D/deafness in children’s literature and libraries

This upcoming session will spotlight representations of D/deafness in children’s literature and offer guidance on how schools and libraries can create more inclusive experiences for D/deaf children and their families.

Register for the webinar using the form below.
Part of our Inclusive libraries series.

What to expect from the event

We'll hear from children's authors Samantha Baines and Karen Owen about the value of representation of deafness in children's books, and their lived experience of accessing reading and libraries. We will then host a panel discussion with education specialists working in D/deaf provision, where we will explore authentic portrayals in books, consider the role of language, culture and identity, and share approaches for ensuring your library environment and resources reflect and celebrate D/deaf young people.

Who will be on the panel?

Samantha Baines

As a deaf and disabled person herself and mother of a disabled child Sam is an advocate for deaf and disabled stories. A hearing aid wearer, lipspeaker and learning BSL, she is ambassador for the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, patron of Stagetext and the author of critically acclaimed children's books with deaf main characters, as well as the best-selling non-fiction book Living With Hearing Loss and Deafness.

Karen Owen

Karen Owen is the author of several funny books with a heart, including the acclaimed Major & Mynah series. Callie and Grace are best friends. They love solving mysteries and together they belong to SPUD: the Super Perceptive Undercover Detectives. What Callie doesn’t love is wearing her new hearing aids. She calls them The Slugs. But all this changes when Bo comes into their lives. Bo is an abandoned mynah bird. He’s cheeky, does great impressions, and is always hungry. Between them, the trio share a humungous secret… Callie and Bo can talk to each other via The Slugs. Bo joins SPUD as the Spy in the Sky and soon the trio are ready to solve mysteries!

Barbara Burns

Recently retired from her post as Depute Head Teacher and Educational Audiologist in Dundee’s Accessibility and Inclusion Service, having worked in deaf education for 28 years, with a focus on supporting very young deaf children and their families and carers.

Emma Gorman

Emma has been the Librarian at Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children in Kings Cross, London for more than 20 years and teaches English to Deaf adults at the City Lit in Holborn.

Emma Small

Emma has been working as a 1:1 with Deaf children in mainstream settings for 6 years whilst studying BSL to become an interpreter.

Accessibility

This session will take place on Zoom Webinars, and will be recorded. We will have our cameras on, but attendees will not be on camera. The chat will be open and we will be encouraging interaction and questions. We will have a BSL interpreter for this event, and are exploring options for live captioning. If there is anything we can do to make this webinar more accessible for you, please let us know via the form below.