View in EDS HTML Full Text PDF Full Text

Exploring a Disability Justice Generation with Youth-Authored Disability Texts

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: Exploring a Disability Justice Generation with Youth-Authored Disability Texts
Language: English
Authors: Carlyn Mueller (ORCID 0000-0002-7834-3180), Tanushree Sarkar
Source: Exceptional Children. 2026 92(4):524-543.
Availability: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 20
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Elementary Education
Secondary Education
Descriptors: Elementary Secondary Education, Elementary School Curriculum, Secondary School Curriculum, Disabilities, Youth, Authors, Reader Text Relationship, Intersectionality, Interpersonal Relationship, Civil Rights Legislation, Federal Legislation, Social Justice, Social Influences, Reading Material Selection, Disproportionate Representation, Literature Reviews
Laws, Policies and Program Identifiers: Americans with Disabilities Act 1990
DOI: 10.1177/00144029251386280
ISSN: 0014-4029
2163-5560
Abstract: Literary works authored by youth with disabilities provide insightful perspectives on their lived experiences, understanding of disability community, and processes of disability identity development. In this paper, we respond to the question raised by Erevelles et al. (2019), "What would curriculum studies look like if disabled people re-imagined the curriculum?" (p. 358) by examining literature written by disabled youth. We propose the existence of a disability justice generation whose perspectives are crucial to consider with the K-12 curriculum, particularly to extend existing notions of justice within education. Nine texts written by disabled youth about their lived experiences were analyzed to learn about their perceptions of disability and disability identity. The texts were analyzed using a disability justice framework. Results indicated that texts highlight the importance of the disability community and meaning-making related to disability identity. Intersectionality and the interdependence of their relationships with their peers with disabilities, educators, and families were important themes across the texts. Results highlight the rich and meaningful experiences of disabled youth, and we consider what stories of and by disabled youth can offer to curricula.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1508193
Database: ERIC
Full text is not displayed to guests.
FullText Links:
  – Type: pdflink
    Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwGSP7e6DHaTbOt1Zxy89YSPAAAA4zCB4AYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHSMIHPAgEAMIHJBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDFSk8MqJ-ZzptVjLfgIBEICBm37Qzetv0HHCS7TaLhJCnz9hQfuLuWx2oCs9H93jZLk0En10FHyeiYQz8HyJqQ8pEDLtLKzuY3haU5rMUPUyCTnUo72T-tdh2ADTyyGssiczD47lN9LJ2KQpZjNF2C54LRzC8Rdaiq4iaH_VbpIh4cSNhkgj_xXeBsMlHhmsBOsnvlPlOC_xvgfeDp-C7gmsJ0X2ythneL_C4-7E
Text:
  Availability: 1
  Value: <anid>AN0194392922;exc01jul.26;2026Jun10.02:32;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0194392922-1">Exploring a Disability Justice Generation With Youth-Authored Disability Texts </title> <p>Literary works authored by youth with disabilities provide insightful perspectives on their lived experiences, understanding of disability community, and processes of disability identity development. In this paper, we respond to the question raised by Erevelles et al. (2019) , "What would curriculum studies look like if disabled people re-imagined the curriculum?" (p. 358) by examining literature written by disabled youth. We propose the existence of a disability justice generation whose perspectives are crucial to consider with the K–12 curriculum, particularly to extend existing notions of justice within education. Nine texts written by disabled youth about their lived experiences were analyzed to learn about their perceptions of disability and disability identity. The texts were analyzed using a disability justice framework. Results indicated that texts highlight the importance of the disability community and meaning-making related to disability identity. Intersectionality and the interdependence of their relationships with their peers with disabilities, educators, and families were important themes across the texts. Results highlight the rich and meaningful experiences of disabled youth, and we consider what stories of and by disabled youth can offer to curricula.</p> <p>Keywords: disability studies in education; culturally sustaining pedagogy; learner identity</p> <p>Dismantling and challenging ableism in educational contexts requires reckoning with how the curriculum engages with, recognizes, and represents the experiences and lives of disabled people, particularly disabled youth ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref1">4</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref2">16</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref3">19</reflink>]). In examining curricula, we focus on the stories and narratives that educate young people about the past, the present, and the future ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref4">4</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref5">38</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref6">48</reflink>]). Crucially, this raises questions about curricular justice ([<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref7">38</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref8">48</reflink>])—an explicit invocation of the social justice goals of the curriculum that engage with tensions between hegemonic knowledge or dominant narratives and the perspectives and knowledge systems of marginalized communities. Stories of (and by) disabled people, and disabled youth in particular, are largely absent from the curriculum ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref9">4</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref10">16</reflink>]).</p> <p>Stories play an important role in identity development ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref11">4</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref12">32</reflink>]); stories individuals narrate about their lives have implications for their developmental trajectories, mental health, and well-being. Little is known about the impact of lack of disability representation for disabled youth, although it is likely to inhibit connection with disability identity and community ([<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref13">42</reflink>]).</p> <p>In light of these absences, we consider what stories of and by disabled youth can offer to the curriculum, and to teacher preparation curriculum. We draw on the notion of disability as meta-curriculum ([<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref14">19</reflink>]), and explore the implications of an intersectional examination of disability, and we question dominant ideas of normativity within the curriculum. In this paper, we respond to the question raised by [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref15">19</reflink>], "What would curriculum studies look like if disabled people re-imagined the curriculum?" (p. 358) by examining literature written by disabled youth.</p> <p>We consider reimagining the curriculum in the context of a new generation of youth, born after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref16">2</reflink>]) and during the beginnings of the movement for disability justice (as a compliment and critique of the disability rights movement), who began to consider their own experiences, write about them, and publish books. We explore the importance of disability identity in children's literature, particularly the experiences of a new "disability justice" generation, and the ways that focusing on youth-authored media as a legitimate source of both knowledge generation and curricular tool might foster intersectional change for disabled youth. We recognize that the ADA as a legislated guarantor of civil rights for disabled people is not analogous to a burgeoning activist movement like disability justice. However, it is important to note that the ADA was a result of a longstanding social movement beginning in the 1960s ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref17">18</reflink>]) culminating in the Capitol Crawl three decades later. Thus, our attempt at engaging with texts authored by disabled youth in the aftermath of the disability justice movement is to engage with transforming conceptions of justice, rights, and belonging for disabled people ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref18">3</reflink>]).</p> <p>Within inclusive education, there is an increasing push towards understanding educational justice in intersectional ways ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref19">3</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref20">36</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref21">56</reflink>]). Justice-driven inclusive education ([<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref22">56</reflink>]) focuses on "(a) redistribution of meaningful learning opportunities; (b) recognition and valuing of differences in content, pedagogy, and assessment; and (c) representation of marginalized groups in decision-making processes." ([<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref23">36</reflink>], p. 3). An examination of curricular justice that centers disability, or draws on disability justice, questions individualized approaches to disability and the challenges the stability of disability as a category ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref24">30</reflink>]). As disability justice activist and writer Leah-Lakhsmi Piepzna-Samarasinha notes, "we won't be grateful to be included; we will want to set the agenda" ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref25">46</reflink>], p. 103). In this paper, we engage with the ways disabled youth, writing about disability, offer a new agenda towards reimagining curricular justice for themselves and their future peers.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-2">ADA Generation and Disability Justice Generation</hd> <p>While all people with disabilities have a disability identity, the development and context in which individuals understand this identity differs based on many factors ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref26">13</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref27">26</reflink>]). One factor discussed in the literature is the social context surrounding disability: that is, broader attitudes and perspectives that shape people's internal understanding of their own disability ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref28">22</reflink>]). Social contexts shape identity through laws, policies and procedures that govern what is possible for people with disabilities, including engaging in public life (i.e., accessible transportation, community living, employment, parenthood, etc.). The major landmark legislation that provided access and identity for people with disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities Act, produced such a large shift in the way people with disabilities were seen and understood themselves, that activist and disability leader Rebecca Cokely (in her capacity as Program Coordinator for the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth) coined the term "the ADA generation." The ADA generation describes the group of people with disabilities who were in K-12 schooling when the ADA was signed and who subsequently came of age in a context where "they expect the law to guarantee, not just promise, that they will get access to public life and opportunities" (Shapiro, 2020, n.p.). Being a member of the ADA generation had particular effects on identity development and disability culture. This generation values independence, social justice, and giving back to others as core disability cultural values ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref29">21</reflink>]) and places a high importance on internal disability acceptance alongside engagement with the disability community ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref30">23</reflink>]). Children's literature like the picture book <emph>All the Way to the Top</emph> ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref31">7</reflink>])<emph>,</emph> depicts the ADA generation from the perspective of Jennifer Keelan, an 8-year old who participated in the Capitol Crawl in 19903.