3 December 2024

Check out these recommended resources for the International Day of People with Disability

Tuesday 3 December is International Day of People with Disability, and this year’s theme is ‘amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future’.  

Last year, we put together tips and advice about how to be disability inclusive in your words and language. Aligned with the 2024 theme, our Client Experience library staff members, Clare O’Hanlon and Brooke Hudd, put together a list of resources from our collection that will help you learn from disabled and neurodivergent researchers, activists and artists. 

What to read 

Fiction

• The bell jar by Sylvia Plath – this book was recommended to me when I was studying by a psychology lecturer who said they regularly read it to remind them of lived experiences of depression. 

• Future Girl by Asphyxia – A beautiful book with great representation of Deaf culture in a dystopian future Melbourne on the verge of environmental collapse. 

• Stars in their eyes by Jessica Walton & Aśka – Nerdy and cute, diverse disabled, queer and non-binary representation. 

• A room called Earth by Madeleine Ryan – Great autistic representation in this novel and sensory experience about seeing and being seen, finding connection and belonging. 

• Here we go again by Alison Cochrun – Great queer representation that illustrates diverse experiences of ADHD. 

• Interesting facts about space and Everyone in this room will someday be dead by Emily Austin – Austin writes at the intersection of queerness, neurodivergence and mental illness with surprising humour. 

Non-fiction: self-care, compassion and understanding

• The year I met my brain : a travel companion for adults who have just found out they have ADHD by Matilda Boseley 

• Unmasking autism: discovering the new faces of neurodiversity by Devon Price 

• Surviving and thriving with an invisible chronic illness by Ilana Jacqueline 

• Brilliant imperfection: grappling with cure by Eli Clare 

• We’ve got this: stories by disabled parents edited by Eliza Hull 

• Growing up disabled in Australia edited by Carly Findlay 

• Different, not less: a neurodivergent’s guide to embracing your true self and finding your happily ever after by Chloe Hayden 

• The reason I jump: one boy’s voice from the silence of autism by Naoki Higashida 

• The body silent by Robert F. Murphy 

• Young, sick, and invisible: a skeptic’s journey with chronic illness by Ania Bula 

• The body keeps the score: brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma by Bessel van der Kolk 

• The myth of normal: trauma, illness and healing in a toxic culture by Gabor Mate 

• Girl, interrupted by Susanna Kaysen 

Non-fiction: community care, activism and justice

• The future is disabled: prophecies, love notes, and mourning songs  Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha 

• Care work: dreaming disability justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha 

• Exile and pride: disability, queerness, and liberation by Eli Clare 

• Nothing about us without us: disability oppression and empowerment by James I. Charlton 

• Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life by Alice Wong 

• The Disability Studies Reader by Lennard J Davis 

• Visual thinking: the hidden gifts of people who think in pictures, patterns and abstractions by Temple Grandin with Betsy Lerner 

• Neuroqueer heresies: notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities by Nick Walker 

• Design justice: community-led practices to build the worlds we need by Sasha Costanza-Chock 

• The Relationship Is the Project: A Guide to Working with Communities edited by Jade Lillie, Kate Larsen, Cara Kirkwood & Jax Brown

You might also want to browse the library’s Disability Studies resource guide. 

What to watch 

• Examined life especially the walk with Judith Butler 

• Sins Invalid: an unshamed claim to beauty in the face of invisibility 

• The reason I jump 

Accessibility support at Deakin  

Deakin has a range of accessibility resources to help ensure equitable access to resources and learning opportunities. As co-creators of this resource list, Clare and Brooke strongly encourage students to register for support. They were encouraged by other students and lectures being open about their disabilities, which empowered them to be the same. The accessibility support improved their experience so dramatically that they are now on a mission to help other students access everything available to them. 

To that end, you can find out more about disability and accessibility support at Deakin via the links below: 

• Disability Resource Centre 

• People with a disability | Library 

• Reset Rooms 

• Converting text to audio  

• Language & Accessibility – Deakin Software Library  

• Hidden Disability Sunflower @ Deakin: Learning Kit 

Peer support at Deakin 

• ADHD: Tips for Managing Your Study at Deakin | Students  

• ADHD Support Group  

• Support for autistic students with Navigate | Students 
• Deakin Disability Neurodivergency Association (DDNA) 

Originally published on Article, the Deakin Library blog.