HOUSTON – Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner joins Texas Governor Abbott and officials from other states to proclaim April 23 – 29 as “Disability Book Week,” highlighting authors worldwide with disabilities. The initiative also includes books that have a leading character with a disability shown in a positive way.
It will be hosted in schools and public libraries throughout the state of Texas and beyond, in the hopes to bring awareness to the diversity within the disability community.
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Books have been submitted to a panel over the last three months by authors with disabilities worldwide. Each book read had a review written that is posted to Instagram and Facebook so that individuals, as well as librarians, can look for books about specific disabilities.
The panelists include: a twelve-year-old deaf-blind girl with dyslexia; an adult with severe, spastic, paraplegic Cerebral Palsy; a disabled veteran and two-time published author; a board member and co-chair at the National Family Association for Deaf-Blind; and nine other panelists who have backgrounds in disability advocacy.
The director of Disability Book Week, Mary Mecham, is also a panelist. Mecham, along with her husband and three children, reside in Houston. Two of her children have a rare genetic disability. She is an IEP coach, speaker, and a three-time published author. Mecham’s disability advocacy reaches the local, state, and federal levels.
For more information on Disability Book Week, how to submit a book for review, or how to request your public or school library to participate – visit www.DisabilityBookWeek.org