15 Best Books by Disabled Authors (or with Disabled Characters) to Add Your TBR List

It’s Disability Pride Month, a relatively new holiday that began in 2015 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The greeting card aisle, corporate sponsorships and general awareness may not have caught on just yet, but there’s a lot of us to celebrate. An estimated one in four adults in the United States lives with some form of disability, according to the CDC. That number’s likely a little low, since it doesn’t necessarily account for those who live with chronic illness, mental illness or other forms of disability that aren’t often recognized as such even by the people they impact.

Disability isn’t a tragedy or a trauma; it’s an important part of many people’s identity. That’s why many members of the community prefer the term “disabled person” (also called identity-first language) instead of “person with a disability,” (or person-first language), just like you would say “LGBTQ+ person” instead of “person with LGBTQ+.” Terminology aside, reading books by disabled authors or that feature disabled characters is an excellent way to gain insight into disabled peoples’ experiences and remind us all that our society is beautiful in all its diversity. Here are some of our favorite books to add to your TBR pile.

The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me