Disability Pride Month

Every July, the city of Lake Oswego, Oregon recognizes Disability Pride Month with events throughout the city.

Disability Pride Month promotes acceptance of disability as an identity, community, and culture. It honors the history, achievements, and experiences of people with disabilities while challenging ableism and discrimination.

Disability pride is about embracing people with disabilities as fully human. It is not about denying challenges or “liking” one’s disability but rejecting shame and the idea that disabled people are less capable of contributing to society.

At Lake Oswego Public Library, we are proud to support Disability Pride Month with a growing collection of books by and about disabled people. These include works that reflect authentic disability experiences, often written by disabled authors themselves, avoiding stereotypes that reduce disability to plot devices or negative tropes. This month, explore our curated booklist that highlights diverse perspectives on disability:.


Updated June 24, 2025
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Access state-level health and demographic data about adults with disabilities.
Watch documentaries about the history of the disability rights movement and meet artists and families whose stories examine their disability experiences.

Although not yet officially recognized in the United States, since 2004 Disability Pride Month has been celebrated with parades in cities including New York, Chicago, Madison, and Los Angeles.

Love from A to Z
Ali, S. K.
Paper Book
A Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick "The bighearted, wildly charming, painfully real love story I've been waiting for." --Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda From William C. Morris Award...
A quiet kind of thunder
Barnard, Sara
Paper Book
Steffi doesn't talk, but she has so much to say.Rhys can't hear, but he can listen.Their love isn't a lightning strike, it's the rumbling roll of thunder.Steffi has been a selective mute for most of her life - she's been silent for so long that she feels completely invisible. But Rhys, the new boy...
El deafo
Bell, Cece
Paper Book
Cece Bell's #1 New York Times Bestseller graphic novel El Deafo is the origin story of a student with hearing loss and a hearing aid becoming a superhero. A John Newbery Medal Winner Now an Apple+ Animated TV Series! ...
Mean baby : a memoir of growing up
Blair, Selma
Paper Book
How to be human : an autistic man's guide to life
Fleming, Jory
Paper Book
An unforgettable, unconventional narrative that examines the many ways to be fully human, told by the first young adult with autism to attend Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. As a child, Jory Fleming was wracked by uncontrollable tantrums, had no tolerance for...
Marbles : mania, depression, Michelangelo, & me : a graphic memoir
Forney, Ellen.
Paper Book
Cartoonist Ellen Forney explores the relationship between "crazy" and "creative" in this graphic memoir of her bipolar disorder, woven with stories of famous bipolar artists and writers.   Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder....
Where you see yourself
Forrest, Claire (Young adult author)
Paper Book
A Schneider Family Book Award Honor Book What does it take to follow your dreams? Where You See Yourself is a relatable, romantic, and necessary story about a girl who has to figure out what--and who--will bring her the happiness she deserves. By the time Effie...
We're not broken : changing the autism conversation
Garcia, Eric
Paper Book
"This book is a message from autistic people to their parents, friends, teachers, coworkers and doctors showing what life is like on the spectrum. It's also my love letter to autistic people. For too long, we have been forced to navigate a world where all the road signs are written in another...
You're welcome, universe
Gardner, Whitney
Paper Book
A vibrant, edgy, fresh new YA voice for fans of More Happy Than Not and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, packed with interior graffiti. When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up...
I live a life like yours
Grue, Jan
Paper Book
A profoundly beautiful memoir about living in a vulnerable body, fiercely and tenderly rewriting our understanding of relationships and desire.
Being Heumann : an unrepentant memoir of a disability rights activist
Heumann, Judith E.
Paper Book
Soon to be an Apple feature movie directed by CODA's Sian Heder and starring BAFTA-nominated actress Ruth Madeley as Judy Heumann "This important book will help ensure that every person gets a chance to live up to their full potential and will always have a place at the...
Get a life, Chloe Brown a novel
Hibbert, Talia
Paper Book
The kiss quotient
Hoang, Helen
Paper Book
From the author of The Bride Test comes a romance novel hailed as one of The Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2018 and one of Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2018! "This is such a fun read and it's also quite original and sexy and sensitive."--Roxane Gay,...
