Written by Rebecca Quinones, Materials Selection Librarian, and Kelly Sheehy, Content Specialist, Downtown Main Library
December 3 is International Day of People with Disabilities – first established in 1992 by the United Nations. Here at the Library, we recognize the importance of equitable access and visibility for all of our county’s citizens.
While we are working hard on ensuring that all of our locations are welcome and easy-to-access spaces for all as we embark on our Building the Next Generation Library, opens a new window initiative, our collection has a variety of materials featuring people with both visible and invisible disabilities.
We hope that, whether you identify as part of this community or not, you browse through these materials, and others like them, to learn about and de-stigmatize disabilities. As disability justice activist Mia Mingus underscores, “I am not something to be fixed or cured or erased or hidden away. I am not a burden or tragic or something to take pity on.”
What could be better than a book about a dog who loves books and hates goodbyes? Moose, an energetic mutt, hates it when Zara goes off in her wheelchair to school, so he insists on joining her—in the classroom, the library, and the cafeteria (the latter leads to a hilarious game of tag). What to do? Dog therapy school provides the answer, and Moose becomes an official reading buddy.
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