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DisAbility Awareness Library Guide

October is National DisAbility Awareness Month. This guide contains links to books, movies, and other resources in honor of DisAbility Awareness Month.

Recommended Free Websites

 

  • College Resources for Students with Disabilities

    With the advances of adaptive technologies and trend toward progressive legislation, prospective college students with disabilities now have countless resources available to make their transition to postsecondary education less stressful. Below, find specific information and resources to help.

  • Totally ADD

    This website is devoted to serving adults with ADD via education, humor and social interaction. The organization also seeks to provide tools and support.

  • The Arc: Autism Now

    The National Autism Resource and Information Center will be a dynamic and interactive, highly visible, and effective central point of quality resources and information for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities, their families, and other targeted key stakeholders.

  • Learning Disabilities Association of America

    Learning Disabilities Association of America
    This national organization provides support, advocacy, legislative policy initiatives and educational resources. The website also features an “Ask the Expert” function for those seeking answers about learning disabilities.

  • American Hearing Research Foundation

    Those looking to learn more about hearing impairments will find the AHRF very useful. The organization has two primary functions: to fund research in hearing and balance disorders and to educate the general public on hearing loss and issues related to balance.

  • Better Hearing

    The focus of this nonprofit is educating both the public and the medical world on hearing impairment and best practice for treatment. The organization also has a free Hearing Helpline to provide education and information on the topic.

  • Disabilities-R-Us

    Disabilities-R-Us provides an online chat room, community resources and various platforms for engaging with others experiencing physical disabilities.

  • The American Association on Health and Disability

    AAHD offers a comprehensive resource center, the Disability and Health Journal, and a list of publications designed to educate and raise awareness.

  • American Association on Health and Disability

    AADD provides an in-depth look at each of the common disorders, including apraxia, dysarthria, stuttering, and aphasia.

  • American Foundation for the Blind

    AFB cultivates in-depth knowledge that improves understanding of issues affecting children and adults who are blind or visually impaired, to facilitate meaningful change that fosters equality and inclusion. To achieve this we:
    Promote and engage in research with wide-scale impact
    Develop and share knowledge
    Pursue strategic relationships with those who can accelerate change in every area of society, including work and school

  • National Federation of the Blind

    As the largest organization representing those with visual impairments in America, NFB operates both on the national level and through local chapters in every state.

  • Disability Rights California
  • Information on this page is organized by topic for other advocates, facilities, organizations, and the public to learn more about our work and recommendation on specific issues.
  • National Resource Center on ADHD
  • The NRC falls under the umbrella of CHADD, but provides an extensive and independent list of resources for those who have ADD and/or ADHD.
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Podcast, Blogs, TED Talks, Comics

 

  • BBC's Ouch: Disability Talk Podcasts

    The place where the real disability talk happens. Interviews, life hacks, and things you don't say out loud. With Simon Minty, Kate Monaghan, and the Ouch team.

  • TED Talk - Deaf in the Military

    Keith Nolan always wanted to join the United States military. The challenge: He is Deaf, which is an automatic disqualification according to military rules. In this talk, he describes his fight to fight for his country. (In American Sign Language, with real-time translation.)

  • TED Talk - Deep Sea Diving in a Wheelchair

    When Sue Austin got a power wheelchair, she felt a tremendous sense of freedom -- yet others looked at her as though she had lost something. In her art, she conveys the spirit of wonder she feels wheeling through the world. Includes thrilling footage of an underwater wheelchair that lets her explore ocean beds, drifting through schools of fish, floating free in 360 degrees.

  • TED Talk - Embrace the Shake

    In art school, Phil Hansen developed an unruly tremor in his hand that kept him from creating the pointillist drawings he loved. Hansen was devastated, floating without a sense of purpose. Until a neurologist made a simple suggestion: embrace this limitation ... and transcend it.

  • TED Talk - I'm Not Your Inspiration, Thank You Very Much

    Stella Young is a comedian and journalist who happens to go about her day in a wheelchair — a fact that doesn't, she'd like to make clear, automatically turn her into a noble inspiration to all humanity. In this very funny talk, Young breaks down society's habit of turning disabled people into "inspiration porn."

  • The Spectrum

    Learn more about how neurodiverse people navigate their environment and engage with others in a broadly neurotypical world