For everyone Book review: Growing Up Disabled in Australia

★★★★

Offering a privileged insight into the internal experience of disability, so often different to external perceptions, this addition to Black Inc.’s Growing Up in Australia series features a diverse range of voices – some famous, some unknown, but all equally compelling, frank and illuminating.

Compiled by writer and advocate Carly Findlay, its contributors provide a rich sense of what it means to live with a label and the differing challenges faced, but also of their immeasurable courage and resilience.

Sad, funny, poignant or full of rage, we hear the full range of emotions experienced by those who grew up knowing they were different, many enduring ignorance, discrimination and a lack of compassion from others. Also, the frustration of always being watched or studied, or surrounded by people seeking to ‘fix’ them.

While for some the ‘disabled’ label is distressing or disempowering, others embrace it as a potent way to define themselves and to advocate for equality and access to a world they can navigate alongside the rest of us.