A curse so dark and lonely
Kemmerer, Brigid
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller! "Has everything you'd want in a retelling of a classic fairy tale." - Jodi Picoult In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance...
Disfigured : on fairy tales, disability, and making space
Leduc, Amanda
Paper Book
A CBC BOOKS BEST NONFICTION OF 2020 AN ENTROPY MAGAZINE BEST NONFICTION 2020/21 A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOK OF THE DAY (07/23/2022) Fairy tales shape how we see the world, so what happens when you identify more with the Beast than Beauty? If every disabled...
Always only you
Liese, Chloe
Paper Book
Ren I'm a player on the team, she's on staff, and as long as we work together, dating is off-limits. Frankie won't be here forever - she's headed for bigger, better things. I just hope that when she leaves the team and I tell her how I feel, she won't want to leave me behind, too. ...
Not if I see you first
Lindström, Eric.
Paper Book
The sensational debut YA of 2016 that everyone will be talking about. Parker Grant doesn't need perfect vision to see right through you. That's why she created the Rules: Don't treat her any differently just because she's blind, and never take advantage. There will be no...
Disability pride : dispatches from a post-ADA world
Mattlin, Ben
Paper Book
An eye-opening portrait of the diverse disability community as it is today, and how disability attitudes, activism, and representation have evolved since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) In Disability Pride, disabled journalist Ben Mattlin weaves...
Divergent mind : thriving in a world that wasn't designed for you
Nerenberg, Jenara
Paper Book
AUDIBLE EDITOR'S PICK A paradigm-shifting study of neurodivergent women--those with ADHD, autism, synesthesia, high sensitivity, and sensory processing disorder--exploring why these traits are overlooked in women and how society benefits from...
Unbroken : 13 stories starring disabled teens
Nijkamp, Marieke
Paper Book
This anthology explores disability in fictional tales told from the viewpoint of disabled characters, written by disabled creators. With stories in various genres about first loves, friendship, war, travel, and more, Unbroken will offer today's teen readers a glimpse into the lives of...
True biz : a novel
Novic?, Sara
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * A "tender, beautiful and radiantly outraged" (The New York Times Book Review) novel that follows a year of seismic romantic, political, and familial shifts for a teacher and her students at a boarding school for the deaf, from the...
Sensory life on the spectrum : an autistic comics anthology
Ollerton, Bex
Paper Book
A colorful and eclectic comics anthology exploring a wide range of autistic experiences--from diagnosis journeys to finding community--from autistic contributors. From artist and curator Bex Ollerton comes an anthology featuring comics from thirty autistic creators about their...
Neurotribes : the legacy of autism and the future of neurodiversity
Silberman, Steve
Paper Book
This New York Times-bestselling book upends conventional thinking about autism and suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and full participation in society for people who think differently. "Beautifully told, humanizing, important."--The New York Times...
A time to dance
Venkatraman, Padma
Audiobook
Padma Venkatraman's inspiring story of a young girl's struggle to regain her passion and find a new peace is told lyrically through verse that captures the beauty and mystery of India and the ancient bharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, the power of...
Disability visibility : 17 first-person stories for today
Wong, Alice
Paper Book
Disabled young people will be proud to see themselves reflected in this hopeful, compelling, and insightful essay collection, adapted for young adults from the critically acclaimed adult book, Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century that "sheds light on...
Disability visibility : first-person stories from the Twenty-first century
Wong, Alice
Paper Book
A groundbreaking collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience- Disability Visibility brings together the voices of activists, authors, lawyers, politicians, artists, and everyday people whose daily lives are, in the words of playwright...
Year of the tiger : an activist's life
Wong, Alice
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * ONE OF USA TODAY'S MUST-READ BOOKS * This groundbreaking memoir offers a glimpse into an activist's journey to finding and cultivating community and the continued fight for disability justice, from the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project ...

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