Schneider Family Book Award should focus on disabled protagonists

Part of my studies in librarianship this semester involved advocating for a positive change in how libraries serve diverse populations. I chose to offer a suggestion for improving the Schneider Family Book Award, which honors “distinguished portrayal[s] of people living with a disabling condition” (ALA, 2024, p. 6).

Traditionally, the character who lives with a disability could be a book’s secondary character; they did not have to be the story’s protagonist. In my essay, which was addressed to the award’s deciding jury, I argued that, in order to truly portray “the disability experience,” the character living with a disability should be the story’s main character.

As librarians, our profession is committed to cultural competency, to “understanding the needs of diverse populations” (Overall, 2009, p. 176). One of the ways that libraries are called to serve diverse populations is by curating diverse collections that highlight “the perspectives of marginalized groups, including people with disabilities” (ALA, 2018, para. 5).

The Schneider Family Book Award was endowed in 2003 (ALA, 2024, p. 4). Its purpose is to “recognize and honor books for their distinguished portrayal of people living with a disabling condition” (ALA, 2024, p. 6). As of publication of the award manual’s third edition in 2021, “seventy-some books” had received this award (ALA, 2024, p. 4). But among past winners, not every book has been deserving of the honor. Past award winners have been criticized “for inaccurately depicting disabilities or containing stereotypes” (Kingsbury, 2024, p. 27/para 26). One such misstep was in awarding Rules by Cynthia Lord the medal in middle-grade literature in 2007.

The problem with Rules as a Schneider medal winner is that “Rules wants you to relate to Catherine [the non-disabled main character]. There are very few attempts to humanize David [the main character’s autistic brother]” (Entz, 2015, para. 4). A storyline involving Jason, a nonverbal character who uses a wheelchair, was “given better treatment than David” (Entz, 2015, para. 7), but the purpose of Jason as a character seemed “more to develop Catherine’s character than to be his own independent self” (Entz, 2015, para. 10).

Most frightening to me as an autistic person, as well as to the reviewer, was the book’s “constant focus on the need for a ‘cure’ for autism … Rather than promoting acceptance, this is showing that autistics need to be changed or cured” (Entz, 2015, para. 6).

Stereotypes in fiction can affect the way that autistic people are perceived and treated in real life (Bartmess, 2015): a concern that is very real for me as an autistic person. I inhabit a world that was not designed for me, and am expected to somehow navigate this world by appearing as “normal” as possible, by successfully “masking” my autistic tendencies.

To focus on the perceived limitations of a disability, the way that Rules characterizes autism, goes against the values of our library profession: “Library staff should never presuppose a person’s limits based on disability” (ALA, 2018, para. 2). A book like Rules perpetuates stigma, which when associated with a developmental disability like autism or with a mental-health disorder, “can undermine opportunities for people to seek help and support” (Green, 2020, p. 120). Because of the prestige of this award being associated with the American Library Association, a book like Rules will have been “read by thousands of children, parents, teachers, librarians and grandparents” (ALA, 2024, p. 4): compounding the damage of such a dehumanizing and stigmatizing portrayal.

Just as library programs “have often been created for diverse populations with little or no input from cultural and ethnic groups served” (Overall, 2009, p. 179), a book like Rules, which centers the perspective of a neurotypical character, fails to meet the needs of an autistic readership who deserve to see themselves represented in the literature they consume.

I believe that missteps such as those that occurred with Rules, took place because the scope of the award allows that the person with a disability “may be the protagonist or a secondary character” (ALA, 2024, p. 6). This may have made sense when the award was established, given a potentially small pool of awardees. But within its 20 years, the award “has evolved from a little-known prize with few annual submissions to one that gains relevance every year in a field with expanding representations of disabilities” (Kingsbury, 2024, p. 25/para. 5). The jury itself has acknowledged that “Good stories with disability content have become more common” and that award juries “have to work harder each year to pick out the best of the best” (ALA, 2024, p. 4).

Given the much larger pool of candidates to work from, as well as our mandate for culturally competent services to marginalized populations: it makes sense to revise award submission criteria that allows a disabled person to either be the protagonist or a secondary character. The quality of award winners will greatly be enhanced, and winners will more closely match the award’s mandate, if the books that you consider only tell a story from the perspective of a disabled protagonist.

References:
American Library Association. (2018, June 26). Services to people with disabilities: An interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/servicespeopledisabilities

American Library Association (2024). Schneider Family Book Award manual. https://www.ala.org/sites/default/files/2024-08/Schneider%20Manual%20-%20Finalages.pdf

Bartmess, E. (2015, Dec. 18). Autistic representation and real-life consequences: An in-depth look. Disability in Kidlit. https://disabilityinkidlit.com/2015/12/18/autistic-representation-and-real-life-consequences/

Entz, R. (2015, April 12). Review: Rules by Cynthia Lord. Disability in Kidlit. https://disabilityinkidlit.com/2015/04/12/review-rules-by-cynthia-lord/

Green, M. P. (2020). Inclusive library service to individuals with mental illnesses and disorders. The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, 4(1), 119-126.

Kingsbury, M. (2024). The Schneider turns 20: How the award has propelled disability representation into the spotlight. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/the-schneider-family-book-award-turns-20

Overall, P. M. (2009). Cultural competence: A conceptual framework for library and information science professionals. The Library Quarterly, 79(2), 175-204.