Eligibility

Book Eligibility Criteria

Publishers are invited to submit every in print title that meets the below criteria:

First published in the UK in 2024. Books previously published in other formats (such as hardback) are not eligible.
Aimed at children aged 3-11
Classed as fiction, non-fiction, a picture book or part of a reading scheme
Features any people/characters at any point in the book who are D/deaf, disabled, neurodivergent, face mental health challenges or have a visible difference.

Books are not eligible:

If they show an accessible environment but no disabled people. (Whilst we applaud these, the survey specifies representation of disabled people).
Where glasses or contact lenses correct vision to the point where it no longer affects the person or character’s day to day activities.
Where someone has a short-term illness or injury that lasts less than 6 months (such as a broken leg).
When they are reading scheme titles that are not narrative fiction or non-fiction and are solely activity based or exclusively teach letters and sounds.

Notes:

The project has aimed to align with the guidance of the 2010 Equality Act. The relevant points of the act which apply to the eligibility criteria are:

Someone is disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities.
- which has lasted at least 12 months, or
- is likely to last at least 12 months, or for the rest of the life of the person affected

Someone is disabled if they have a significant visible difference (the Equality Act uses the term ‘severe disfigurement’). Examples include scars, birthmarks, limb or postural differences (including restricted bodily development), or diseases of the skin.
A person who has cancer, HIV infection or multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disabled person.
Someone is not disabled if they have a sight impairment that is ‘corrected’ by spectacles (glasses) or contact lenses. (I.e. wearing glasses or contact lenses mean that their ability to do day to day activities is not affected.) This does not include the use of devices to correct sight which are not spectacles or contact lenses.

Information summarised from ‘Definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010’.

Statement on categorisation

The Reflecting Disability project supports the Social Model of Disability.

The steering group has agreed to use broad categories of impairment, condition or difference to record how d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent characters (including those with chronic health conditions, mental health conditions and visible difference) are represented in books.

Some medical labels and language are necessary to enable the results to be compared with government statistics and show whether books reflect the UK population. However, the steering group would not usually expect to see this language or type of medicalisation in children’s books.

These decisions were needed to enable the representation of disabled people in children’s books to be assessed reliably and consistently. The steering group are aware that these categories may not reflect all the identities, cultures and differences within disabled communities and agree it would not be practical to try to label every individual experience.

Broad categories used in the survey:

Neurodivergent conditions, impairments or differences
Speech Language and Communication conditions, impairments or differences
Sensory conditions, impairments or differences
Mental Health conditions
Cognitive and Learning Disabilities
Down Syndrome
Physical conditions, impairments or differences
Visible differences
Chronic Health conditions, impairments or differences
Other conditions, impairments or differences