Disability Visibility (Adapted for Young Adults): 17 First-Person Stories for Today

Gr 7 Up–The idea that storytelling is a powerful tool for creating community and fostering agency has been a driving force behind disabled activist Wong’s work. She founded the Disability Visibility Project (DVP), a project that records oral histories in partnership with StoryCorps. In 2020, Wong published Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This adaptation includes 17 of the original stories and opens a window into the rich and wide-ranging world that comprises the disability community. These first-person accounts are written by authors with diverse identities. For example, Keah Brown is a Black woman with cerebral palsy who writes about Black disabled joy. Sandy Ho is a queer, Asian American woman writing about the stigma of disability through an intersectional lens. Particularly powerful is Ariel Henley’s entry “There is a Mathematical Equation That Proves I’m Ugly: Or So I Learned in My Seventh-Grade Art Class.” The 17 selections are divided into four sections (Being, Becoming, Doing, and Connection) and each one includes content notes to let readers know about any potentially distressing content, such as bullying or suicidal ideation.