Disability History Month 2024

A list of book recommendations from the UCL community on the subject of inclusion and the history of the struggle for equality and human rights for disabled people.

Members of the UCL community were invited to recommend books on Disability, Livelihood and Employment, the national theme for Disability History Month 2024 (14 November – 20 December), or that explore the rich legacy and contributions of disabled people more widely. 

Library Services recognises the social model of disability which says that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. We are committed to removing barriers that may prevent students, staff or library visitors from making the most of our services. 

Your recommendations

How many have you read?

Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and the Body by Lennard J. Davis

"We live in a world of norms, but what happens when your body-mind falls outside of this (arbitrary) standard? This book is a brilliant articulation of the Social Model of Disability: that we are all enabled/disabled by our environment. An interdisciplinary work comprising reflections across sociology, anthropology, art, and psychology, Davis' words will resonate with readers from all academic backgrounds, both disabled and non-disabled alike."

Katie, UCL student

Patience by Toby Litt

"It's a brilliantly written and gloriously funny story narrated by a lyrically eloquent boy with cerebral palsy, about his life in a religious orphanage and the ways in which he connects and forms relationships with his fellow inmates. It's a story that could be bleak, but instead suffused with a joyful humanity."

Josh, UCL student

My Left Foot by Christy Brown

"It was written with the author's left foot (due to cerebral palsy affecting most of his body)."

Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit by Jen Campbell

"This is an incredibly powerful collection of poetry that explores the poet’s own experience of disability through vivid visual imagery, incorporating things like myth, folklore, storytelling and circus. It’s both personal and accessible and stays with you long after reading."

Almond by Sohn Won-pyung

"It is an interesting and incredibly intimate and personal look at a lesser-known mental condition. The protagonist suffers from the disorder or impairment of alexithymia which makes him struggle to identify and feel emotions. His friendship with a troubled kid at his school leads him on a close but harrowing adventure as they both try to look for what's best. The author Sohn Won-pyung acknowledges creative license on some aspects of the condition that the character has but is nonetheless able to make us the reader have empathy to all of them, showing us all the importance of emotions and why we must be empathetic to those who may be suffering or even those who may themselves struggle to feel."

Sothysen, UCL student

Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World that Wasn’t Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg

"It's an excellent, easy to follow, conversational piece on the intersection of being neurodiverse and female. It explores why we're under-diagnosed and how society benefits from embracing us."

Sian Lunt, The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong

"Disability Visibility is a book that connected with me on a deep level. It communicated the frustration of living in an ableist world that I have experienced through my brother, who has Down's Syndrome. Through a series of essays, the book opens the doors to the frustration, fear, beauty and love of disability, staying grounded in lived experience, but also hope for a better world. It's a terrific read, that will make you sad, angry, happy, hopeful, and above all else, desperate for a better world."

Tommy Garwood, Students' Union UCL

Lived Experiences of Ableism in Academia: Strategies for Inclusion in Higher Education, edited by Nicole Brown

"This book provides an analytical insight and recognition of the struggles disabled, chronically ill and neurodiverse colleagues experience specific to the academic field, providing examples for universities to develop inclusive practices, accessible working and learning conditions and a less ableist environment."

Vision Impairment: Science, Art and Lived Experience by Michael Crossland (UCL Press)

"This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand what it is like to be visually impaired."

Ableism in Academia: Theorising Experiences of Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses in Higher Education, edited by Nicole Brown and Jennifer Leigh (UCL Press)

"It fits the theme perfectly!"

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this list.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in UCL Library, Culture, Collections and Open Science

This activity was organised through the Library Liberating the Collections Group. The purpose of this group is to identify and oversee progress with a strategic set of actions intended to enrich the collections, increasing visibility of, and access to, works by authors who have been marginalised (and thus less heard) because of factors such as race, sexuality, gender and disability. Any titles that we don’t already own we will buy and add to our collections and will be available shortly.

Support at UCL

Support for Students

• UCL Student Support & Wellbeing: Information for disabled students
• Students’ Union UCL: Disabled Students Network

Support for Staff

• Adjustments Passport
• Digital Accessibility Services
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Disability Equality
• HR Business Partners
• UCL Disability guidance for Disabled and Neurodivergent staff and line managers
• Workplace Health
• Enable@UCL, the university’s staff network open to any disabled person working at UCL as well as any non-disabled person with an interest in promoting disability equality at UCL.