Literature
Alexandra Strick talks to Disability Horizons about her work to make children’s books more inclusive and accessible.
When I was a child, the typical children’s book depicted a white middle-class family with mum at the kitchen sink, and dad coming home from the office to be greeted by their two point five children.
I am not here to secure your pity or your compassion.
I am here to show you that because of disability I am here, because of the discrimination and prejudice I have experienced. I am here because on occasion I have been overlooked because of my disability.
My abilities have been, and are, still ignored because some cannot see past a perceived physical imperfection, which in truth is a social construction. I didn’t invent stairs. If I did that would defy my own logic.
I have a confession. I would say a secret, if it wasn’t for the fact I’ve divulged it to others with a not insubstantial amount of self-satisfaction. I’m not confessing something I’ve done – quite the opposite. I’ve not partaken in this particular activity for, at a rough guess, the best part of a decade. For much of the time before that, I was young and fortunate enough to have someone do it for me. So here goes: ironing.
Fog. Fog That is what I remember Fog. It was actually snowing when he was born But I remember fog. Our hopes and dreams shattered Normal family life lost In that fog.
The next 6 months So many questions but no answers In that fog. Appointment after appointment but nothing was clear Just fog. Prying, nosiness, tests, who was to blame? No help but fog.
Three years later the fog turned to mist But still no-one explained Guilt. Negligence. Results. Out they all came Even then, it was not clear Mist.
Have you stuck to your new year resolutions? I wonder how many of us got further than the list of possible changes we wanted to make and put them into action? If your changes were big ones this could be the problem.
Our brain chemistry reacts to big changes with the “fight-or-flight” response. This means that our brain panics and reboots before any change can occur but there are ways you can tip-toe around this resistance.
Why is it when we grow old,
that we have to get so hairy?
It's not even something that we're told,
and to be honest it's getting quite scary.
I never used to pluck so much,
in fact I never did,
but at least I can't now see my crutch,
so at least that areas hid.
It takes me forever, to pluck away,
all the hairs that now grow on my face.
But it's the only way I can keep them at bay,
and appear that I still have some grace.
No one tells you how you’ll feel,
When the world outside becomes so real,
When you’re all grown up with decisions to make,
No one tells you they’ll be people who’ll take.
No one tells you be careful with your mind,
Or that one day you’ll be much less than kind,
When you’re all grown up with decisions to make,
No one tells you that you’ll feel like a fake.
I have just finished reading Fierce, the autobiography of Kelly Osbourne, and I have to say that it is one of the best books I have read to date. In it, Kelly talks openly and honestly about growing up with a Father who was one of the most famous addicts on the British rock music circuit, and the stigma that therefore came with ‘being an Osbourne’. She explains how, when the family moved to Los Angeles in 2001, it was the first time that she became aware how famous her Father was, and that this by right, made her a celebrity herself.
