The Schneider Family Book Award is give by the American Library Association to “honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.”
The award was established by Dr. Katherine Schneider in 2004. Schneider has experience with both visible and invisible disability. She was born blind and later in life she also developed fibromyalgia. Her disabilities did not hold her back though. She was the first blind student to graduate from the Kalamazoo Public School system and was valedictorian as well as a National Merit scholar. After earning a PhD in psychology from Purdue, Schneider taught and worked as a clinical psychologist for 30 years.
She credits much of her academic success to the mentorship of a librarian at the Michigan Library for the Blind who provided her with books in Braille and on records from the Library of Congress collection. This began her thirst for knowledge but also her life-long advocacy for those with disabilities, focusing on education and increasing accessibility.
These experiences led her to establish the book award after the death of her father. At the inaugural presentation of the award, Schneider reflected, “In the 1950s when I was in grade school, the only media mentions of blind people were of Helen Keller, Louis Braille, and the seven blind men who went to see the elephant—other disabilities fared no better. Fifty years later, we’re here to celebrate the fact that the situation has dramatically improved. The Schneider Family Book Award committee had many wonderful children’s books to consider, which represent the experiences of the one out of seven Americans who have a disability. The disability experience in these wonderful children’s books is a part of a character’s full life, not the focus of the life.”
July is Disability Pride Month. It not only commemorates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which was signed into law on July 26, 1990, but is also a chance to celebrate the history, accomplishments, experiences, and challenges of the disability community. It is thus a perfect opportunity to read some of the winner and honor recipients of the Schneider Family Book Award. You can find them here as well as on display on the main floor of the Library.