Creator: Accessible Libraries
Date Updated: March 27, 2024
Overview
Library content should represent the community, which, of course, includes persons with disabilities. Noted in the Is Your Public Library Accessible? Study, participants stated that they would love their library to promote authors with disabilities and highlight that library content. We have brought together lists of #OwnVoices (OV) content to help you create representative collections.
What is #OwnVoices? A work is considered #OwnVoices when the person creating that piece of media—for our purposes, a book author—shares a marginalization with their protagonist. While we will always aim for OV representation, we do not control what appears on the lists below. Our priority will always be books with a positive representation of disability.
Collections
- General and Adult
- NNELS Disability Perspectives Collection
- NNELS Authors with Disabilities Collection
- CELA Celebrating Stories from the Disability Community
- CELA Books for Disability Pride Month
- Disability Book Week Reading Lists
- CBC’s 12 Canadian Books to Read for Disability Pride Month
- Goodreads Disability Themed Books
- Overdrive Resource Centre
- 42 Best Books On Disabilities Curated by a Disability Activist
- Book Riot Booklists Featuring Disabilities
- Young People
- IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities at Toronto Public Library
- 36 YA Books Showcasing Diverse Disability Representation
- Book Riot: 16 Wonderful #OwnVoices YA Books About Disability
- YA Disability Database
- Publishers Weekly: 10 New Children’s and YA Books with Disability Representation
- Book Trust Books with Positive Images of Disability
General and Adult
This section includes lists of content for adults and collections that are for all ages.
NNELS Disability Perspectives Collection
This extensive collection, created by the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS), focuses broadly on disabilities. It includes memoirs, novels, theoretical works, and government policy documents. Items in the collection are available to download from NNELS.
NNELS Disability Perspectives Collections
NNELS Authors with Disabilities Collection
All of the items in this collection by NNELS were created by authors who identify as having a disability. Some items address disability directly, while others do not. This collection contains various materials, including theoretical works, memoirs, novels, and poetry.
NNELS Authors with Disabilities Collection
CELA Celebrating Stories from the Disability Community
The Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) created this collection of works by authors in the disability community to celebrate the International Day of People with Disabilities in 2022. This collection includes fiction, memoirs, and essays. It is divided into sections for adults, kids, and teens.
CELA Celebrating Stories from the Disability Community
CELA Books for Disability Pride Month
CELA created this collection to honour Disability Pride Month in 2023. The collection consists of detailed descriptions (and accompanying links) of five nonfiction books by authors from the disability community. All titles in this collection focus directly on disability.
CELA Books for Disability Pride Month
Disability Book Week Reading Lists
Disability Book Week is celebrated between April 23 and 29 each year and invites readers to be more inclusive with what they read by reading a book with a main character with a disability. The Disability Book Week Team put together this collection, which is divided into sections for children, middle-grade students, teenagers, and adults.
Disability Book Week Reading Lists
CBC’s 12 Canadian Books to Read for Disability Pride Month
The CBC created this list of books to celebrate Disability Pride Month. All works in the collection are by Canadian authors. The list includes fiction and nonfiction, with reading ages varying from child to adult.
CBC’s 12 Canadian books to read for Disability Pride Month
Goodreads Disability Themed Books
A list or “shelf” of over two hundred books on disabilities. You can use this list to help select representative books for your own collection.
Goodreads Disability Themed Books
Overdrive Resource Centre
The Overdrive Resource Centre has a diversity page in its collections development section, which links to multiple collections. There is a wide range of collections relating to disability, such as “Authors with Neurodiversity” and “Deaf Culture, Experience & History”.
42 Best Books On Disabilities Curated by a Disability Activist
A disability activist from the disability community curated this collection of books from 2023. The list is divided into categories, beginning with a “Getting Started” section to introduce readers to key concepts and concerns and to help them become an advocate in their community. Other books in this collection are divided into sections for different genres and age groups.
42 Best Books On Disabilities Curated by a Disability Activist
Book Riot Booklists Featuring Disabilities
This page lists posts on Book Riot with the shared theme of disability. There are reading lists, for example “10 Books to Introduce Readers to Disability Literature” and “9 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books With Disabled Main Characters” of organized content.
