Note: This list is not exhaustive; it is a sampling of disability and independent living books and movies. NCIL does not endorse, control, or assume responsibility for any third-party content.
Have book or movie suggestions? Email: Mary-Kate@ncil.org
Nonfiction
- From Shack to White House: A Memoir of Four Lives by Theo Braddy (2025)
- An Independent Man: Ed Roberts and the Fight for Disability Rights by Scot Danforth (2025)
- Unseen: How I Lost My Vision but Found My Voice by Molly Burke (2025)
- Interabled: True Stories About Love and Disability from Squirmy & Grubs and Other Interabled Couples by Shane Burcaw and Hannah Burcaw (2025)
- Disability Intimacy by Alice Wong (2024)
- Anti-Ableist Manifesto: Smashing Stereotypes, forging change and building a disability-inclusive world by Tiffany Yu (2024)
- Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew (2024)
- To Be a Problem by Dara Baldwin (2024)
- Sipping Dom Perignon through a Straw by Eddie Ndopu (2023)
- Black Disability Politics by Sami Schalk (2022)
- Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life by Alice Wong (2022)
- The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (2022)
- Disability Pride by Ben Mattlin (2022)
- Making Their Days Happen: Paid Personal Assistance Services Supporting People with Disability Living in Their Homes and Communities by Lisa Iezzoni (2022)
- Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (2021)
- Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau (2021)
- Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig (2021)
- Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice and Art Activism of Sins Invalid (2021)
- Disability Visibility by Alice Wong (2020)
- Being Heumann by Judy Heumann (2020)
- Haben: The Deafblind Women who Conquered Havard Law by Haben Girma (2020)
- Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space – non-fiction by Amanda Leduc (2020)
- The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang (2019)
- Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement by Dixon, Ejeris, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (2019)
- Resistance and Hope edited by Alice Wong, Disability Visibility Project (2018)
- A Disability History of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen (2018)
- Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (2018)
- Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability by Shane Burcaw (2017)
- Max Starkloff and the Fight for Disability Rights by Charles Claggett and Richard Weiss (2015)
- The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation by Doris Zames Fleischer (2011)
- Skin Tooth and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People (Disability Justice Primer) by Patty Berne, Sins Invalid (2005)
- Nothing about Us without Us by James Charlton (2000)
- Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation by Eli Clare (1999)
- No Pity by J.P. Shapiro (1994)
Fiction
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (2023)
- True Biz by Sara Novic (2022)
- A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer (2019)
- Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (2019)
Childrens & Young Adults:
- A Day with No Words by Tiffany Hammond and illustratored by Kate Cosgrove (2023)
- Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalia Sylvester (2022)
- The Chance to Fly by Ali Stroker and Stacy Davidowitz (2021)
- All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimente and illustrated by Nabi Ali (2020)
- El Deafo by Cece Bell (2014)
Activity/Coloring Book
- Crip Wisdom Coloring Book by Miso Kwak and Emily Nott (available in Braille!)
- Change, No Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act (2025)
- Deaf President Now (2025)
- Better off Dead? by Liz Carr (2024)
- The Ride Ahead (2024)
- Patrice: The Movie (2024)
- Quad Gods (2024)
- Renegades: Five People with Disabilities who Changed History (2024)
- Fire through Dry Grass (2023)
- CODA (2021)
- Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020)
- Lives Worth Living (2011)
Tips for accessing accessible reading material
- Local Public Library
- Check out your local library
- Tip: Some library systems allow you to borrow from different library or even colleges/universities throughout your state
- Digital Services for E-books, audiobooks, and magazines
- Apps: Libby or Hoopla
- Kindle
- Community and Low/No cost Initiatives
- Local Book Bank
- Literacy programs
- “Little Free Library”
- One Book, One Community Initiatives
- Alternative Forums:
- National Library Service For the Blind and Print Disabled
- Contact the book publisher (example: large print or digital)
- Other Resources:
