What We Love
What Stretches Us
What Keeps Us Accountable
Hello there.
Our team loves learning and will be doing so until…. forever.
On this page, we’re sharing some of our favourite things. No human, book, blog, resource is perfect. AND… we are intentional and purposeful in what we choose to add to this page.
There are many more books and articles to read. There’s a long list of artists, actvists, academics and peers to learn from and more movies, podcasts and documentaries than time to take in.
As you delve into deeper learning, be mindful of inspiration porn and avoid content that perpetuates harmful, stereotyped, or incomplete narratives about disabled people. We strive to share resources that foster genuine understanding and meaningful change.
Our ask of you: Learning is just the beginning. Your due diligence is to do something with what you learn. Reflect on it. Journal it. Share it. Talk about it. Implement an action or change. The work begins now.
The resources listed on this page will grow and shift as our lived experiences and work does. Enjoy.
Additions & updates February 25, 2025
Books
Disability Visibility: 17 First-Person Stories for Today (Adapted for Young Adults)
Edited by Alice Wong
Content notes: Ableism, audism, chronic illness, mental health, trauma, medical procedures, death, and violence.
The book cover Multi-coloured geometric triangles enhance the cover. Text: Disability Visibility: 17 First-Person Stories for Today (Adapted for Young Adults)
Edited by Alice Wong
Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation
By Hannah Gadsby
Content notes: Assault, molestation, rape, injury, isolation, suicidal ideation, body image issues, and mental health challenges.
The book cover features black and white photo portrait Hannah Gadsby. The title is prominently displayed in bold, uppercase letters, with the subtitle "A Memoir Situation" in smaller font beneath it.
Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body
By Rebekah Taussig
Content notes: Ableism, workplace discrimination, alcohol use, pregnancy and fertility, having a parent with chronic kidney disease, paralysis, and childhood cancer.
The book cover has an orange background with a woman in a wheelchair wearing a yellow shirt. She looks relaxed and confident. "Sitting Pretty" is written in large, white, hand-painted letters, with the subtitle and author’s name in smaller black text. The design is bright and engaging, reflecting the book’s themes.
The Words in my Hands By Asphyxia
Content notes: Audism, food scarcity, environmental collapse, political corruption.
The book cover showcases a stylized illustration of a young woman with dark hair, holding a paintbrush, set against a backdrop of abstract, colorful designs. The title, The Words in My Hands, is displayed prominently in bold letters, with the author's name, Asphyxia, below. The artistic elements reflect the protagonist's journey and the novel's themes of self-expression and identity.
Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Care
By Eli Clare
Content notes: Ableism, abuses of power, child sexual abuse, discussions of racism and fatphobia, and references to surgery.
The cover of Brilliant Imperfection features smooth river stones in earthy tones, with a single green stone standing out. The title is in green and white, with "Brilliant" in green. Below, the subtitle "Grappling with Cure" appears in white uppercase letters, and the author's name is in bold white text. The design highlights contrast, diversity, and natural imperfection.
A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome. A memoir. By Ariel Henley
Content notes: Medical content, discussions of bullying, ableism, medical trauma, and mentions of eating disorders.
The book cover features a stylized illustration of a woman’s face with abstract, Picasso-like lines in pink and red. The title, A Face for Picasso, appears in bold white letters, with the subtitle and author’s name below. The design reflects themes of identity and beauty.
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century
Edited by Alice Wong
Content notes: Ableism, chronic illness, mental health, trauma, medical procedures, death, and violence.
The book cover displays a series of overlapping triangles in vibrant colors against an off-white background. The title, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, is prominently displayed in bold black letters, with "Edited by Alice Wong" beneath. The design is modern and eye-catching.
Nishga By Jordan Abel
Content notes: Intergenerational trauma, colonial violence, residential schools, cultural loss, racism, suicidal thoughts, and mental health challenges.
The book cover resemebles a collage like precarious pile of six rocks. Title and author name prominent at top and bottom in uppercase.
Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care and Desire Edited By Alice Wong
Content notes: Love, sexual content, ableism, desire
The cover of Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire has a light beige background with a colorful floral arrangement. A red, purple, and orange flower with green leaves are at the top. The bold black title overlays the design, with Edited by Alice Wong below, reflecting themes of love, care, and connection.
Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance by Jesse Wente
Content notes: Genocide, colonization, racism, grief, physical abuse, sexual violence, and police brutality
The cover of "Unreconciled" features a minimalist design with a solid background. The title "Unreconciled" is prominently displayed in bold, uppercase letters at the center, with the subtitle "Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance" in smaller font beneath it. The author's name, Jesse Wente, appears below the subtitle.
The Body Is Not and Apology The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
Content notes: Fatphobia, body shaming, ableism, homophobia, racism, religious shaming, transphobia, and mentions of suicide
The book cover feature a Sonya Renee Taylor laying on purple, green pink butterfly wing bedding. She looks directly at the camera, nipples coverer by purple flowers. Text: The Body Is Not and Apology The Power of Radical Self-Love
It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finshed by Kate Gies
Content notes: Medical dismissal, body image, disordered eating, audism, gaslighting.
The book cover features pink, red and purle hues of an illustrated profile of a woman. An muted cream and green flower is front and center where an ear would be. The title ‘It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished” featured prominently in white cursive.
Allies: Real Talk about Showing Up, Screwing Up, And Trying Again Edited by Shakirah Bourne & Dana Alison Levy
Content notes: Racism, discrimination, and discussions of invisible disabilities
The book cover features the title "Allies: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, and Trying Again" in bold, colourful letters against a white background. The names of the editors, Shakirah Bourne and Dana Alison Levy, are displayed below the title. The design is clean and modern, reflecting the book's focus on contemporary issues of allyship.
Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid By Shayda Kafai
Contnet notes: Ableism, medical trauma, racism, terminal illness, transphobia, and sexual assault.
The book cover features a light blue background adorned with colourful illustrations of butterflies, flowers, and a domestic scene. In the lower right center, a black figure wearing a flowing dress holds a curved walking stick. Behind them is a drawing of a room with a table, chair, pink wall with a window, and a blank wall with an orange picture.
Year of the Tiger: An Activists Life By Alice Wong
Content notes: Ableism, medical content, genocide, death, and body shaming
The cover of Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life has a bold marigold yellow background. A red tiger, styled like a Chinese paper cutting, crouches on the right, baring its teeth with claws extended. The title appears in large black text on the left, with the author’s name, Alice Wong, below. Red flowers are scattered throughout, enhancing the vibrant design.
Care Of: Letters, Connections and Cures By Ivan Coyote
Content notes: addiction, alcoholism, chronic illness, homophobia, transphobia, dementia, death of a parent, dysphoria, and pandemic-related experiences
The book cover are vibrant blue background dotted with water droplets. The title and author name are prominently displayed in bold, uppercase letters.
How to Raise An Antiracist By Ibram X Kendi
Content notes: Racism, systemic discrimination, bias and discussions of historical and contemporary racial injustices.
The cover of "How to Raise an Antiracist" features a clean white background with the title prominently displayed in bold, multicoloured letters. The words "How to Raise" are stacked atop "an Antiracist," creating a visually striking effect. The author's name, Ibram X. Kendi, appears below the title in black font.
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasihna
Content notes: Ableism, suicide, abuse, child sexual assault, police brutality, sexual violence, trauma, and medical dismissal.
The cover of "Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice" features a detailed illustration of a brown figure embracing a complex root system, symbolizing interconnectedness and support. The title appears above the illustration in bold, uppercase letters, with the author's name, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, below.
I Don't Do Disability. And Other Lies I've Told Myself by Adelle Purdham
Content notes: Ableism, medical ableism, gaslighting.
The book cover features blue background with light blue nature themes graphics of various leaf shapes, a horse, mushrooms, rain drops and a waterfowl. Text is bright yellow reads: I don't do disability. And other Lies I've told myself. Adelle Purdham
Movies and Documentaries
Ellie Simmonds: A World Without Dwarfism (screenshot)
Content notes: Ableism, medical dismissal, abuse of power.
Blonde woman of short stature (born with achondroplasia) stands by a roadway.
Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements (trailer)
Content notes: Medicalization, exclusion, audism.
Graphic illustration of a person playing a piano.
Unloved: Huronia’s Forgotten Children (trailer)
Content notes: Institutionalization, abuse, ableism.
Black and white side by side photos of a smiling dark curly haired baby.
Picture This (documentary)
Content notes: Sexual content, ableism.
A pink and white filtered photo of topless disabled man in a powerchair. He slyly smiles at the camera. The documentary title ‘Picture This’ takes up half the frame in lavender all caps.
