Kretschmar Museum of Disability

Okay I should preface this by saying that I did my BA in Disability Studues in the US so my curriculum was very American-focused, therefore, most of these books are American-focused as well. Also, Disability Studues as a field is interdisciplinary which means it encompasses a wide range of fields (science, medicine, sociology, history, etc)—I'm trained as a historian so a few of these books will be disability history. I could actually do a whole list that's just books on disability history, but for now, the books on this list will be all different sectors of Disability Studies.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but this list includes the books that I read as part of my BA + a few other books that are just personal favorites.

Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau

What Can a Body Do? by Sara Hendren

Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew

Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design by Beth Williamson

The Double Bind of Disability: How Medical Technology Shapes Bodily Authority by Rebecca Monteleone (Becca was one of my professors for my BA, she's an expert on everything disability and technology)

A Disability History of the United States by Kim Nielsen (Kim was another one of my undergrad professors; she's one of the world's leading experts on US disability history)

Black Disability Politics by Sami Schalk (this book is open access—if you search the title on scholar.google.com you can find a free PDF of the whole book)

Staring by Rosemarie Garland-Thompson (another leading scholar in Disability Studies)

There are so many more books in the field of Disability Studies that I have yet to read; I could continually update this list. A great resource is the New Books Network Disability Studies podcast. Just search "new books network disability studies" wherever you get your podcasts—every episode is an interview with a different author who has published a book in the field of Disability Studies.

On the day after the Fourth of July in 1978, a group of young disabled people blocked two city buses at one of the busiest intersections in downtown Denver – to declare their right to live independently. The Gang of 19, as they'd be called, demanded that the city install wheelchair lifts on more than 200 newly-ordered buses, so they could ride public transit. The protest lasted some 24 hours. At night, some of the protesters got out of their wheelchairs and slept on the hard asphalt. It was an act of civil disobedience that got little attention at the time and has now been largely forgotten. But those people with disabilities secured wheelchair access on Denver buses and eventually helped spur a nationwide movement.

the earliest evidence we have of human society is a healed femur. we have found remains of people of all ages who lived with disabilities that would've required constant care— in a time when we were nomadic hunter-gatherers dodging predatory megafauna. there are countless artifacts that reflect rudimentary splints and possibly even mobility aids.

now elderly and disabled people are left to die in abusive surroundings and no one cares. autistic people are shunned and ostracized for being themselves.

In my opinion, art is preserved for disabled people. It's our place to be. We don't need a toxic tool to be both disabled and artists, we have always been here. Gen AI doesn't help disabled people to get included in the world that was closed from them otherwise. That's the point of disability accommodations: to help us be a part of the society.

And art itself is that accommodation! That's why art therapy is a thing, and that's why we have art made by intellectually disabled people, and that's why artists continued to paint while they were in the mental hospitals. The process of creation is the accomo that helps disabled people to be valued by society, to feel included, to earn their living.

So I'll start on my favorite disabled artist:

Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec

Toulouse-Lautrec was a French post-impressionist, and his art provides a unique perspective of life he had: he depicted people ugly in terms of conventional beauty, but the feeling, the dynamic of his works is rad.

Are you bothered with your second chin? Your big cheeks, your crooked legs? Don't you worry, Monsieur Toulouse-Lautrec would draw you a hundred times worse than you are and you would still look great.

Because humans are great. We can't do anything with it, we are social creatures, and for us other humans will always be the best company. There's nobody else who suits us better than other humans, who can get us, see us, love us and be loved by us.

Charisma and action is what makes Toulouse-Lautrec's characters amazing. You know how it's hard to caption a person's beauty in a static picture? You see them as the most gorgeous creature ever been on earth, but their photos don't show how charming they are. Because photography is too literal. That's why we need painting.

Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec was amazing draughtsman and printmaker. The modern art of posters and advertising owes him a lot. And I'd say that animation took a lot from him too.

Henry was a child of a very inbred family, which resulted in his disability. What we know for sure is that he got both legs broken at the age of 13-14, and it didn't heal properly. He broke femurs, or the thigh bones, the longest, the strongest and the thickest bones in the human body. His bones were really fragile.

His alleged diagnosis is either pycnodysostosis (Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome), osteopetrosis, achondroplasia, or osteogenesis imperfecta. Because of his condition, Henry could not participate in the society as a proper aristocrat, the son his father Count Alphonse wanted him to be. Henry was an outcast of his own class, so he vibed with the lower class folks, like sex workers, washwomen, performers from Moulin Rouge. If he lived today, he would love drag queens and kings, I'm sure.

The Fight of Our Lives by David Levithan; Gabriel Duckels:

Award-winning author David Levithan and University of Cambridge PhD Gabriel Duckels detail a history of the epidemic, touching on key moments and figures. Threaded throughout are poems, essays, and first-person interviews to reminder us:

We must remember. We need to know what happened and why. Our voices are powerful, and they can make a difference. …

History often records the spectacular triumphs of medicine and power. For generations people have shared the legend of an ancient Chinese medical procedure in the year 390 AD, where a surgeon purportedly performed a successful cleft lip repair on a patient who eventually rose to become a powerful Governor General. These stories of elite miracles and prominent historical figures easily capture the…

From research at the Library of Congress to theatre access and operational protocol, from my historical training at the University of Edinburgh to her absurdist observational writing, Kelsey Maurine Brickl remains interested in how institutions interpret evidence, narrate harm, and respond when abstract values are tested by concrete realities.

That question has shaped her work in history, disability and access writing, criticism, and screenwriting alike. She is especially interested in the point where administration, ethics, public narrative, and lived human experience converge, because that is often where institutional character becomes most visible.