Why I Believe More Books About Disabilities Need to Be Published
Like many people, I’ve enjoyed reading for as long as I can remember. Reading has always been a passion of mine and it was part of the reason why I decided at a young age to write a book. Throughout my years of being a bookworm, I have read many books that have inspired me to write more about my life experiences with cerebral palsy, including “Of Mice and Men,” by John Steinbeck and “Forrest Grump,” by Winston Groom.
These books have helped me cope with my cerebral palsy throughout the most difficult times of my life. As an advocate and author, I strongly feel that we need more authors to write about people with different types of disabilities such as cerebral palsy, autism, muscular dystrophy, and more. I truly think that if more authors start writing about disabilities and inclusion, then it would help society have a better understanding of what life is like for someone with a disability.
Books that talk about disabilities have helped me.
More books like this will allow children with disabilities to have someone to look up to, even if it’s just a fictional character. For example, when I was in the 5th grade I was asked to read “Howie Helps Himself,” in front of the whole student body to discuss the topic of students with disabilities. At the time, I was a little girl with buck teeth using a quickie wheelchair.
I stood out in mainstream classes like a sore thumb, and I wanted to fit in society as an 11-year old who loved Disney Channel, my Nintendo DS, and pop music, rather than for what people saw on the outside. After reading “Howie Helps Himself” to the student body I learned to be proud of the young little girl that I was at the time. I also learned to love myself despite the fact I had this health condition, cerebral palsy, that I would have to live with forever.
More published books about disabilities will benefit society.
We need more awareness about disabilities in literature so that young children, teenagers, and even adults with disabilities don’t feel isolated from society. Having more discussion and literature that brings up the topic of self-identifying and acceptance when it comes to people with disabilities, as well as the different types of disabilities that exist, could help reduce bullying in schools. This is because students would be more aware of people with disabilities and have a better understanding that would help them adapt to communicating with people in society that have disabilities.
That is why I chose this career path of being an author and an advocate, so that I could help people with disabilities through my literature and advocacy work. I continue to work on my writing and my advocacy so that people with disabilities don’t have to feel the loneliness that I felt earlier in my life.
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Tylia L. Flores is a twenty-eight-year-old born with Spastic Cerebral Palsy. Despite her condition that affects her mobility, she does not allow it to affect her will and determination to make a difference in the world. Through her many life challenges and obstacles, she discovered her passion for writing. Tylia’s goal in life is to share her stories with the world. In doing so, she hopes to help others with disabilities realize that they, too, have the potential to make their dreams come true. Tylia is not only an author. She’s a radio show personality and a disability activist. Tylia has written about disability-related topics for Yahoo Life, Your Tango, The Mighty, ReadUnwritten.com, Words Between Coasts Project, Wednesday, Spilwords, and Goble Thrive. Worth Living Among her other appearances are Disability on the Spectrum and Why I was Afraid of Sexuality. Previously, Tylia was nominated to Diversabilities list of the most influential Disability Impacts of 2022. Additionally, Tylia holds the position of chairman in the creative director role for the North American Association Of Cerebral Palsy Advocates. She serves as a mentor for the Disability EmpowHer Network as well. Tylia also works for Write It Up Publishing as a sensitivity reader focusing on disability representation. Tylia has also been involved in many movie press releases for Samuel Goldwyn Films Come as you are Piece of me which was the short film directed and written by award winning filmmaker Bruna Cabral as well as the film adaptation of the book Calvin can’t fly by Jenifer Burnes Tylia is also a keynote speaker at 2020’s Cerebral Palsy Awareness conference. She has also been a guest speaker at Northeastern State University Broken Arrow where she talks to college students about disability and inclusion in education. She has also been a guest speaker at Plantation Middle School, where she discussed inclusion and disability with classmates. Tylia is fully certified in Education for All: Disability, Diversity, and Inclusion through Cape Town University. She’s also certified in Understanding Diversity and Inclusion through Purdue University. She’s also certified in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Tylia hosts the Stomping On cerebral Palsy radio show with DJ Ty on Asheville FM with DJ Mouse during the Come On In the Kitchen segment once a month she also helps the staff behind the scenes, help bring awareness to disability awareness and inclusion within the radio broadcasting industry .
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