</p> <p>While the ADA was a major legislative achievement that undeniably altered the way disability was understood and accepted, there are several important reasons why a new model of identity, or a new "generation," is warranted in this moment to understand the experiences and shared values of disabled youth today. First, almost 35 years has passed from the passage of the ADA. The 'ADA' generation is well into adulthood and participation in public life. Second, major shifts in national conversations about social and racial justice require renewed understanding of how disability intersects with other identities both inside and outside of school contexts. National attention to police brutality and systemic racism since the 2010's necessarily involved disability, since Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Keith Lamont Scott, and other Black people who died as a result of police violence during this decade were also disabled (Lewis, 2017) and half of all people killed by police have a disability ([<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref32">41</reflink>]). The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the intertwined impacts of ableism and systemic racism on medical rationing, and eugenics during what some have called a mass-disabling event (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref33">37</reflink>]). Clearly, there is a need to narrate and understand the ways that youth growing up in this cultural moment understand disability, and the impact of an increased focus on racial justice (and its intersections with disability) in the school curriculum.</p> <p>One major movement that occurred in response to the ADA generation and its values is the disability justice movement. Disability justice was born from conversations between disabled queer women of color activists Patty Berne, Mia Mingus, and Stacy Park Milbern. The disability justice movement critiqued disability rights approaches "not inherently centralizing the needs and experiences of folks experiencing intersectional oppression," such as disabled people of color; immigrants with disabilities; and queer, trans, and gender non-conforming disabled people ([<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref34">52</reflink>]). Disability justice shifted the lens from physical access in public life towards eradicating the forces of white supremacy, capitalism and ableism that limited access in the first place. The disability justice movement shifted not only the shared understanding of disability culture as an intersectional experience, but the disability activism centering multiply marginalized disabled people. Disability justice as a guiding framework through which a new generation of youth understands disability understands themselves differs from the ADA generation's understanding of disability in a few important ways. First, the problems ostensibly "solved," or at least identified, through civil rights legislation like the ADA persist after its passage. While the ADA banned workplace discrimination, for example, just 31 percent of working age people with disabilities held jobs in 2022 ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref35">15</reflink>]). Disability justice, in conversation with the solutions put forth in the ADA and other disability rights legislation, shifts the lens from legislative solutions to ongoing problems for disability community, to a more critical lens on activism and historical movements for justice.</p> <p>In this paper, we explore the writing of youth in K-12 schooling in 2015, when the tenets of disability justice were published by Sins Invalid, who both receive the access benefits of the ADA generation <emph>and</emph> are exposed to more expansive conversations about intersectional oppression and identity. We are interested in the potential ways a new generational marker, the "disability justice generation" of youth, understand disability itself.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-3">Theoretical Framework: Disability Justice, First-Person Perspectives, and Representation in C...</hd> <p>The principles of disability justice ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref36">8</reflink>]) offer away of understanding the experiences of disability community. The principles re-center activism and solutions on disability at its intersections, including principles focused on Recognizing Wholeness, Leadership of the Most Impacted and Intersectionality, where disability is shaped by other aspects of identity and by historical moments, which means that people of color with disabilities, and others impacted by multiple oppressions, should lead disability activism and community development ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref37">8</reflink>], p. 227). Other principles contextualize ways that disability justice focuses on the expansiveness of disability community: including a Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity, Interdependence, Collective Access, and Collective Liberation. These principles focus on the experiences of Black and Brown queer disabled people and center their expertise and leadership to be inclusive of many different disability identities. Most significantly, disability justice principles include an Anti-Capitalist Politic and Cross-Movement Solidarity: this framing of the disability experience includes a structural and systemic critique of the ways that queer disabled people of color were never served by a system that promotes "private wealth accumulation for some at the expense of others," and a "normative level of production" ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref38">8</reflink>], p. 227).</p> <p>In educational research, disability justice offers important concepts to ensure that the experiences and knowledge of disabled people and youth become sources of "knowledge building" ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref39">11</reflink>], p. 6). This involves challenging the segregation between research in special education and other forms of educational research ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref40">11</reflink>]), which offers two options - either viewing disabled youth from a medicalized and pathologized perspective or viewing disabled youth as less than or deviant from "the myth of the normal child" ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref41">5</reflink>]). Following [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref42">11</reflink>] and drawing on principles of disabled justice ([<reflink idref="bib58" id="ref43">58</reflink>]), our analysis of texts authored by disabled youth is an attempt at "epistemic (de) centering" ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref44">11</reflink>], p. 10) to engage with the perspective of multiply marginalized disabled youth and challenge normative notions of worth, smartness, and ability within educational research.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-4">First Person Perspectives and Representation of Disability in Classroom Literature</hd> <p>Disability studies scholars have long discussed the importance of first-person perspectives in understanding the disability experience ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref45">17</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref46">40</reflink>]). [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref47">20</reflink>] notes that these forms of disability "life writing," or autobiographical narratives, are a form of social critique. They "do cultural work" of talking back to dominant narratives of disability and re-centering societal narratives on real, embodied experiences ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref48">27</reflink>]).</p> <p>Previous studies also note the importance of children's books in promoting understanding of difference and disability as diversity (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref49">9</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref50">28</reflink>]). Children's literature has the power to disrupt "single stories" of identity ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref51">1</reflink>]) and provide "mirrors and windows" ([<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref52">10</reflink>]) for children to see themselves reflected in texts ([<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref53">55</reflink>]). These "mirrors and windows" include authentic multicultural representations in children's literature (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref54">24</reflink>]), and ongoing controversies around the definition and limits of "authenticity" in representation (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref55">14</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref56">57</reflink>]). We extend this research by analyzing texts written by youth authors with disabilities and consider them in the context of identity development for youth.</p> <p>The inclusion of disability in K-12 curricula is not just crucial for children with disabilities. Disability is an important aspect of diversity and intersects with race, gender, class and other social identities in school ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref57">33</reflink>]). Including disability in K-12 curricula challenges negative attitudes and stereotypes associated with disability. Crucially, disability in the curriculum contributes to anti-ableist education ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref58">6</reflink>]). Ableism refers to "a system of assigning value to people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness. These constructed ideas are deeply rooted in eugenics, anti-Blackness, misogyny, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism." (Lewis, 2022). This definition specifies that one does not "have to be disabled to experience ableism." That is, undoing ableism, through disability representation in the curriculum, is likely to make contributions to children with and without disabilities.Methods</p> <p>In this study, our team of three disabled researchers analyzed how youth authors discuss experiences of disability, disability identity, and sense of disability community in their texts in relationship to their broader generational and social understanding of disability, using texts that reflect themes of disability justice. To collect available books that were authored by youth with disabilities, we conducted a search with three phases. First, with the support of librarians at the [university library children's book center], we began by searching children's literature awards and databases. We utilized the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database to search for books about disability that were published by authors under the age of 18. Then, we hand searched popular media lists of books about disability (ie., Disability in Kidlit, We Need Diverse Books) to find books by authors who were under the age of 18. Finally, we solicited disability activists and self-published authors on social media to suggest texts not included in our initial search. We included a book in our list if the author and characters both had a disability, and the author was school-aged during or after the creation of the disability justice principles in 2015 (Table 1). We did not exclude any texts based on genre, specific topic, format (e.g., graphic novel, picture books). Our search phases returned a total of 10 youth-authored texts about disability. While not necessarily exhaustive, our search strategy represents the first attempted collection of these texts for analysis.</p> <p>Table 1. Youth Authored Texts About Disability.</p> <p>Graph</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><colgroup><col align="left" /><col align="left" /><col align="left" /><col align="left" /><col align="left" /><col align="left" /></colgroup><thead><tr><th align="left">Title</th><th align="left">Synopsis</th><th align="left">Disability of Author</th><th align="left">Race of Author</th><th align="left">Age at Publishing</th><th align="left">Year Published</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><italic>Can You See Me</italic></td><td>Things Tally is dreading about sixth grade: Being in classes without her best friends; new (scratchy) uniforms; hiding her autism. Tally isn't ashamed of being autistic—even if it complicates life sometimes, it's part of who she is. But this is her first year at Kingswood Academy, and her best friend, Layla, is the only one who knows. And while a lot of other people are uncomfortable around Tally, Layla has never been one of them ... until now. Something is different about sixth grade, and Tally now feels like she has to act "normal." But as Tally hides her true self, she starts to wonder what "normal" means after all and whether fitting in is really what matters most. Inspired by young coauthor Libby Scott's own experiences with autism, this is an honest and moving middle-school story of friends, family, and finding one's place.</td><td>Autism</td><td>White</td><td>11</td><td>2019</td></tr><tr><td><italic>Darius Hates Vegetables</italic></td><td><italic>Darius Hates Vegetables</italic> is a book about a young boy who'd rather eat cookies than vegetables. The adults in his life made several attempts to get him to eat them. In the end, his grandfather coaxed him into doing so. The lesson in this story is to try vegetables—you might just end up liking them.</td><td>Autism</td><td>Black</td><td>10</td><td>2016</td></tr><tr><td><italic>Diary of a Young Naturalist</italic></td><td><italic>Diary of a Young Naturalist</italic> portrays Dara's intense connection to the natural world, and his perspective as a teenager juggling exams and friendships alongside a life of campaigning. "In writing this book," Dara explains, "I have experienced challenges but also felt incredible joy, wonder, curiosity and excitement. In sharing this journey my hope is that people of all generations will not only understand autism a little more but also appreciate a child's eye view on our delicate and changing biosphere."</td><td>Autism</td><td>White</td><td>16</td><td>2021</td></tr><tr><td><italic>Do You Know Me</italic></td><td>In this sequel to <italic>Can You See Me?</italic> Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott return with another heartwarming and eye-opening story of friendship and middle school, inspired by Libby's own experiences of autism. </td><td>Autism</td><td>White</td><td>12-13</td><td>2021</td></tr><tr><td><italic>Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School</italic></td><td>Hello, sixth grade! Mia Lee is a stop-motion filmmaker with a wheelchair and a lot of sass, trying to survive her new middle school. Which doesn't seem so easy when she's running for Video Production Club President against certified Middle School Mean Girl, Angela Vanover. Things get weird when Angela starts being nice to her—well, when other people are around, at least. But when Mia's campaign posters for VP Club President mysteriously vanish— no tape, no poster, no nothin'—the presidential race gets real. With the help of her brain files, an awesome aide with keys to the whole school, and her friends, Rory, Daniela, and Caroline, Mia finds herself on a mission to prove Angela isn't just an ordinary middle school mean girl, she's a thief!</td><td>Charcot-Marie-Tooth</td><td>Asian</td><td>12</td><td>2016</td></tr><tr><td><italic>My Rainbow</italic></td><td>A dedicated mom puts love into action as she creates the perfect rainbow-colored wig for her transgender daughter, based on the real-life experience of mother-daughter advocate duo Trinity and DeShanna Neal.Warm morning sunlight and love fill the Neal home. And on one quiet day, playtime leads to an important realization: Trinity wants long hair like her dolls. She needs it to express who she truly is.So her family decides to take a trip to the beauty supply store, but none of the wigs is the perfect fit. Determined, Mom leaves with bundles of hair in hand, ready to craft a wig as colorful and vibrant as her daughter is.With powerful text by Trinity and DeShanna Neal and radiant art by Art Twink, <italic>My Rainbow</italic> is a celebration of showing up as our full selves with the people who have seen us fully all along.</td><td>Autism</td><td>Black</td><td>17</td><td>2020</td></tr><tr><td><italic>My Tube & Me</italic></td><td>Follow Lex on his feeding tube journey, and watch as he learns he can do it all with a tube! <italic>My Tube & Me</italic> is a great resource for teaching kids of any age about tube feeding in a fun and age-appropriate way, written by a young adult with firsthand experience.</td><td>Gastroparesis</td><td>White</td><td>Teenage</td><td>2021</td></tr><tr><td><italic>Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey</italic></td><td>In this uplifting and humorous memoir brimming with black-and-white comic illustrations, Nathaniel and his mother, Magda, tell the story of his growing up with the same craniofacial syndrome as the boy from Wonder—from facing 67 surgeries before the age of 15, to making friends, moving across the country, and persevering through hardships. How they tackle extraordinary circumstances with love and resilience is a true testament to Nathaniel and Magda's extraordinary family, and to families everywhere who quietly but courageously persist.</td><td>Treacher Collins</td><td>White</td><td>16</td><td>2020</td></tr><tr><td><italic>The Reason I Jump</italic></td><td>A story never before told and a memoir to help change our understanding of the world around us, 13-year-old Naoki Higashida's astonishing, empathetic book takes us into the mind of a boy with severe autism. With an introduction by David Mitchell, author of the global phenomenon, <italic>Cloud Atlas</italic>, and translated by his wife, K.A. Yoshida.Naoki Higashida was only a middle-schooler when he began to write <italic>The Reason I Jump</italic>. Autistic and with very low verbal fluency, Naoki used an alphabet grid to painstakingly spell out his answers to the questions he imagines others most often wonder about him: Why do you talk so loud? Is it true you hate being touched? Would you like to be normal? The result is an inspiring, attitude-transforming book that will be embraced by anyone interested in understanding their fellow human beings, and by parents, caregivers, teachers, and friends of autistic children. Naoki examines issues as diverse and complex as self-harm, perceptions of time and beauty, and the challenges of communication, and in doing so, discredits the popular belief that autistic people are anti-social loners who lack empathy.</td><td>Autism</td><td>Asian</td><td>13</td><td>2013</td></tr><tr><td><italic>This Kid Can Fly: It's About Ability (NOT Disability)</italic></td><td>In this heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting memoir, Aaron Philip, a 14-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, shows how he isn't defined so much by his disability as he is by his abilities. Written with award-winning author Tonya Bolden, <italic>This Kid Can Fly</italic> chronicles Aaron's extraordinary journey from happy baby in Antigua to confident teen artist in New York City. His honest, often funny stories of triumph—despite physical difficulties, poverty, and other challenges—are as inspiring as they are eye-opening.</td><td>Cerebral Palsy</td><td>Black</td><td>14</td><td>2016</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>The youth-authored texts about disability represented a variety of disability categories, intersectional identity characteristics, and ages of authors. Disabilities represented were autism (<emph>n</emph> = 6), physical disabilities (<emph>n</emph> = 3) and genetic disorders (<emph>n</emph> = 1). While fairly diverse in relation to the sample size, this collection of texts does not represent the diversity of all disability categories ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref59">12</reflink>]). Demographic data of the authors was collected within the texts and/or based on additional research conducted to ensure accuracy about identities. Race of the youth authors included five white authors, including two from Ireland or the UK, and five authors of color, including three Black youth authors and two Asian youth authors. The average author age at publication of these texts was 13. Three of the authors were transgender, either at the time of publication or transitioning after publication (Neal, 2018; Sloane, 2021); four authors identified as male and three identified as female. Five of the texts included a co-author alongside the youth author; three of those five co-authors were family members (parent, sibling) of the youth author.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-5">Data Analysis</hd> <p>Our research team acquired physical copies of the texts for analysis. We were unable to acquire a copy of <emph>Darius Hates Vegetables,</emph> bringing our total number of youth authored texts analyzed to nine. We conducted a critical content analysis of the youth-authored texts ([<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref60">29</reflink>]). Content analysis is an often used analysis strategy within children's literature to explore the texts as situated in social, cultural and political contexts ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref61">25</reflink>]; Johnson et al., 2017). Critical content analysis allowed us specifically to analyze the texts with an awareness of power dynamics and acknowledge disability as a marginalized and intersectional identity.</p> <p>We conducted the content analysis of this group in two analysis phases. First, following procedures in [<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref62">59</reflink>])'s Criteria for Evaluating Young Adult Literature, we focused on reading the text and answering analytic questions that elucidated particular anti-ableist and intersectional themes (see Supplementary Materials). For example, [<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref63">59</reflink>])'s's analytic questions ask yes or no questions about choice of language (identity-first or people-first), whether the disabled characters in a text represent intersectional identities, and whether the text presents disabled characters as more than "inspirational, victims, or heroes" (p. 34). Each text was read and annotated using the analytic questions by one researcher, and then the texts' overall themes and answers to the questions were discussed with a team of researchers.</p> <p>Next, we analyzed the texts in relation to disability justice principles. The team engaged in deductive coding ([<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref64">49</reflink>]) using the ten principles of disability justice ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref65">8</reflink>]) as a coding framework. Recognizing that the principles of disability justice are written for social justice activism and narrating the experiences of queer disabled people of color, the team engaged in discussion to collectively operationalize the principles for a youth and young adult audience of a variety of intersectional identities before coding. For example, we considered examples of "commitment to cross-disability solidarity" as anytime a youth author mentioned other people with disabilities and their experiences in the texts, and depictions of disability other than their own. After each member of the research team coded the books they read in phase 1, we collectively considered the excerpts' "fit" to each tenet. When there was disagreement, we discussed each research team member's perspective in a group meeting and made a final collective decision about the tenet fit based on those conversations. Overall, we were interested in the ways that the "disability justice generation" of youth authors with disabilities engaged in or reflected specific principles of disability justice in their writing. We asked the following research question: In what ways are the principles of disability justice present in literature written by youth who publicly identify as disabled?