Books for Adults: Part 1
Disclaimer: The Nora Project no longer uses the term "#OwnVoices" to describe books where the author's lived experience is reflected in their work through its characters, events, themes, and more. To learn more about this decision and background, please reference the statement released by We Need Diverse Books here.
The Nora Project is on a mission to promote disability inclusion. Our primary focus is on schools and communities, and our curriculum is targeted and intentional when introducing concepts around disability and inclusion to students of all ages. Adults need the same intentional experiences to grow their own knowledge base around disability. One of the easiest and best ways to do that is by listening to the voices of those with disabilities - their lived experience should be the hallmark of education for anyone on topics related to disability. Ableism, models of disability, lack of media representation, and more, presented through the voices of those with lived experiences, are often vividly revealed by authors with a gift for storytelling. With that in mind, we’re excited to share the first of a two-part series featuring books written by authors with disabilities to get you started on your journey.
Book cover with bright orange background and white brush stroke text saying “Sitting Pretty” with a short haired woman wearing a yellow shirt sitting in a manual wheelchair.
In Sitting Pretty, Rebekah Taussig brings us into her personal story through a compelling narrative of her life growing up with disability. She describes herself as a writer, teacher, advocate, and human lady person! She delves deeply into the impact of ableism and the medical model of disability on her self-perception and the forming of her own identity. In her own words, she defines ableism early on in the book, and then explores its lifelong effect. As she writes, ableism is “the process of favoring, fetishizing, and building the world around a mostly imagined, idealized body while discriminating against those bodies perceived to move, see, hear, process, operate, look, or need differently from that vision.” Read Sitting Pretty and unpack all that Rebekah shares!! Then be sure to follow Rebekah on Instagram or on her website for even more of her insights.
Book cover with red background and a woman shown staring off into the distance showing her profile view.
Haben Girma is an accomplished disability rights lawyer, author and public speaker, In her memoir entitled Haben, she brings the reader from her days as a child through her schooling, including at Harvard, and from there onto the world stage as a sought-after public figure. She voices her lived experience as a deafblind woman of color, bringing the reader into her world and challenging the reader’s preconceptions about individuals who are deafblind and their abilities. In Chapter 17 she leads us through her attempt to get her younger cousin (and by extension, her readers) to confront his ableist belief that blind people cannot make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - even as he stands there watching her make one and demanding that she make one for him, too! His struggle to change his belief to match what he sees rather than what he has been told by society, mirrors the struggle of most people when confronting their ableism. Haben speaks extensively on accessibility and how using creativity allows her access in so many areas that have been deemed inaccessible by an ableist world. Quite possibly, reading Haben will upend many of the reader's systems of belief and conceptions of individuals who are deafblind and/or have other disabilities. You can follow Haben on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or on her website to keep the learning going.
Book cover with smiling woman standing in the middle wearing black glasses and grey sweater.
Through a series of essays, Keah Brown leads the reader through life stories that reveal the development of her identity through a lens of disability, womanhood, and race. An actress, author, and journalist, she writes boldly and with humor, bringing her readers up close and personal within her lived experience of disability in her debut novel The Pretty One. She writes extensively about the impact the media and the medical model of disability had on her early development, stating that “my insecurities were self-made, but they had been encouraged and influenced by a society that had taught me early on that I was not supposed to feel beautiful in a body like mine.” Keah writes with honesty and openness about her life, her feelings, and her hope for a more accessible world for everyone. Continue your journey by following Keah on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, or on her website.
Team TNP is always learning too! Let us know what you think about these books, and tag us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram) with book recommendations for our ever-growing list of #OwnVoices stories to read.