Happy Ever Afters - disability awareness in children's storybooks - based on the book Happy Ever Afters.
DICSEY Example - an easy reader
Celebrate the International Day of Disabled Persons with New Zealand writer Margaret Mahy!
The Great Piratical Rumbustification written by Margaret Mahy and illustrated by Quentin Blake
1981 Puffin Books ISBN 0-14-031261, a two story presentation with The Librarian and the Robbers
When a one-legged, one-eyed 'naval gentleman' turns up to babysit, and the most wicked pirate of all has a skull and crossbones painted on his wheelchair, the children know they're heading for an adventure!
This story has DICSEY elements Disability, Image, Control, Society and Enable and can be used to discuss modern medicine, prevention of accidents, and how to write stories that rise above a common mistake when including disabled characters.
If needed, a quick link to 'An Introduction to the DICSEY Code' is here.
The babysitter looked more like a pirate.
Question: Why? Answer: He had a false leg, a patch over one eye and a hook where his hand used to be. Before modern medicines, sailors were often badly injured on the high seas and died if their wounds became infected. A clean amputation gave a better chance of survival and artificial limbs enabled them to continue working. Some ship's crews tried to steal the cargoes of less well defended vessels and they were called pirates. Put together, this created a stereotype of sailors with amputations who were cruel and lawless which leads to a modern image that people with disabilities are antisocial. Disabilities have no effect at all on people's characters, but a disabling environment can cause great frustration.
Question: Are the pirates in this story cruel and lawless? Answer: No, the writer used the common pirate image to add suspense to the story, but very carefully avoided linking their physical conditions to bad characters, in fact these pirates are quite honourable!
Terrible Crabmeat's servant helped him to get dressed.
Question: How else might his servant help? Answer: If Terrible Crabmeat was responsible for employing his assistant, he could control how and when his assistant worked and arrange all sorts of jobs to suit himself. In general, disabled people who need assistants have to manage with somebody else's idea of what they need, which is often unsatisfactory.
Question: Why did he use a wheelchair if he could walk? Answer: People who use wheelchairs can sometimes stand and walk short distances, but not far enough to do all they want to do. Wheelchairs enable them to get about with greater comfort and speed. Motorised wheelchairs are much more expensive, but enable people with less strength to get about with less effort.
Who pays for assistants and wheelchairs?
Answer: Laws are passed by society, through Government, that allow taxes to be collected to pay for all the community services like schools, hospitals, roads and police. When people need to use schools and hospitals, or have disabilities and need assistants and wheelchairs, the tax money is supposed to be used to provide the necessary service, but there is often not enough money to pay for all that is really needed. Disabled people in many other countries cannot get any help from their governments and have to depend on charity for basic essentials.
Above all, let children enjoy the story!
International Day of Disabled Persons information
Link to Archive page for more suggestions
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© K. Saunders 2000/2001