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Happy Ever Afters - disability awareness in children's storybooks - based on the book Happy Ever Afters.

An introduction to the DICSEY Code

The Happy Ever Afters book presents a framework, called the DICSEY Code, which gives a broader understanding of how the social aspects of disability are portrayed in a wide selection of children's books.

Children form their ideas about disability from many areas of life, but storytelling devices like books are an important source of their information. These often imply unhelpful ideas which can lead children to misunderstand the disability experience and make it more difficult for them to manage disability when they meet it in their own lives.

The DICSEY Code can be used to help children criticise their books meaningfully. It can be applied to other formats of both fiction and fact, and extended to highlight disability interests beyond the conventional curriculum areas of English, Special Educational Needs and Personal Health and Social Education, encouraging wider, more frequent and better informed discussions about disability in a real-life context.

It is important that adults who attempt to teach children about disability first give themselves an opportunity to critically examine their own views by discussing the issues with disability awareness or equality trainers who have personal experience of disability. The intended use of the DICSEY Code depends on understanding the differences between social and medical definitions of disability. Briefly:

The medical definition of disability for a person who uses a wheelchair gives a name to a medical condition, for example arthritis, which impairs the person's ability to walk. It places the 'responsibility' for overcoming disability with the person and their medical condition. By the social definition, the same person is disabled by the lack of a suitable environment. This might be a lack of ramps to make using wheelchairs easier and places the 'responsibility' for overcoming disability with society.

The social definition introduces ideas of disability that are beyond the specific medical conditions of individual people. It helps us identify ways to change our environment and attitudes to include everyone and improve how we all live.

The DICSEY Code is an easy way to remember the most important questions we need to ask about the way disability is shown in the books we give our children to read. DICSEY is formed from the first letter of six major disability awareness concepts:

Disability ; Image ; Control ; Society ; Enabled ; Young carers

In the Happy Ever Afters book, very simple explanations are given for each of these to make it easier for adults to talk to young children about them, and to help anticipate some of the questions children may ask.

D - Disability. Disability affects us all. We can find new ways to do things

This section describes what disability is and what it is not, eg. it is not an illness, but illness can cause damage which results in disability. It looks at why individuals differ in their responses to disability. It suggests how to answer children's questions about issues such as the conflict between including disabled people and trying to prevent disability through immunisation etc.

I - Images Images come from stories and pictures that only tell us part of the truth

This section explains stereotypes and their use in children's stories, and how they can affect our response to disability.

C - Control Disabled people want to choose how to manage their own lives

This section highlights examples of how people can loose control over basic day to day living if they have to depend on other people, and shows how this can be improved.

S - Society We all make the rules of our society and we can make it easier for everyone to take part

This section looks very briefly at how a democratic society creates its rules, or laws, and using UK Acts of Parliament, shows how laws have a direct bearing on the lives of disabled people and their families.

E - Enabled Disabled people need an environment that lets them do things for themselves

This section brings together the main categories of enabling devices, their pros and cons and how to invent more diverse ways to enable independence.

Y - Young Carers Young carers are people under eighteen who are caring for a parent, sibling or other relative who is ill, has a disability, has a mental health disturbance or is affected by HIV/AIDS or a substance abuse including alcohol.

This section suggests how schools and parents can be alert for signs that a young carer may need support and how adults might best respond.

Using the DICSEY Code.

Look through some of the children's storybooks you already have at hand. There will almost certainly be one that shows some aspect of the DICSEY Code, but some are more wide ranging than others by virtue of their plot, dialogue or illustration. Happy Ever Afters has over 30 detailed reviews to show how the DICSEY Code can be used with popular children's story books. Consider:

how can the story be used to prompt discussion about the social definition of disability?
how do the plot, language, dialogue and illustrations demonstrate aspects of the DICSEY Code?
are there characters, events or words that portray out-dated or misleading stereotypes?
are there disabled characters who are not in control or allowed to make their own decisions?
are all characters enabled, are some sidelined because of social barriers?
are there unsupported young carers in difficult situations?

Click to the DICSEY examples to discover how to use the Code with some other children's storybooks. Use these and others to promote a better understanding of disability for your children, pupils or readers.

DICSEY Examples

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