</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-6">Findings</hd> <p>Our analysis yielded a complex, collective understanding of the youth's knowledge of disability identity, community, and intersectionality. First, we begin by presenting the results of Zepp et al.'s (2022) Criteria for Evaluating Young Adult Literature (see Supplementary Materials). As the authors of this criteria note, this type of analysis of these books is meant to be a tool for further critical evaluation and use of a text in a particular context; the purpose of this analysis was to understand how disability was represented differently to this generational group of youth authors, not to necessarily endorse a text ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref66">59</reflink>]). Following this, we further analyze representation of disability identity and community in relation to the disability justice principles.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-7">Understanding Youth Authors' Ideas About Disability</hd> <p>The results of analysis using the [<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref67">59</reflink>] criteria revealed important ways that disability issues were understood by the youth authors. First, all nine of the books met at least 7 of the 10 criteria for evaluating young adult literature. The criteria suggest that "a majority of the responses should be in the affirmative to judge a YA text as high-quality" ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref68">59</reflink>]). These scores demonstrate the ways youth authors represent disability in more complex, positive and intersectional ways than in many of the typical nondisabled-authored literature about disability ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref69">31</reflink>]). For example, we found that all of the texts "emphasized competence, self-determination, and bodily autonomy of the disabled characters" ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref70">59</reflink>]). While the way this was done in each text varied, each character with disabilities was in some way shown with their own goals, direction, and agency over their bodies and experiences. Similarly, all nine texts "portray disabled adolescents as needing peer relationships (platonic or romantic)" ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref71">59</reflink>]). Each text has a central character in a friend or peer role who functions as a support to the nondisabled character. Often, as in <emph>Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School</emph> and <emph>This Kid Can Fly,</emph> these characters are nondisabled; however, <emph>Do You Know Me</emph> and <emph>Normal</emph> represent peer relationships between youth of similar and differing disabilities and their important role in developing identity, confidence, and pride.</p> <p>Importantly, considering this generation's potential increased exposure to the disability justice principle of viewing disability as an intersectional identity, we found that eight of the texts represented marginalized identities not related to disabilities including "diverse races, socioeconomic status, religions, languages, sexualities, and gender identities" ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref72">59</reflink>]). One of the reasons for this representation may be due to the mirrored diversity in authors of these texts. In each text, the authors represented either their direct personal experience through autobiography (i.e., <emph>Normal, This Kid Can Fly)</emph> or their particular racial and disability identity through a fictional story (ie <emph>Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School).</emph> Regardless of the type, the authors and characters were careful to represent disability through a lens of other identities.</p> <p>Taken together, this set of youth-authored texts provides some important windows into the disability justice generation's view on disability. Namely, the authors place an emphasis on self-determination, bodily autonomy, intersectionality, and interdependent relationships.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-8">Understanding Youth Authors' New Contributions in Relationship to Disability Justice</hd> <p>The youth authors understand disability as involving a collective community that includes intersectional identities that shape each experience differently. This understanding of disability helps the youth understand themselves as whole people who rely on interdependent relationships.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-9">Disability Solidarity, Liberation, and Collective Access: Connecting to Disability Community</hd> <p>The principles of collective liberation, disability solidarity, and collective access help define how the authors depict broad disability community and their place in it, including access and support across disability categories and needs. The youth authors understand disability from this perspective and emphasize different aspects of disability community in their books. For example, in <emph>My Tube and Me,</emph> Lee recognizes that there are not just other kids who eat through NG tubes, but adults as well who are members of the same community, and says: "Thanks to my tube, I am growing bigger and stronger everyday! Just like tons of other kids (and even adults!) with tubes" (My Tube & Me, p. 19). Similarly, Naoki in <emph>The Reason I Jump</emph> starts connecting his own experience with learning to other people with autism's shared experience:</p> <p>I want to grow up learning a million things! There must be countless other people with autism who have the same desire, the same attitude. But our problem is, we aren't capable of studying all by ourselves. To be able to study like other people, we need more time and different strategies and approaches. (The Reason I Jump, p. 70)</p> <p>Such excerpts represent a difference between generations of people with disabilities, where previous generations were not aware of adults with their disability or have the ability to know them as role models ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref73">59</reflink>]). Other texts emphasize the growing understanding of youth's commitment to other people with disabilities, often with a shared disability identity and hopes and dreams for supporting that community. For example, in <emph>Can You See Me,</emph> Tally describes her dreams: "to meet Taylor Swift. To help people like me become proud and open about being autistic and to stop people treating us differently" (Can You See Me, p. 348). In <emph>The Reason I Jump,</emph> Naoki furthers this point through discussing both his self-understanding of having autism with the hope of the impact of sharing his experience on others as allies:</p> <p>What am I going to be, if my autism can never be cured? When I was little, this question was always a big, big worry. I used to be afraid that as long as I was autistic, I'd never be able to live properly as a human being. There were so many things I couldn't do like other people, and having to apologize day in, day out totally drained me of hope. I hope that by reading my explanations about autism and its mysteries, you can come to understand that all the obstacles which present themselves don't come from our selfishness or from ego. If all of you can grasp this truth about us, we are handed a ray of hope. (The Reason I Jump, p. 101)</p> <p>In these excerpts, we see how individual identity development and community connection (in disability justice terms, collective liberation and disability solidarity) interact: as youth begin to see themselves in relation to their disability, they simultaneously see their relationship to others who have similar struggles and want to fight for everyone. This quality was an important feature of the disability rights movement and the subsequent ADA generation ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref74">21</reflink>]). However, in this group of youth authors, this sense of collective connection goes beyond a stereotypical generational focus on people with physical disabilities to include autism and other communities who may have even initially resisted being understood as "disabled" (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref75">51</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-10">Intersectionality: Considering Disability in Context of Other Identities</hd> <p>The youth authors represented their experiences, identities, and knowledge of how disability related to their other identities throughout the texts, demonstrating disability as an intersectional identity. The youth authored texts wrestled with their own understandings of different aspects of their identities in both positive and negative ways. For example, in <emph>My Rainbow,</emph> the text names and engages directly with these different identities:</p> <p>Mom blinked with surprise. Trinity's gender was part of what made her a masterpiece, just like her autism and her Black skin. But Trinity was trying to tell her something important. Mom closed her laptop and sat down next to Trinity. 'I'm listening.'(My Rainbow, p. 9)</p> <p>In calling Trinity's gender, autism, and Black skin all part of her "masterpiece," Trinity is depicted in this text as allowed to be proud of <emph>all</emph> of the aspects of who she is; and the reader is allowed a window into supportive relationships that see those identities as inherently powerful and important. Similarly, in <emph>Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School,</emph> Mia and her mom are shown navigating disability issues in relationship to cultural identity and language:</p> <p>Mom said in Chinese, 'Do you really think you can win the election, Mia?' I think that was Mom's way of pointing out that I couldn't always do things like some people, even easy things like feeding myself. I mean, holding my own spoon was hard for me. So how could I do something like win a club election? I got it. Mom was worried about me running in the election because she loved me, and she didn't want me to get hurt if I lost. Anyway, even though I understood Chinese, I didn't speak it very well. So I answered Mom back in English. 'Yes, I do think I can win!'" (Mia Lee, p. 20</p> <p>In this excerpt, Mia and her mom are depicted navigating several simultaneous generational and cultural experiences, including speaking multiple languages and navigating parental and personal fears about the impact of disability. Mia's ability to navigate these interactions and understand the multiple meanings in a single conversation illuminates a different disability experience, while still remaining a positive depiction of Mia and her family. In contrast, Aaron in <emph>This Kid Can Fly</emph> had a more complex view of his identities:</p> <p>Still, I felt like an outsider. It wasn't just about my CP. (And being black in a mostly white school was the least of my problems- and really not a problem at all.) The problem was that most of my schoolmates lived on the Upper West Side and I had lived mostly in the Bronx. (And when I lived on the Upper West Side it was in a shelter that didn't allow visitors.) Added to that, unlike many of my schoolmates, I was poor. And now everybody knew how <emph>really</emph> poor I was. Homeless. (p. 71)</p> <p>Here, Aaron is wrestling with aspects of his identity, and making meaning between his experiences and the experiences of his classmates. He ultimately separates different "impacts" of those experiences based on his race, disability, and class, and uses each identity to consider his differences with others. While this is a more negative understanding of these identity impacts, Aaron's internal understanding of the different aspects of who he is reveals a depth of his own identity development not often recognized or understood as something to be intentionally engaged. Overall, the ways that youth authors engaged with intersectionality and multiple ways of understanding identity and disability is tied closely to the disability justice movement's focus and values.