Advocacy and Accession: Chicago Public Library’s Disability Awareness Month
- Courtney Graham
- Jul 19, 2018
- 2 min read
This post is an excerpt from my article on Sixty Inches From Center, which supports and promotes art and writing that thrives primarily outside of mainstream historical narratives.
![Tellin’ Tales Theatre’s Young Adult Writers program 2017, courtesy of Tellin’ Tales Theatre and Chicago Public Library. [IMAGE DESCRIPTION: eleven people reading from black folders. Three people stand at the back, while the rest are seated on varying levels. Several of the participants are using wheelchairs.]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f121b9_ebc1dd23b7d94501ad581c4689ba54cf~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_654,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/f121b9_ebc1dd23b7d94501ad581c4689ba54cf~mv2.jpg)
There’s something about a library that makes me feel at home. The seemingly endless options of well-worn books are a welcome sight for anyone who grew up spending hot summers cross-legged on a public library floor.
During July, that innate sense of welcoming is highlighted further with the Chicago Public Library (CPL)’s Disability Awareness Month. With a fierce desire to make the disability community feel more at home in the city’s library spaces, the CPL’s Diversability Advocacy Committee is in the midst of its second annual celebration of people with disabilities—both as guests as well as creatives.
Evelyn Keolian, co-chair of the Diversability Advocacy Committee and a Children’s Librarian at the Edgewater Branch, took the time to tell me a little more about the library’s Disability Awareness Month.
Courtney Graham: Last year was the Chicago Public Library’s first observance of Disability Awareness Month, how did this initiative begin?
Evelyn Keolian: At CPL, we have different heritage and cultural committees that take on the responsibility to facilitate programming to celebrate their respective heritage months. Some examples of our committees are the African American Heritage Committee, Women’s History Committee, and the LGBTQ Pride Committee. There wasn’t a committee in place recognizing individuals with disabilities. With the support of my branch manager and administrative staff, I recruited and formed the Diversability Advocacy Committee in late spring of 2016. We worked on getting resources to create this awareness month in 2017. In the first year of our committee’s work, we marched in the Disability Pride Parade in July and had 2 programs for International Day of Persons with Disabilities in December.
Read the rest of this piece at Sixty Inches From Center.