Throwing Back to 2009. The First Publication (While in Doctoral Classes) When I Started Thinking about Dis/ability Representation in YA Texts

This evening, after around 6 hours of meetings, I also bring together my graduate English course on Young Adult Literature, where the evening's reading revolve are characters where dis/abilities are represented. Although I had many students with dis/abilities it wasn't until I was at Syracuse University that I had the language of advocacy which challenged medical models of children needing to be fixed to institutions needing to be rethought so the child has the best result. I took a class with Dr. Beth Ferry and soon after, I read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. My brain began to explode with ideas for adding the perspective I learned to the book by Sherman Alexie, but also to all texts.

In truth, dis/abilities are so common in normal narratives and every day life, that it's hard to get through a day where it doesn't have an influence on us. Reading dis/ability into texts is an art of figuring out how children with dis/abilities are positioned within the larger context of what it means to be normal (knowing full well that normal is subjective and always changing). 

I love Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper and the movie adaptation is as good as the book. It's a great example for making the case. How sure are we that kids written off as incapable and not able, when they are actually misunderstood and miseducated? What can our institutions do to be more accommodating for all children in our care and how can we alter the mindset we have about being dis/abled.

I split the word because in our life we all have able days, but also days where we can't function like "normal" people. Ever broke a toe...forgotten your glasses...been impaired by a migraine. These are inhibitors to what a typical person usually accomplishes. Of course, when we age, too, the dis/abilities are more regular (he writers knowing he'll get out of this chair soon, needing a little more care standing up than he used). 

My grad students self-select the texts they want to read each week, but tonight's focus will be on representation of dis/abilities in young adult literature. I always love this class, because it helps students to come to their own revelation about the many ways we inhibit others around us, not because they should be, but because our systems cause us to do so (including the education we provide ourselves about what an individual with a dis/ability is)

Knowing I'm teaching the class is the carrot dangling to get through the meetings. It's always one of my favorites each year.