Media roundup: Making disability part of the storyline

By Louise Kinross

I think we need a reminder of some of the great disability representation we're seeing in media. Pixar's short Loop includes an autistic girl who doesn't speak, and was played by autistic actress Madison Bandy. Loop is about two teens—one chatty, the other non-verbal—who need to learn how they each experience the world in order to canoe around a lake. This video includes interviews with the creators and Bandy, who plays Renee.

The Schneider Family Book Awards for 2021 were just announced. The awards recognize books that include a character with a disability for child and teen audiences. One of the winners for the middle-grades books is When Stars Are Scattered By Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. This is how the publisher describes it: "Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care Omar knows his non-verbal brother needs. So when Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future . . . but it would also mean leaving his brother, the only family member he has left, every day."

I haven't read the book, but am delighted to see another depiction of a character who doesn't communicate conventionally.

Also in the middle-grades category for the Schneider award is Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZott, who is a deaf librarian. Here's a description from the publisher: "Mary Lambert has always felt safe and protected on her beloved island of Martha's Vineyard. Her great-great-grandfather was an early English settler and the first deaf islander. Now, over a hundred years later, many people there—including Mary—are deaf, and nearly everyone can communicate in sign language. Mary has never felt isolated." But then "a cunning young scientist has arrived, hoping to discover the origin of the island's prevalent deafness."

A book called What Stars Are Made Of just crossed my desk. It's also for students in middle school. The protagonist, Libby Monroe, 12, has a passion for science and an older sister who is going to make her an aunt. Libby has Turner Syndrome, as does author Sarah Allen. "To all the girls like Libby. I wrote this for you," Allen writes in the dedication.

Sock Guys is a documentary about a man with Down syndrome and his father who run John's Crazy Socks, a successful American sock business that employs many people with disabilities. The film is screening on Feb. 16 as part of a webinar on social enterprises Holland Bloorview is helping to promote. Here's the trailer.