We celebrate Black History Month with the aim of uniting and uplifting the Black community. Our intention is to acknowledge the significant contributions of Black individuals to American society, to amplify the important work being done by the Black and disabled community, and to highlight that historic oppression is amplified in the multiply marginalized.
Below, explore recommended books, podcasts, and audiobooks that highlight disabled and African American talent, plus additional resources you can use.
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Books
Access Your Drive and Enjoy the Ride: A Guide to Achieving Your Dreams from a Person with a Disability (Life Fulfilling Tools for Disabled People)
by Lauren “Lolo” Spencer
Lauren “Lolo” Spencer provides a candid and real inside look into the life of being a person with a disability. This disability advocate embarks on the importance of visibility for the disabled community because representation matters!
Words from someone doing the work. Lolo Spencer gained popularity as a YouTube personality. On her platform, Sitting Pretty, she encourages viewers to achieve their dreams through making strong choices. Lolo shares how she navigates daily life with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
You are more than your limits. Choosing to see herself as more than a person with a disability and wheelchair user, Lolo chooses to live a bold and courageous life now because representation matters. She created this intersectional guide to provide tools for people with disabilities to thrive in personal growth, independence, and community building. Add this guide to your list of inclusion books!
Blackness and Disability: Critical Examinations and Cultural Interventions
by Christopher M. Bell
This book is a collection of essays covering topics of representation in slavery and violence, deconstruction of illness such as cancer and AIDS, treatments of the disabled in hip-hop, and commentary on disability, blackness, and war. This book sheds light on the misrepresentation of Black disabled bodies and shows the historical lines of demarcation that need challenging.
Hooded: A Black Girl’s Guide to the Ph.D.
by Dr. Malika Grayson
“In Hooded, Dr. Malika Grayson offers an account of surviving and thriving as a doctoral candidate in STEM. Written for those who have never seen themselves represented in their chosen career, Hooded provides practical survival strategies, mental health tips, and ideas for creating community and leaving a lasting legacy.”
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law
by Haben Girma
Haben documents the story of the first deaf and blind graduate of Harvard Law School, tracing her refugee parents’ harrowing experiences in the Eritrea-Ethiopian war and her development of innovations that enabled her remarkable achievements.
The Pretty One
by Keah Brown
“From the disability rights advocate and creator of the #DisabledAndCute viral campaign, a thoughtful, inspiring, and charming collection of essays exploring what it means to be black and disabled in a mostly able-bodied white America.”
Nelson Beats the Odds
by Rodney Sidney II
Nelson Beats the Odds explores the author’s struggles with learning disabilities through a story that inspires resiliency and empowerment.
Cultivating the Genius of Black Children: Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap in the Early Years
by Debra Ren-Etta Sullivan
The author combines research and experience to provide a resource-filled book that tells of the disconnect between learning preferences and learning environments for minority students—especially those of African American descent. The book is designed to help early childhood educators increase cultural intelligence and expand their tools for supporting children.
Disabilities of the Color Line: Redressing Antiblackness from Slavery to the Present
by Dennis Tyler
Through both law and custom, the color line has cast Black people as innately disabled and thus unfit for freedom, incapable of self-governance, and contagious within the national body politic. Disabilities of the Color Line maintains that the Black literary tradition historically has inverted this casting by exposing the disablement of racism without disclaiming disability.
Podcasts
Power Not Pity
Power Not Pity is a podcast that centers and celebrates the lived experiences of disabled people of color. Two seasons are currently available. In season 2, the podcast will spend time exploring the worlds of people in our community who dare to interrogate the dominant narrative of what survival feels like for a disabled person of color during these trying times. They all demonstrate what it means to thrive fully and authentically.
Audiobooks
Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw: Reimagining Success as a Disabled Achiever
by Eddie Ndopu
Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare degenerative motor neuron disease affecting his mobility. He was told that he wouldn’t live beyond age five and yet, Ndopu thrived. He grew up loving pop music, lip syncing the latest hits, and watching The Bold and the Beautiful for the haute couture. Ndopu was the only wheelchair user at his school where he flourished academically. By his late teens, he had become a sought-after speaker, traveling the world to address audiences about disability justice.
Resources
The Basics of Online Accessibility
25% of American adults have a disability. On this page, learn about the basic steps anyone can take to make their online content more accessible to them.
Equity and Inclusion Resources
Diversity, equity, equality and inclusion is more of a journey than a destination. We can always learn more to fight implicit bias and to advance progress. This page has many helpful resources that you can use in your journey.
