Understanding Disability Book Series

The UNDERSTANDING DISABILITY book series explores disability in a comprehensive, honest, and age-appropriate way. Engaging, inquiry-based sidebars encourage students to LOOK, THINK, MAKE A GUESS, ASK QUESTIONS, and CREATE.

These books are authored by writers with disabilities in partnership with Cherry Lake Publishing in support of our goal to advance full equity, inclusion, and access through life-changing disability and community services. Get your copies today!

MEET THE AUTHORS

Beth Finke is an award-winning author, teacher, journalist and content producer for Easterseals' national blog. Ever since “Safe and Sound,” Beth’s children’s book about Seeing Eye dogs, won an award for children’s literature from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), she keeps busy visiting schools to talk with kids about disability awareness, service dogs, and teamwork. During presentations, her Seeing Eye dog Luna guides Beth through narrow hallways, crowded cafeterias and down stairways to demonstrate some of the ways Seeing Eye dogs keep their partners safe from harm. Back at home after presentations, Luna enjoys chasing bones, giving paw, and rolling on her back for belly rubs.

Erin Hawley is a disability rights and accessibility advocate from Keyport, New Jersey. Through her work on social media, she has brought together a community of people passionate about accessible gaming and has worked with companies like Microsoft, Logitech, Adobe, and Electronic Arts to ensure accessibility and inclusivity is not an afterthought. Erin's work has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, HuffPost, and other publications. Erin runs the Disability Readathon with her friend Anna, which focuses on authentic disability representation in media. She is also Easterseals' Communications and Digital Content Producer.

Nicole Evans is an actor, filmmaker, and disability inclusion advocate. Her first role was on the show Modern Family. In 2019, she entered into the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge and won best actor for her film, Human Helper. Since then, she landed a recurring role on NBC's Superstore, and has been featured in Freeform's Good Trouble and Netflix's Special. She also appeared in Taylor Swift's music video for "I Bet You Think About Me." She continues to advocate for people with disabilities, appearing in Easterseals' PSA series entitled "That's My Easterseals."

Jaxon Sydello is a fun-loving, spunky, outgoing 11-year-old who loves to tell a good joke! He receives services at Easterseals DuPage & Fox Valley in Illinois and is always thrilled to talk about how Easterseals supports him, whether that's at school or at home or on the sled hockey rink.

Tiernan Bertrand-Essington is a writer and producer living in Los Angeles. When he's not working on movies that are often featured in LA film festivals, he's interviewing authors for his successful YouTube channel about LGBTQA+ literature. His YouTube channel landed him a spot as a panelist at VidCon.