Customer Reviews

Disability (Talking About)

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If you are an educator or caregiver who wants to teach young children about disability, Jillian Powell's "Talking about Disability" is a good place to start. Written in simple language and enriched throughout with excellent full-color photographs, this book should appeal both to beginning readers and to children who still need to have books read aloud to them.

Powell covers many important topics. She explains different types of physical disabilities, explains the need for wheelchair-accessible public accommodations, discusses guide dogs and other aids, and discusses sporting activities in a disabled context. Throughout the book the outstanding photography depicts disabled people as dynamic, positive individuals who are an important part of the general population. Also commendable is the fact that disabled people of many different ages and races are pictured.

The book has only a couple of minor drawbacks. Powell's prose, while very positive and considerate, speaks about the disabled without actually letting any disabled individual's voice be heard. I would have liked to have seen a quote or two from an actual disabled individual incorporated into the text. Also, although the notes for parents and teachers at the end of the book mention such disabled role models as Helen Keller and Christy Brown, such well-known individuals are neither mentioned nor pictured in the main body of the text.

These drawbacks aside, "Talking about Disability" is an intelligent and sensitive introduction to an important issue. I recommend this book with enthusiasm.