To save myself from having to fit the refrains, “What do you see?,” and “I see a …,” into each page, I made fold-out flaps attached to the front and back covers of my book.

For those of you who are advanced signers, or want more authenticity, I suggest using this video from the Marie Katzenbach School for the Deaf.

Tuesday Tips: Making the Most of Disability Pride Month

Sam Jones is the Youth Services Librarian at the Beaver Dam Public Library. Today she shares a tip on a some fabulous resources that help you be a better ally and also information on interviews available today and archived on Facebook.

Disability Pride Month may be almost over, but that doesn't mean we should stop thinking about how to serve all of our patrons in the best way possible. One article recently published is called "7 Tips on How to be a Better Disability Ally on the Bookish Internet." This has some really practical, simple advice that we can follow to make our library more welcoming and accessible. One example given is making sure that images have an alternative description. This is something that I have to work on remembering to do all the time. 

For events, the Facebook page, PBS Books has been hosting some author interviews with Judith Herman and Annette Bay Pimentel. Herman's interview will be today, July 26th, at 4 pm central and shown on their Facebook page. Herman wrote Being Heumann and Rolling Warrior and is considered the "mother of the disability rights movement." Pimentel's interview was on July 19th, but the interview is still on the Facebook page. They wrote many books, but was interviewed about All the Way to the Top: How One Girl's Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything. This book is about Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, an disability activist, and Keelan-Chaffins does the interview with Pimentel. I will definitely be going back to watch these interviews soon.

Disability Pride Month

It was only 32 years ago that Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The movie Crip Camp released in 2020 chronicles the struggles and triumphs of the disability community fighting for their rights to bring this legislation about.

Kendra Winchester at the BookRiot blog writes: "On July 26th, 1990, congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the first legislation of its kind that protects disabled people’s rights in the United States. Now through the entire month of July, Disability Pride recognizes and honors disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent, and Deaf people. Although it’s not officially recognized nationally, Disability Pride Month is still celebrated across the country, and several major cities hold Disability Pride parades to honor the occasion."

In this thoughtful post, Kendra discusses Disability Pride, ways that libraries can participate, resources for disability literature and more. Stop here to read the full post. [A Book Lover's Guide to Disability Pride Month. Winchester, Kendra. BookRiot blog. July 5, 2022.]

Antiracism Work with Preschoolers

We have been sharing some antiracism and social justice resources over the past month that have come our way. You can access these resources in the compiled blog posts link at the bottom of this post.

Some resources that we have seen lately are important to highlight especially in providing programs, services and collections to preschoolers and thinking about talking to our youngest children about race or helping support families with young children  as they address racism.

They're Not Too Young to Talk About Race
This graphic from the Children's Community School In Philadelphia is an excellent place to begin raising awareness and learning about the importance of talking about race with young children.

Diverse BookFinder for picture books 
As described in Tessa Michaelson Schmitt's recent Friday FAQ:
"The Diverse BookFinder's free, online Collection Analysis Tool (CAT) for public and school libraries -- funded by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services -- offers an analysis of which racial/cultural groups are represented, and how they are represented, in your current picture book collection." You can signup for their newsletter here: sign up"

Photo - ALSC Virtual Storytime Services Guide

Serving Diverse Children and Families section of ALSC's  new Virtual Storytime Services Guide

In 70 powerful pages, a wide range of issues are explored and resources and guidance provided to empower librarians to make their storytimes more inclusive, more diverse and more just. The sections include:

• COVID-19, Racism and Xenophobia

• African American Children and Families

• Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander Children and Families

• Children and Families with Disabilities

• Latinx Children and Families

• LGBTQ+ Children and Families

• Native/Indigenous Children and Families

• Serving Families Across the Digital Divide

Join the Movement #FamilySummer4Black Lives
Seen on the blog Books for Littles, three monthly actions are being planned to engage families in anti-racism work. The first, coming up this weekend, involves families creating cards and "To Minneapolis with Live - Love Letters 4 Black Lives." It's a great way to work in the larger community to support Black Lives and communities and social justice work.

For more information on anti-racism and activism resources, please see these additional YSS posts:

• Race, Justice, Kids and Libraries   5/28/20
• CCBC - Black Experiences: Affirmation and Resilience, Activism and Resistance  6/19/20
• CCBC - Race and Racism: Selected Books for Children and Teens  6/19/20
• DPI- Race and Anti-Racism Resources for WI Libraries   6/22/20
• Antiracism Work with Preschoolers  6/24/20