Growing Up Disabled in Australia

Growing Up Disabled in Australia is part of the best selling Black Inc series. It’s released February 2021.

I am editing the book. We had over 360 submissions and I’ve chosen more than 40 contributors from those.

Image: a book cover. It’s an abstract drawing featuring pink, yellow and purple coloured scribbles on a real background. “Growing Up Disabled in Australia” is in white capital handwritten style text in the middle of the book, and “Carly Findlay” in capital yellow text at the bottom.

My body and its place in the world seemed quite normal to me.

I didn’t grow up disabled, I grew up with a problem. A problem those around me wanted to fix.

We have all felt that uncanny sensation that someone is watching us.

The diagnosis helped but it didn’t fix everything.

Don’t fear the labels.

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.

Contributors are:

Alistair Baldwin

Andy Jackson

Anna Whateley

Astrid Edwards

Belinda Downes

Carly-Jay Metcalfe

Chantel Bongiovanni

Cubbie Mako

Dion Beasley

El Gibbs

Eliza Hull

Emma Di Bernardo

Fiona Murphy

Frances Henke

Gayle Kennedy

Hannah Sidney

Iman Shaanu

Isis Holt

Jane Rosengrave

Jasmine Shirrefs

Jessica Knight

Jessica Walton

Jordon Steele-John

K.Z. Barton

Kath Duncan

Kerri-ann Messenger

Khanh Nguyen

Kit Kavanagh-Ryan

Lauren Poole

Lucy Carpenter

Marla Bishop

Melanie Rees

Natalia Wikana

Oliver Mills

Olivia Muscat

Patrick Gunasekera

Ricky Buchanan

Robin Eames

Sam Drummond

Sandi Parsons

Sarah Firth

Tim Slade

Todd Winther

Tom Middleditch

Tully Zygier

Yvonne Fein

The cover art is by Wendy Dawson who is part of Arts Prjects Australia.

Preorder the book now. It will be available in paperback, ebook and eventually, audiobook.

A note on the social model of disability

Growing Up Disabled in Australia is based on the social model of disability.

People with Disability Australia states “The social model sees ‘disability’ is the result of the interaction between people living with impairments and an environment filled with physical, attitudinal, communication and social barriers. It therefore carries the implication that the physical, attitudinal, communication and social environment must change to enable people living with impairments to participate in society on an equal basis with others.

A social model perspective does not deny the reality of impairment nor its impact on the individual. However, it does challenge the physical, attitudinal, communication and social environment to accommodate impairment as an expected incident of human diversity.”