Link to Book Riot booklists featuring disabilities
Young People
The collections in this section have content that is for younger audiences.
IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities at Toronto Public Library
IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, puts out a collection of books for young people with disabilities every two years. Books in the collection are organized into two categories: accessible books and portrayals of disability. By following the link below, you can learn more about IBBY at Toronto Public Library and access IBBY’s 2023 collections of books for young people with disabilities. Their earlier collections are also available, going back to 1997.
IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities at Toronto Public Library
36 YA Books Showcasing Diverse Disability Representation
This young adult collection on Epic Reads is focused on inclusive disability representation. All books in the list feature characters with disabilities. Books are categorized by genre, and the disability or disabilities represented within the books are listed in brackets next to the book title.
36 YA Books Showcasing Diverse Disability Representation
Book Riot: 16 Wonderful #OwnVoices YA Books About Disability
This young adult book list centres on inclusivity and representation through #OwnVoices. A book is considered #OwnVoices when the author shares a marginalization with their protagonist.
Book Riot: 16 Wonderful #OwnVoices YA Books About Disability
YA Disability Database
The YA Disability Database is a curated database of young adult books featuring disability representation. It contains over 500 books sorted into disability categories. Books can be discovered by exploring these categories or using the site’s search function.
Publishers Weekly: 10 New Children’s and YA Books with Disability Representation
This book list was created by Publishers Weekly in 2023 to promote new young adult and children’s books with disability representation. Various disabilities are represented, and some books on the list are #OwnVoices.
Publishers Weekly: 10 New Children’s and YA Books with Disability Representation
Book Trust Books with Positive Images of Disability
This reading list of ten children’s books was published in 2022. Book Trust describes these books as useful for discussing disability and inclusivity issues with children. Interest and reading age are noted next to a short description of each book.
Book Trust Books with positive images of disability
References
Book Riot. (2024). Disability Archives. https://bookriot.com/tag/disability/
BookTrust. (2022). Books with Positive Images of Disability: See the best of the year. Book Trust. https://www.booktrust.org.uk/booklists/b/bookmark-disability-childrens-books-of-the-year/
CBC books. (2022, July 27). 12 Canadian books to read for Disability Pride Month. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/books/12-canadian-books-to-read-for-disability-pride-month-1.6532641
Centre for Equitable Library Access, & McKay, K. (2022, December 2). Celebrating Stories from the Disability Community. CELALibrary.ca. https://celalibrary.ca/blog/celebrating-stories-disability-community
Centre for Equitable Library Access, & McKay, K. (2023, July 28). Books for Disability Pride Month. CELALibrary.ca. https://celalibrary.ca/blog/books-disability-pride-month
Disability Book Week. (2024). Our Recommended Books. https://disabilitybookweek.org/books
Epic Reads. (2023, July 25). 46 YA Books Showcasing Disability Representation. https://www.epicreads.com/blog/ya-books-disability-rep/
Frias, D. (2023, June 22). 42 best books on disabilities curated by a disability activist. Good Good Good. https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/books-about-disabilities
Goodreads. (2024). Disability Themes Books. https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/disability-themes
Grauer, N. (2020, August 26). 16 wonderful #OwnVoices ya books about disability. Book Riot. https://bookriot.com/ownvoices-ya-books-about-disability/
IBBY, & Toronto Public Library. (2023). IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities. Toronto Public Library. https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/ibby/
Martin, K. (2023, July 21). 10 New Children’s and YA Books with Disability Representation. PublishersWeekly.com. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/92834-10-new-children-s-and-ya-books-with-disability-representation.html
National Network for Equitable Library Service. (2024a). Authors with Disabilities Collection. National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS). https://nnels.ca/relations/authors-disabilities-collection
National Network for Equitable Library Service. (2024b). Disability Perspectives Collection. National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS). https://nnels.ca/relations/disability-perspectives-collection
OverDrive. (2024). Diverse Reading. Overdrive’s Resource Center. https://resources.overdrive.com/library/collection-development/diverse-reading/
YA Disability Database. (2023, April). YA Disability Database. https://yadisabilitydatabase.wixsite.com/home