Today is International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD). IDPwD is a United Nations observed day aimed at increasing public awareness, understanding and acceptance of people with disability.

This IDPwD, we’re actively engaging with the way we think about disability – to help grow a more inclusive Australia – by exploring both fiction and non-fiction from prominent voices in the disability community.

Below you will find some of our top picks to read this IDPwD.

The Shape of Sound by Fiona Murphy

Fiona Murphy kept her deafness a secret for over twenty-five years. Blending memoir with observations on the healthcare industry, The Shape of Sound is a story about the corrosive power of secrets, stigma and shame, and how deaf experiences and disability are shaped by economics, social policy, medicine and societal expectations. This is the story of how Murphy learned to listen to her body.

Late Bloomer: How an Autism Diagnosis Changed My Life by Clem Bastow

Clem Bastow grew up feeling like she’d missed a key memo on human behaviour. She found the unspoken rules of social engagement confusing, arbitrary and often stressful. Friendships were hard, relationships harder, and the office was a fluorescent-lit nightmare of anxiety. It wasn’t until Bastow was diagnosed as autistic, at age 36, that things clicked into focus. Deconstructing the misconceptions and celebrating the realities of autistic experience, this is as heartbreaking as it is hilarious.

Growing Up Disabled In Australia edited by Carly Findlay

One in five Australians have a disability. And disability presents itself in many ways. Yet disabled people are still underrepresented in the media and in literature. Growing Up Disabled in Australia is the fifth book in the highly acclaimed, bestselling [Growing Up] series. It includes interviews with prominent Australians such as Senator Jordon Steele-John and Paralympian Isis Holt, poetry and graphic art, as well as more than 40 original pieces by writers with a disability or chronic illness.

Human Looking by Andy Jackson

The poems in Human Looking speak with the voices of the disabled and the disfigured, in ways which are confronting, but also illuminating and tender. They speak of surgical interventions, and of the different kinds of disability which they seek to ‘correct’. They range widely, finding figures to identify with in mythology and history, art and photography, poetry and fiction.

Stars in Their Eyes by Jessica Walton & Aska

In this debut graphic novel, pop culture-obsessed Maisie can’t wait to get to her first Fancon. But being a queer, disabled teenager with chronic pain comes with challenges. Can Maisie make it through the day without falling over, falling in love or accidentally inspiring anyone?

A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan

A young woman gets ready to go to a party. She arrives, feels overwhelmed, leaves, and then returns. Minutely attuned to the people who come into her view, and alternating between alienation and profound connection, she is hilarious, self-aware, sometimes acerbic, and painfully honest.

Future Girl by Asphyxia

Piper’s mum wants her to be ‘normal’, to pass as hearing and get a good job. But when peak oil hits and Melbourne lurches towards environmental catastrophe, Piper has more important things to worry about, such as how to get food. When she meets Marley, a CODA (child of Deaf adult), a door opens into a new world - where Deafness is something to celebrate rather than hide, and where resilience is created through growing your own food rather than it being delivered on a truck. As she dives into learning Auslan, sign language that is exquisitely beautiful and expressive, Piper finds herself falling hard for Marley.

Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong

One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent-but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love.

Learn more about International Day of People with Disability