We're glad to announce that the first children's book on Visit-ability is now available in print! Libby, Aria and Benjamin have been best friends since they were babies. Now Aria has moved to a new house. Libby, who uses a wheelchair, doesn't get invited to Aria's birthday party because the house has barriers. Hurt feelings follow... Then the kids meet Everett, an adult wheelchair athlete, who tells them how the disability rights movement gained successes through years of public demonstrations and pressing for laws. Everett shows them a photo from the 70's showing people with disabilities blocking inaccessible buses. The kids are inspired to create their own version of public action to achieve the goal of a step-free entrance and wide bathroom doors in every new house. Learn how the kids get on the front page of their hometown paper, as their method gets them in trouble -- and how they achieve a sweet victory. ""Libby and the Cape of Visitability"" is the diary of Libby, a KWD (Kid with Disability). Written for children ages 8-13, this book raises awareness of the exclusion created when houses are not built with simple features that allow mobility-impaired people to visit or live in them. For those grownups (teachers, parents and others) who engage in meaningful dialogue with children, this book provides not only a captivating story and relatable characters, but a Reader's Guide with discussion questions and resources as well. "Libby" is written by Eleanor Smith, a housing rights worker, and Nadeen Green, a teacher, writer and blogger on the topic of fair housing.
About the Author: Nadeen has been an attorney for many years and through her work as Senior Counsel with For Rent Media Solutions(TM) and Homes.com she has been able to teach and write about fair housing laws, including those requiring that newer apartment communities have basic design features that provide accessibility (Nadeen blogs at fairhousing.forrent.com as Fair Housing Lady). But Nadeen really did not fully understand the problems for PWDs when it comes to houses until her work brought her and Eleanor together. The two women have become good friends, each bringing their talents and experiences (Nadeen has written other books for children) to the story of Libby. She hopes this story can be one of those "small actions that will get people thinking". Eleanor Smith got polio at age three, before there was a vaccine to protect people from getting that virus. In her wheelchair, she attended public school and later earned a Master's Degree. Over the years she taught in a high school in Kansas, in an elementary school in Puerto Rico, and in colleges in Indiana and Georgia. At about age 40, she was delighted to discover the hard-working, exuberant disability rights movement. Along with several hundred other allies in the movement, she did civil disobedience by blocking buses and did other actions that caused "a lift on every new bus" to become a requirement of the ADA. Participating in that quest led to her new idea: "A zero-step entrance on every new house!" With that as a goal, she founded Concrete Change in 1987. People from all around the country have joined this work for Visitability. At age 70 she retired from Concrete Change, knowing that the work will continue until access to homes becomes the normal way to build. Some day people will think "I can't believe we ever built houses where PWDs couldn't visit or live!" Since 1999, she has lived in a 100% visitable, inter-generational community in Atlanta, where kids often hop a ride on her wheelchair.