Reading by Tamika Reid
with ASL translation
Tamika Reid is a volunteer at Inclusion Winnipeg who is starting a project to make children’s book more inclusive. Called the Literary Inclusion Project, an initiative responding to the diversity gap in children’s literature. After having worked with disabled children for 4 years, she realized that there was a gap in children’s literature. None of the stories she was reading to the children discussed disability. After much research, I found that less than 1.4 percent of children’s books discuss disability.
The book, Sweet without Sugar, will explore life through the eyes of a child with autism. I also included the artwork of YMCA students who have intellectual disabilities to show that children’s authors can be inclusive.
All of the proceeds from her book with be donated to Inclusion Winnipeg, a non-profit that advocates for the independence and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.