Would you like to contribute a post or review? Fantastic! We are always looking for new content, so we’d be thrilled to have you.
All our contributors must be disabled. As much as we appreciate people with an interest in disability due to having a disabled spouse, child, sibling, student, etc., we ask that you respect this guideline. “Nothing about us without us,” as the disability rights saying goes!
We understand that self-identification can be tricky. Sometimes people don’t consider their condition a disability, while others prefer to use different terms. For our purposes, we have a pretty flexible definition, which includes physical disabilities, chronic conditions, and mental illnesses. We’ve featured content about disabilities ranging from muscular dystrophy to ADHD, from Crohn’s disease to amputation, and from bipolar disorder to deafness. Talk to us if you have questions.
We also understand that sometimes disabilities prevent you from writing your own posts. We have no problem with a relative or friend helping you with your post, or perhaps interviewing you if that works best. We’d just like to ask these helpful souls to refrain from editorial commentary.
We would like people to only review/write about a condition they personally have, or have had in the past. It’s difficult drawing lines here sometimes. Similar disabilities can manifest differently–see for example the wide range of people on the autism spectrum–or different disabilities can manifest similarly–for example, different conditions that both lead to people using mobility devices such as a cane or wheelchair. Mental illnesses can diverge and overlap in similar ways.
We ask people to use their common sense. If it’s a disability you feel qualified to write about based on your own experiences, it’s probably fine. Check with us if you want to make sure.
We’d like to extend an explicit invitation to disabled teenagers, people with rare disabilities, and disabled people who also belong to other marginalized groups, including people of color and trans/queer people. We receive few submissions from men and we’d be interested in seeing more.
When you contact us, please make sure to mention your disability. We genuinely hate to harp on this, or to police anyone’s identity, but we regularly receive submissions from non-disabled people. We’d like to skip that awkward step of, “So … uh … are you disabled?” Thank you for understanding!
Thanks so much for your interest. We hope to feature you in our next post!
Disability in Kidlit 