Disability is as varied and unique as the disabled person. As the saying goes, "If you've met one autistic person, you've met ONE autistic person." Part of the mission of GD SEPAC is to educate the community about disability. On this page, we present a number of resources to learn more about living with specific disabilities. We've especially focused on resources created by members of the disabled community.
We are not fans of disability simulators as they rely on generalizations and stereotypes of disability. They tend to evoke pity due to the amplification of the negative traits of disability without acknowledging the adaptations one makes to navigate life in a neurotypical or able-bodied world.
We ask you to start your education about disability with this video: Normalizing Disability Begins in School (opens in new tab).
Autism and Sensory Processing
- Ask an Autistic Video Series (opens in new tab)
- Neurodiversity: The Key that Unlocked My World (opens in new tab)
- Sensory Experience: The School Hallway (opens in new tab)
- Sensory Experience: The Classroom (opens in new tab)
- Listen Up! Katie (opens in new tab)
- #StopCombatingMe (opens in new tab)
- The Party: A Virtual Experience (opens in new tab)
- A Story of Undiagnosed Autism (opens in new tab)
- Temple Grandin: The Autistic Brain (opens in new tab)
- MA Autism Commission Guide (opens in new tab)
- Child Mind: Guide to Autism (opens in new tab)
Vision Impairment
- The Tommy Edison Experience (opens in new tab)
- Visual Impairment is my Super Power (opens in new tab)
- Understanding Visual Impairment in Children (opens in new tab)
- Making the World Accessible (opens in new tab)
- Overlooking Our Vision (opens in new tab)
- Myopia: A Global Epidemic (opens in new tab)
- Experiencing a Loss of Sight Gave Me Vision (opens in new tab)
- Vision Impairment Factsheet (opens in new tab)
Hearing and Speech
- A Day through a Deaf Person's Eyes (opens in new tab)
- Through the Eyes of Deaf Children (opens in new tab)
- Navigating Deafness in a Hearing World (opens in new tab)
- Darien's Journey with Childhood Apraxia (opens in new tab)
- Jordan Christian on Apraxia (opens in new tab)
- What Is It Like to Be Unable to Communicate? (opens in new tab)
- Tinnitus: Ringing In the Brain (opens in new tab)
- Making Education Accessible to Deaf Children (opens in new tab)
- I Am Hearing Impaired and I Am America (opens in new tab)
Anxiety
- Living With High Functioning Anxiety (opens in new tab)
- The Healing Powers of Dude (opens in new tab)
- 4 Illustrations of what Anxiety is Really Like (opens in new tab)
- High Functioning Anxiety (opens in new tab)
- Child Mind: Guide to Anxiety (opens in new tab)
- Anxiety: Helping Handout (opens in new tab)
- How Does Anxiety Affect Kids in School? (opens in new tab)
Tourette's Syndrome
Reading Challenges
- The Secret Upside of Dyslexia (opens in new tab)
- Why Reading Matters (opens in new tab)
- How I Overcame My Learning Disabilities and Became a Physician (opens in new tab)
- The Creative Brilliance of Dyslexia (opens in new tab)
- Dyslexic? They're Not Broken (opens in new tab)
- The Science of Reading: Basics and Beyond (opens in new tab)
Intellectual Disability
- How Much Do You Know About Intellectual Disability? (opens in new tab)
- 3 Things I Learned from my Intellectually Disabled Son (opens in new tab)
- Let's Talk About Intellectual Disabilities (opens in new tab)
- College: Possible For Students with Intellectual Disabilities (opens in new tab)
- Inclusive Career Placement for People with Intellectual Disabilities (opens in new tab)
- Supporting Students with Intellectual Disabilities (opens in new tab)
Mental Health
- How to Talk About Mental Health (opens in new tab)
- Mental Health in Schools (opens in new tab)
- Stress At School (opens in new tab)
- What Teenagers Want You To Know (opens in new tab)
- Students With Depression (opens in new tab)
- Shedding Light on Student Depression (opens in new tab)
- What They Don't Tell You (opens in new tab)
- Depression: Supporting Students (opens in new tab)
- Child Mind: About Depression and Mood Disorders (opens in new tab)
Mobility
- Overcoming Ableism: What You Don't Know as an Able-Bodied Person (opens in new tab)
- Changing The Way We Talk About Disability (opens in new tab)
- Crip Camp (opens in new tab)
- Disability Doesn't Mean Invisibility (opens in new tab)
- Finding Where You Belong: A Story of Disability and Education (opens in new tab)
- The Truth About Growing Up Disabled (opens in new tab)
- Limited Mobility Fact Sheet for Schools (opens in new tab)
AD(H)D and Executive Function
- Cleaning the Kitchen (opens in new tab)
- AD(H)D in Girls and Women (opens in new tab)
- Failing at Normal: An AD(H)D Success Story (opens in new tab)
- AD(H)D Brain: A Model for the Future (opens in new tab)
- Normalizing Neurodiversity (opens in new tab)
- AD(H)D Sucks, But Not Really (opens in new tab)
- AD(H)D From The Inside (opens in new tab)
- AD(H)D and Sensory Overload (opens in new tab)
- AD(H)D As A Difference In Cognition (opens in new tab)
- How ADHD ignites Rejection Dysphoria (opens in new tab)
- Child Mind: Guide to AD(H)D (opens in new tab)
- Understanding Girls with AD(H)D (opens in new tab)
Behavior, ODD, and CD
- How to Meet Your Child's Difficult Behavior with Compassion (opens in new tab)
- Child Mind: Behavior Problems and Disorders (opens in new tab)
- Breaking the Behavior Code (opens in new tab)
- AACAP: ODD Guide (opens in new tab)
- AACAP: Conduct Disorder (opens in new tab)
- ODD Infographic (opens in new tab)
- ODD Fact Sheet for Schools (opens in new tab)
Neurodiversity and Ableism
- Disability, the Truth (opens in new tab)
- Exploring Ableism: An Invitation to Create an Inclusive Society (opens in new tab)
- I'm Not Your Inspiration (opens in new tab)
- Invisible Disabilities (opens in new tab)
- Not All Disabilities Are Visible (opens in new tab)
- The Obstacles of Disabilities (opens in new tab)
- Valuing Differences (opens in new tab)
- On Teaching: Celebrating Neurodiversity (opens in new tab)
- Neurodiversity and the Pupil "creeping ...unwillingly to school" (opens in new tab)
- Teaching for Neurodiversity (opens in new tab)
Simulations: The Issues
- I Won't Pretend that Disability Simulations Work (opens in new tab)
- Online Dyslexia Simulation is Compelling, Powerful, and Wrong (opens in new tab)
- How Disability Simulations Promote Damaging Stereotypes (opens in new tab)
- Disability Simulations: What the Research Says (opens in new tab)
- Disability Simulations: If, When, and How to Use Them (opens in new tab)