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-11">Recognizing Wholeness: Disability and Other Interests</hd> <p>Youth authors with disabilities engage in meaning-making around disability and its relationship to other aspects of who they are. The disability justice principle of recognizing wholeness explains that each person with a disability has an "internal experience composed of their own thoughts, sensations, emotions, fantasies, perceptions, and idiosyncrasies" ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref76">8</reflink>], p. 228). The youth authors beautifully described their own internal worlds, often weaving disability in and out of that world. For example, three autistic authors described their relationship to nature and animals, and in particular the ways being in these natural environments helped them think about their differences in new ways. In <emph>Diary of a Young Naturalist,</emph> Dara explains:</p> <p>Unfortunately for me, I'm different. Different from everyone in my class. Different from most people in my school. But at breaktime today I watched the pied wagtails fly in and out of the nest. How could I feel lonely when there are such things? Wildlife is my refuge." (p. 63)</p> <p>Similarly, in <emph>The Reason I Jump,</emph> Naoki describes nature as a friend, because "human beings are part of the animal kingdom too, and perhaps us people with autism still have some leftover awareness of this, buried somewhere deep down" (p. 74).</p> <p>In these excerpts, the youth authors are both acknowledging their disabilities via outside social perceptions (they are different, they have a sense of themselves as autistic people different from non-autistic people) and grounding their embodied experience and understanding in nature. They understand themselves as whole people inside and in relation to their autistic experience. This way of using an "external" identity experience to narrate what was happening in terms of internal identity development was not unique to authors with autism. In <emph>Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School,</emph> Mia narrates:</p> <p>I already decided things would be different at school this year. <emph>I</emph> would be different. If anybody looked at me, wondering why my hands and legs didn't work like theirs, I wasn't going to look away or pretend I didn't see them staring at me like I used to. Nope, not anymore. I was going to look them in the eye and smile. (Mia Lee, p. 7)</p> <p>In all three of these cases, the authors are describing an important way that disabled youth understand their disabilities as relevant to many other aspects of their life, and those aspects as simultaneously inform how they understand disability. This reciprocal relationship allows for the youth to see themselves as whole people, while not distancing themselves from the meaning-making or awareness of themselves as having disabilities.</p> <p>In some cases, the youth authors directly engaged in comparison between themselves and their nondisabled peers in navigating this sense of wholeness, or even directly questioned the definition and co-creating of the idea of normality. In <emph>My Tube and Me,</emph> Lee described the outcome of his NG tube surgery:</p> <p>After a few months, I was able to do all the things my friends do, like playing sports, going to school, or even swimming! Even with my tube, I can still eat some food. I love peanut butter! Plus, I get these cool pads to go around my tube. I have one that looks like a dinosaur!" (My Tube & Me, p. 17)</p> <p>Lee both recognizes the aspects of his peers' lives that he shares (for example, playing sports and swimming), and also paints the aspects of his disability that make him feel excited and proud (for example, that his NG tube comes with a cool pad). In this way, Lee is able to engage in the complexity of his own disability alongside the things he shares with nondisabled people, without solely having to distance himself from his disability to belong. In <emph>Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey,</emph> Nathaniel shares some similar, introspective understanding of the differences between himself and others:</p> <p>Where is the line between normal and not normal? Who gets to draw that line? I didn't need people to see me as "normal," but I liked the idea that people might not be so distracted by my face that it was all they thought about when they met me. Without that distraction, it would be easier for them to know the real me. (Normal, p. 188).</p> <p>Nathaniel and Lee reflect on their similarities and differences from nondisabled people, a process that is often silent and unheard. While it would be easy) for the youth authors to paint their experiences as fundamentally negative, these authors choose a different path in recognizing their wholeness: they understand difference as a natural part of the human experience and the boundaries of "normal" and "abnormal" as primarily a societal choice.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-12">Developing Interdependence with Paraprofessionals, Family, and Friends with Disabilities</hd> <p>Many of the youth authors narrated interdependent relationships in their understanding of how disability impacted their lives. These relationships included disabled and nondisabled peer friendships; parent and family relationships; and, interestingly, many emphasized the deep connections between youth and their paraprofessionals. For example, in <emph>This Kid Can Fly,</emph> author Aaron Philip described the ways that Vlad, a paraprofessional, deepened their relationship through providing more than just physical support in school:</p> <p>I spent a lot of time with Vlad, naturally, as he was my legs and my lifter- and so much else. Vlad didn't just take care of my physical needs, he was really and truly <emph>with</emph> me- getting to know me. We talked a <emph>lot!</emph> About issues of the day, about my issues- feeling lonely at school, feeling underestimated at times, and the weird way people look at me because of my CP. (This Kid, p. 116)</p> <p>In being "really and truly <emph>with"</emph> Aaron, Vlad's actions helped Aaron understand how disability not only impacted his physical body, but his experiences in school socially. These experiences were not just described as negative and stigmatized, but in some ways relieved because of the interdependent, trusting relationship with an adult who understood all aspects of the social and physical experience of disability. Aaron describes a relationship that goes beyond a paraprofessional's "on paper" responsibilities, and names the emotional support and bonding that occurs when there is an acknowledgement of an individual with a disability as needing support that someone can provide. In return, Aaron and Vlad together build what disability justice activist Mia Mingus (2011) terms "access intimacy," and Aaron understands his access needs being honored, both physically and socially, are an important and legitimate aspect of building any kind of relationship going forward.</p> <p>Similarly, <emph>Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School</emph> depicts a relationship between Mia and her aide, Miss Jackson. The texts describes Mia's thoughts:</p> <p>Miss Jackson is my aide. Some of my aides thought that just because they were in charge of pushing my wheelchair, they were in charge of my life. But that's not so with Miss Jackson. She didn't just take off pushing me. She always asked first, like just now. I liked to push myself when I could. (Mia Lee, p.4)</p> <p>In this excerpt, Mia engages with the power dynamics between paraprofessionals and youth. Where most of the relationships Mia describes were not examples of interdependence, Miss Jackson provides Mia a chance to reflect on those experiences and understand why they felt so negative. She provides an example of the ways youth with disabilities are constantly aware of the ways disability complicates power dynamics, and what it means to rely on an adult physically in an increased way than nondisabled children might need to. In <emph>Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey,</emph> Nathaniel emphasizes this point: "When you're six years old, teachers and your parents are already watching over you most of the time. What's one more person?" (Normal, p. 114). In this way, Mia and Nathaniel push back on stereotypical understandings or depictions of youth with disabilities, including that they necessarily want to be independent or not rely on adult supportive relationships for their physical and emotional needs around their disability. Instead, these texts provide a window into the meaning-making that youth are doing around power dynamics, access intimacy, and building trust in what are fundamentally deeply personal supportive relationships.</p> <p>Similarly, a few texts provide direct recommendations to people in support roles with youth who have disabilities (in this case, primarily autism). These recommendations provided not only a window into how much self-awareness the youth have about their own disabilities and those embodied experiences, but also the way their disabilities impact others' perceptions and feelings about them. For example, Naoki writes in <emph>The Reason I Jump:</emph></p> <p>You must be thinking: 'Is he never going to learn?' We know we're making you sad and upset, but it's as if we don't have any say in it, I'm afraid, and that's the way it is. But please, whatever you do, don't give up on us. We need your help. (p. 21)</p> <p>Tally, via a diary entry in <emph>Do You Know Me,</emph> reflects similarly on the impact of her autism on stress and reactions to requests that adults make of her. She offers suggestions to parents and teachers for how to handle these interactions:</p> <p>Just ask me what it is that is causing my stress, and once we work out what it is, then ask me what will make me feel better in the situation. Often when we can come up with solutions together, it means that I can end up doing whatever it is that is needed of me. See? Simple, isn't it? (p. 129)</p> <p>In this way, youth authors share the complex and deep interdependent relationships that they have with adults who are often in authoritative positions related to their disability in school and at home. Rather than positioning the youth as simply passive recipients of this help, the texts paint these interdependent relationships as imbued with power dynamics, self-understanding, and constant negotiation that often goes unseen and misunderstood.