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (trailer)
Content notes: Ableism, lauguage
Two young folks in the forefront of fielld and camp cabins. A smiling white young person is seated in a manual wheelchair, while a cheerful black young person holds a guitar over their shoulder and leans on a wheelchair handle.
#DanceBreak: Disability Artistry - Widen Embodiment (2 minute video)
A gradient peach to yellow background with a wave line spearating to photo of a black dancer leaning back. Various squiggles in blue and pink freckled along background. Text reads: Lincoln Center Dance Break - Disability Artistry
Who the Hell is Nigel? (documentary)
Content notes: Audism, refrence to pandemic, physical harm.
A person wearing a dusty pink hooded shirt gazes at the camera with a questioning expression, one hand raised slightly as if seeking an answer. The left side of the image features the documentary title in bold, all-caps white text.
Your Fat Friend. A film by Jeanie Finlay (trailer)
Content notes: Fat phobia, hateful language, gaslighting.
A fat woman with a bob haircut looks directly at the camera, wearing a white faux fur jacket with her hands pressed together. The background features a purple-to-pink gradient. White bubble text reads: Your Fat Friend. A film by Jeanie Finlay.
Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family (screenshot)
Content notes: Ableism, medical harm, adoption.
Ellie Simmonds stands on the right side, slightly smiling at the camera. Her blondelength hair rests on her shoulders. The background is blurred purple hues, with white text on the left reading: Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family. The "I" in "Simmonds" is stylized as a tree, with a blurred family photo visible behind it.
Is There Anybody Out There? (trailer)
Content notes: Ableism, medical harm, gaslighting.
Ella Glendining stands facing the camera with a serious expression, wearing all black. Her long, wavy blonde hair falls over her right shoulder. The background is dark grey, all-caps yellow text that reads: Is There Anybody Out There?.
Podcasts
ologies with Alie Ward (podcast)
A podcast cover with a cream-colored background, featuring hand-drawn black-and-white illustrations of various science and nature-related objects, including a beaker, beetle, mushroom, octopus, heart, skull, trilobite, crystal, and molecular structure. The title "ologies" is centered in lowercase letters, with "with Alie Ward" written in a smaller, cursive style beneath it. The design conveys a curiosity-driven, educational theme.
Episodes:
Disability Sociology (Disability Pride) with Guinevere Chambers
Systems Biology (Medical Mathematics) with Emily E. Ackerman
Scratch That: Parenting and Reparenting Off Script with Rebekah Taussig and Caitlin Metz (podcast)
A podcast cover featuring a greyish background with bold, black, all-caps text reading "Scratch That: Parenting & Reparenting Off Script." The typography is dynamic, with varying sizes and orientations. Black stripes are incorporated into the design, adding an artistic and offbeat visual style.
Episodes:
How do we talk about internailzed ableism? (Episode 8 - Nov. 4, 2024)
How does a disabled mum approach parenting her disabled son? A joyful conversation with Nina Tame
(Episode 10 - Nov. 18, 2024)
Lessons from the Playroom with host Lisa Dion (podcast)
A podcast cover with a gradient background transitioning from deep purple to light purple. The text reads "Lessons from the Playroom" in large, elegant font, followed by "With host Lisa Dion" in a smaller, cursive style. Below, "Synergetic Play Therapy Institute®" is written in a formal typeface. A stylized, glowing flower design is positioned in the bottom right corner.
Episode:
Marshall Lyles: Ableism and Disablism in the Playroom (Episode 150 - July 18, 2023)
Bookends with Mattea Roach (podcast)
The design features an artistic arrangement of open books in shades of blue, yellow, and purple against a textured green background. The CBC logo is in the top-left corner, and the podcast title is displayed in bold white and yellow text.
Episode:
Kate Gies: Reclaiming her body after years of medical trauma (Season 1, Episode 23 - February 9, 2025)
The Interview (podcast)
The image is a square podcast cover with a grayscale, abstract background that has a smooth, wavy gradient effect. The title, "The Interview", is displayed in bold white text in the upper left corner. Below the title, in the lower left corner, is the recognizable New York Times logo, a stylized white "T."
Episode:
Ed Yong to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World (February 22, 2025)
Follow, (Un)learn & Amplify
Add nuanced and complex representations of disability and lived perspectives to your feeds.
Ask yourself: Do any problematic disability storylines show up? Do instances of ableism and/or other isms/obias slip through? How many of these folks are intersectional in their identities or messaging?
Lastly, we encourage you to avoid the ableist inclination to contribute to, develop, like and/or share ‘inspiration porn’.