</p> <p>Another way that youth authors wrestled with interdependence was through relationships with peers who also had disabilities. These relationships were not as uniform across texts as relationships with paras or other supportive adults; some depicted these relationships as positive and important, and others resented the ways youth with disabilities were constantly "lumped in" together. Importantly, the disability justice principles of interdependence and cross-disability solidarity engage power dynamics between disabled people and in relationship to nondisabled people. For example, interdependent relationships allow for people with disabilities to rely on each other, rather than outside relationships or control ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref77">8</reflink>]). The youth authors seemed to understand this dynamic. In <emph>This Kid Can Fly,</emph> Aaron notes the "ridiculous" nature of of an adult decision to group youth with disabilities together in the cafeteria artificially:</p> <p>We kids with disabilities always sat at a table together. It wasn't far from where the "regular" kids ate, but it felt like we were on an island in the middle of an ocean. It wasn't a real school policy. I think it was probably something some paras decided. I have no idea why they wanted kids with disabilities to eat together. Maybe it was just easier? Maybe they wanted to protect us somehow? All I know is that it seemed totally ridiculous to me. (This Kid, p. 73)</p> <p>Aaron's understanding of adult-mediated relationships between youth with disabilities were (rightfully) called out in this text as based in convenience or benevolence from teachers at best. This resulted in not developing true interdependent relationships between those youth who were forced to sit together at lunch. In this way, this interdependence did not develop naturally between peers (or paras and youth), and the youth noticed. In contrast, <emph>Do You Know Me</emph> depicts the development of a friendship between three neurodivergent youth, who bond over their interests in animals and shared experiences feeling different. In a diary entry written in the voice of autistic character Tally, she summarizes the ways interdependence and trust in peer relationships impacts her own understanding of herself:</p> <p>"And having a tribe of your people means that you don't have to pretend. You don't have to say that you're OK when you aren't, and you don't have to act as if you think something is great when you don't actually like it. And you can be yourself." (Do You Know Me, p. 292).</p> <p>In summary, youth with disabilities understand their own identity development in unique ways from previous generations. They emphasize interdependence over independence as a goal for their relationships with others, and describe their unique relationships with teachers, family and paraprofessionals that are contrary to typical understandings of attempts to disconnect from disability labels and experiences. In what follows, we place this finding in a larger discussion around disability community and implications for teacher education research and practice.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-13">Discussion</hd> <p>In this paper, we examined how youth authors engage in producing disability representations that emphasize disability solidarity, collective access, intersectionality, and interdependence. This work has important implications for our understanding of disability identity development. Further, engaging with these texts has implication for classrooms that value the expertise of disabled youth and build knowledge about disability identity and disability justice in community with disabled youth ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref78">3</reflink>]).</p> <p>Crucially, examining youth authored texts that explore disability justice has important implications for how we examine intersectionality and disability within social justice pedagogy, what [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref79">47</reflink>] describe as "intersectionality-driven instruction" (p. 246). Intersectionality-driven instruction includes forms of instruction that incorporate identity and honor the multiple identities that students occupy. Including such texts in the curriculum is perhaps a first, crucial suggestion and implication towards developing and engaging with intersectionality-driven instruction.</p> <p>Ensuring curricular and disability justice requires teachers to have the agency and capacity to challenge ableism in pedagogy and curriculum ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref80">6</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref81">48</reflink>]). Yet, there is a lack of curricular materials that emphasize disability and anti-ableism within teacher education and K-12 schools. This constitutes a critical gap in teacher education and special education to respond to disability stigma and disability identity development in schools and classrooms. Inaccurate or harmful disability representations in the curriculum is likely to reinforce negative perceptions and stereotypes towards disabled students, contributing to exclusion and lowered expectations for disabled learners. Thus, the inclusion of texts authored by disabled youth in teacher preparation is likely to have a positive effect on teachers' ability to challenge ableist notions in classroom spaces ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref82">59</reflink>]); we suggest teachers and school-based personnel attend to this inclusion in the curriculum, and also consider recent legislation that emphasizes the importance of teaching about disability history in schools ([<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref83">43</reflink>]).</p> <p>Engaging with narratives of disability aligns our work with disability studies examinations of special education, particularly the notion of critical inclusion ([<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref84">53</reflink>]), a "social justice project to transform educational systems through continuous cycle of analyzing, disrupting, and restructuring the social processes that produce inequity" ([<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref85">53</reflink>], p. 1033). We argue that engaging with nuanced disability representation, through youth-authored disability texts, exposes forms of knowledge that are often hidden or neglected in schools and can support teacher candidates and teacher educators to challenge dehumanizing and deficit accounts of disabled youth ([<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref86">44</reflink>]).</p> <p>Youth-authored texts about disability bring a unique and new understanding of themselves that is important to understand and center in educational research and practice. The youth-authored texts depict disability as involving a collective cultural community that centers, values and understands disability alongside other aspects of identity (ie race, gender). This intersectional understanding of disability helps the youth emphasize that they are whole people, even as they rely on others for needed supports inside and outside of school.</p> <p>This paper advances a generational view of disability identity development that extends existing research on the previous ADA generation (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref87">23</reflink>]). In using disability justice as a "generational marker," we saw values from this social justice movement present in the youth authored texts that mirrored the values of the disability justice movement. However, we did not see some aspects of disability justice (ie, anti-capitalist politic) which primarily focused on economic principles and tenets. Still, we found that the youth-authored texts engaged with intersectional views on disability that pushed back on, or critiqued, existing power dynamics (ie, with teachers) in interesting and age-appropriate ways.</p> <p>Importantly, we emphasize that this (relatively focused and limited) collection and analysis of texts does not represent the entirety of this generation's views on disability, nor does it even necessarily represent the entire possible set of youth-authored texts published during this time. Texts that were self-published and/or out of print at the time of data collection may have provided a deeper and more detailed analysis of this kind of identity development and understanding of disability from this group. As is, we are interested in these texts as a way to understand the values, understandings, and meaning-making of this group of youth as divergent from previous generations. This work represents our emerging analysis and understanding of the texts as a data source, and a limitation of this work is that it does not engage with other forms of evidence to engage the text and the youth themselves. We are eager to conduct more in-depth research (using participatory, qualitative and identity scale-based methods with teachers and youth participants) to understand the ongoing identity development processes of this group of youth, and conduct additional work using social media analysis, classroom teachers, and students using the texts themselves.</p> <p>Overall, youth-authored disability texts provide an important window into the ways youth form disability identity, connect to the particular cultural moment in which they live, and make meaning out of societal messages and cultural values that shape their understanding of disability. The data suggests that this group of authors has a distinct understanding of themselves and their own disability identities, individually and collectively. In many ways, the disability justice generation honors and builds on previous community values and expectations for the future. Researchers and teachers should listen carefully and think creatively about the inclusion of this generation's voices, across academic and educational contexts.</p> <hd id="AN0194392922-14">Supplemental Material</hd> <p>Graph: Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-ecx-10.1177_00144029251386280 for Exploring a Disability Justice Generation With Youth-Authored Disability Texts by Carlyn Mueller and Tanushree Sarkar in Exceptional Children</p> <ref id="AN0194392922-15"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref51" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Adichie C. N. (2009, October 6). The danger of a single story [Video]. TED. https://<ulink href="http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda%5fngozi%5fadichie%5fthe%5fdanger%5fof%5fa%5fsingle%5fstory">www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda%5fngozi%5fadichie%5fthe%5fdanger%5fof%5fa%5fsingle%5fstory</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref16" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. (1990). https://<ulink href="http://www.ada.gov/pubs/adastatute08.htm">www.ada.gov/pubs/adastatute08.htm</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref18" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Annamma S. A., Handy T. (2020). Sharpening justice through DisCrit: A contrapuntal analysis of education. Educational Researcher, 50(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20953838</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref1" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Bacon J. K., Lalvani P. (2019). Dominant narratives, subjugated knowledges, and the righting of the story of disability in K-12 curricula. Curriculum Inquiry, 49(4), 387–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2019.1656990</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref41" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Baglieri S., Bejoian L. M., Broderick A. A., Connor D. J., Valle J. (2011). [Re]claiming "inclusive education" toward cohesion in educational reform: Disability studies unravels the myth of the normal child. Teachers College Record, 113(10), 2122–2154. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811111301001</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" idref="ref58" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Baglieri S., Lalvani P. (2019). Undoing ableism: Teaching about disability in K-12 classrooms. Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" idref="ref31" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Bay Pimentel A. (with Keelan-Chaffins, J., & Ali, N. H.). (2020). All the way to the top: How one girl's fight for Americans with disabilities changed everything. Sourcebooks.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" idref="ref36" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Berne P., Levins Morales A., Langstaff D., Invalid S. (2018). Ten principles of disability justice. WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, 46(1&2), 227–230. https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.2018.0003</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" idref="ref49" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Bianquin N., Sacchi F. (2007). More than just pictures: Using picture books to broaden young learner's disability understanding. Proceedings, 1(9), Article 890. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1090890</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Bishop R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom, 6(3), ix–xi.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Boda P. (2022). On the methodological and epistemological power of epistemic (de)centering as a reflexive praxis of resistance toward disability justice. Qualitative Research Journal, 23(1), 114–129. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-05-2022-0072</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Boda P. (2024). Dreaming of disability-as-possibility as a humanistic STEM education futurity. Science Education, 108(6), 1590–1607. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21891</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Bogart K. R., Rottenstein A., Lund E. M., Bouchard L. (2017). Who self-identifies as disabled? An examination of impairment and contextual predictors. Rehabilitation Psychology, 62(4), 553–562. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000132</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Braden E. G., Rodriguez S. C. (2016). Beyond mirrors and windows: A critical content analysis of Latinx children's books. Journal of Language and Literacy Education, 12(2), 56–83.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2023). Persons with a disability: Labor force characteristics. https://<ulink href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/disabl.pdf">www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/disabl.pdf</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Connelly J. M., Tuttle Prince A., Hayden H. E. (2023). Humanising portrayals of children with psycho-social differences in children's and young adult literature. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 29(8), 1252–1270. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2023.2264882</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Couser G. T. (2011). Signifying bodies: Disability in contemporary life writing. University of Michigan Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Davis L. J. (2015). Enabling Acts: The hidden story of how the Americans With Disabilities Act gave the largest US minority its rights. Beacon Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Erevelles N., Grace E. J., Parekh G. (2019). Disability as meta curriculum: Ontologies,epistemologies, and transformative praxis. Curriculum Inquiry, 49(4), 357–372. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2019.1664078</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ferri B. (2011). Disability life writing and the politics of knowing. Teachers College Record, 113, 2267–2282. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811111301006</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Forber-Pratt A. J. (2019). (Re)defining disability culture: Perspectives from the Americans with Disabilities Act generation. Culture & Psychology, 25(2), 241–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X18799714</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Forber-Pratt A. J., Merrin G. J., Mueller C. O., Price L. R., Kettrey H. H. (2020). Initial factor exploration of disability identity. Rehabilitation Psychology, 65(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000308</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Forber-Pratt A. J., Zape M. (2017). Disability identity development model: Voices from the ADA-generation. Disability and Health Journal, 10(2), 350–355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2016.12.013</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Fox D. L., Short K. G. (2003). Stories matter: The complexity of cultural authenticity in children's literature. National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED480339</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Galda L., Cullinan B. E. (2000). Reading aloud from culturally. Beginning Reading and Writing, 50, 134.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Galvin R. D. (2005). Researching the disabled identity: Contextualising the identity transformations which accompany the onset of impairment. Sociology of Health & Illness, 27(3), 393–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2005.00448.x</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Garland-Thomson R. (2007). Cultural commentary: "Transferred to an unknown location...". Disability Studies Quarterly, 27(4).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Gilmore L., Howard G. (2016). Children's books that promote understanding of difference, diversity and disability. Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, 26(2), 218–251. https://doi.org/10.1017/jgc.2016.26</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Johnson H., Mathis J., Short K. G. (2017). Critical content analysis of children's and young adult literature. Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Keifer-Boyd K., Bastos F., Richardson J. (Eisenhauer), Wexler A. (2018). Disability justice: Rethinking "inclusion" in arts education research. Studies in Art Education, 59(3), 267–271. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2018.1476954</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kleekamp M. C., Zapata A. (2019). Interrogating depictions of disability in children's picture books. The Reading Teacher, 72(5), 589–597. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1766</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kuhlmann E. H., Foley-Nicpon M., Mahatmya D. (2024). Adding some "Cs": Expanding positive youth development to include disability and identity. Rehabilitation Psychology, 69(3), 290. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000513</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lalvani P., Broderick A. A. (2013). Institutionalized ableism and the misguided "disability awareness day": Transformative pedagogies for teacher education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 46(4), 468–483. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2013.838484</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lewis T. L. (2017, Jan 28). Emmett Till & the pervasive erasure of disability in conversations about white supremacy & police violence. https://<ulink href="http://www.talilalewis.com/blog/archives/01-2017">www.talilalewis.com/blog/archives/01-2017</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lewis T. L. (2022, Jan 1). Working definition of ableism: January 2022 update. https://<ulink href="http://www.talilalewis.com/blog/working-definition-of-ableism-january-2022-update">www.talilalewis.com/blog/working-definition-of-ableism-january-2022-update</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Love H. R., Beneke M. R. (2021). Pursuing justice-driven inclusive education research: Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) in early childhood. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 41(1), 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/0271121421990833</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lund E., Ayers K. (2022). Ever-changing but always constant: "Waves" of disability discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Disability and Health Journal, 15(4), Article 101374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2022.101374</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Mills M., Riddle S., McGregor G., Howell A. (2022). Towards an understanding of curricular justice and democratic schooling. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 54(3), 345–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2021.1977262</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Mingus M. (2011, May 5). Access intimacy: The missing link. Leaving Evidence, https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/access-intimacy-the-missing-link/.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Mintz S. B. (ed.) (2010). Unruly bodies: Life writing by women with disabilities. University of North Carolina Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Morgan J. N. (2021). Policing under disability law. Stanford Law Review, 73, 1401.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Mueller C. (2021). I didn't know people with disabilities could grow up to be adults": Disability history, curriculum, and identity in special education. Teacher Education and Special Education, 44(3), 189–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888406421996069</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Mueller C. O., Beneke M. R. (2023). Whiteness and ability: Discourses in disability history curriculum legislation. Educational Policy, 37(7), 1823–1856.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Naraian S. (2021). Making inclusion matter: Critical disability studies and teacher education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 53(3), 298–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2021.1882579</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Neal D. (2018, May 22). Meet the disabled trans model who's here to DOMINATE the fashion world. Them. https://<ulink href="http://www.them.us/story/aaron-philip-fashion-and-disability">www.them.us/story/aaron-philip-fashion-and-disability</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Piepzna-Samarasinha L. L. (2018). Care work: Dreaming disability justice. Arsenal Pulp Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Pugach M. C., Matewos A. M., Gomez-Najarro J. (2020). Disability and the meaning of social justice in teacher education research: A precarious guest at the table? Journal of Teacher Education, 72(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487120929623</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Riddle S., Mills M., McGregor G. (2023). Curricular justice and contemporary schooling: Towards a rich, common curriculum for all students. Curriculum Perspectives, 43(2), 137–144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-023-00186-y</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Saldaña J. (2013). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Shapiro J. (2020, July 17). Disability pride: The high expectations of a new generation. New York Times. https://<ulink href="http://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/style/americanswithdisabilities-act.html">www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/style/americanswithdisabilities-act.html</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Shattuck P. T., Steinberg J., Yu J., Wei X., Cooper B. P., Newman L., Roux A. M. (2014). Disability identification and self-efficacy among college students on the autism spectrum. Autism Research & Treatment, 2014(1), 924182. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/924182</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Sins Invalid. (2020). What is disability justice? Sins Invalid, 16 June 2020.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Siuty M. B. (2019). Inclusion gatekeepers: The social production of spatial identities in special education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32(8), 1032–1047. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1635283</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Sloane M. (2021, May 1). Dealing with intersectionality. Agora. https://mcccagora.com/2021/05/01/dealing-with-intersectionality/.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Tschida C. M., Ryan C. L., Ticknor A. S. (2014). Building on windows and mirrors: Encouraging the disruption of "single stories" through children's literature. Journal of Children's Literature, 40(1), 28–39. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1040235.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Waitoller F. R., Artiles A. J. (2013). A decade of professional development research for inclusive education: A critical review and notes for a research program. Review of Educational Research, 83(3), 319–356. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654313483905</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Yokota J., Bates A. (2005). Asian American literature: Voices and images of authenticity. In Exploring culturally diverse literature for children and adolescents: Learning to listen in new ways (pp. 323–335).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Zdeblick M. (2024). Imagining disability justice in arts education: Loving critiques and pathways forward. Equity & Excellence in Education, 57(4), 459–473. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2024.2373063</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Zepp L., Mueller C., Leko M. (2022). Expanding preservice teachers' conceptions about disability through young adult literature. Journal of Special Education Preparation, 2(3), 32–38. https://doi.org/10.33043/JOSEP.2.3.32-38</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0194392922-16"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibtext> The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Carlyn Mueller https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7834-3180</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Supplemental material for this article is available online.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Carlyn Mueller and Tanushree Sarkar</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib38" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib48" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib32" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib42" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib36" firstref="ref20"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib56" firstref="ref21"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref24"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib46" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref26"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref27"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref28"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref29"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib41" firstref="ref32"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib37" firstref="ref33"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib52" firstref="ref34"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref35"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref39"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib58" firstref="ref43"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref45"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl24" bibid="bib40" firstref="ref46"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl25" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref47"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl26" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref48"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl27" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref50"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl28" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref52"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl29" bibid="bib55" firstref="ref53"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl30" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref54"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl31" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref55"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl32" bibid="bib57" firstref="ref56"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl33" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref57"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl34" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref59"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl35" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref60"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl36" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref61"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl37" bibid="bib59" firstref="ref62"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl38" bibid="bib49" firstref="ref64"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl39" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref69"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl40" bibid="bib51" firstref="ref75"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl41" bibid="bib47" firstref="ref79"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl42" bibid="bib43" firstref="ref83"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl43" bibid="bib53" firstref="ref84"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl44" bibid="bib44" firstref="ref86"></nolink>
Header DbId: eric
DbLabel: ERIC
An: EJ1508193
AccessLevel: 3
PubType: Academic Journal
PubTypeId: academicJournal
PreciseRelevancyScore: 0
IllustrationInfo
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: Exploring a Disability Justice Generation with Youth-Authored Disability Texts
– Name: Language
  Label: Language
  Group: Lang
  Data: English
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Carlyn+Mueller%22">Carlyn Mueller</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7834-3180">0000-0002-7834-3180</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Tanushree+Sarkar%22">Tanushree Sarkar</searchLink>
– Name: TitleSource
  Label: Source
  Group: Src
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Exceptional+Children%22"><i>Exceptional Children</i></searchLink>. 2026 92(4):524-543.
– Name: Avail
  Label: Availability
  Group: Avail
  Data: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com
– Name: PeerReviewed
  Label: Peer Reviewed
  Group: SrcInfo
  Data: Y
– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
  Group: Src
  Data: 20
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2026
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Evaluative
– Name: Audience
  Label: Education Level
  Group: Audnce
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Secondary+Education%22">Elementary Secondary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Education%22">Elementary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Secondary+Education%22">Secondary Education</searchLink>
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Elementary+Secondary+Education%22">Elementary Secondary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Elementary+School+Curriculum%22">Elementary School Curriculum</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Secondary+School+Curriculum%22">Secondary School Curriculum</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Disabilities%22">Disabilities</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Youth%22">Youth</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Authors%22">Authors</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reader+Text+Relationship%22">Reader Text Relationship</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Intersectionality%22">Intersectionality</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Interpersonal+Relationship%22">Interpersonal Relationship</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Civil+Rights+Legislation%22">Civil Rights Legislation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Federal+Legislation%22">Federal Legislation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+Justice%22">Social Justice</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+Influences%22">Social Influences</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reading+Material+Selection%22">Reading Material Selection</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Disproportionate+Representation%22">Disproportionate Representation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Literature+Reviews%22">Literature Reviews</searchLink>
– Name: SubjectThesaurus
  Label: Laws, Policies and Program Identifiers
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SU" term="%22Americans+with+Disabilities+Act+1990%22">Americans with Disabilities Act 1990</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
  Group: ID
  Data: 10.1177/00144029251386280
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 0014-4029<br />2163-5560
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Literary works authored by youth with disabilities provide insightful perspectives on their lived experiences, understanding of disability community, and processes of disability identity development. In this paper, we respond to the question raised by Erevelles et al. (2019), "What would curriculum studies look like if disabled people re-imagined the curriculum?" (p. 358) by examining literature written by disabled youth. We propose the existence of a disability justice generation whose perspectives are crucial to consider with the K-12 curriculum, particularly to extend existing notions of justice within education. Nine texts written by disabled youth about their lived experiences were analyzed to learn about their perceptions of disability and disability identity. The texts were analyzed using a disability justice framework. Results indicated that texts highlight the importance of the disability community and meaning-making related to disability identity. Intersectionality and the interdependence of their relationships with their peers with disabilities, educators, and families were important themes across the texts. Results highlight the rich and meaningful experiences of disabled youth, and we consider what stories of and by disabled youth can offer to curricula.
– Name: AbstractInfo
  Label: Abstractor
  Group: Ab
  Data: As Provided
– Name: DateEntry
  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2026
– Name: AN
  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ1508193
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1508193
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1177/00144029251386280
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 20
        StartPage: 524
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Elementary Secondary Education
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Elementary School Curriculum
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Secondary School Curriculum
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Disabilities
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Youth
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Authors
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reader Text Relationship
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Intersectionality
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Interpersonal Relationship
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Civil Rights Legislation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Federal Legislation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Social Justice
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Social Influences
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading Material Selection
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Disproportionate Representation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Literature Reviews
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Americans with Disabilities Act 1990
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Exploring a Disability Justice Generation with Youth-Authored Disability Texts
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Carlyn Mueller
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Tanushree Sarkar
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 07
              Type: published
              Y: 2026
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 0014-4029
            – Type: issn-electronic
              Value: 2163-5560
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 92
            – Type: issue
              Value: 4
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Exceptional Children
              Type: main
ResultId 1