AccessAbility @ your library

Easter Seals (National Easter Seal Society)
Tuesday, 14 August 2001

Chicago – August 14, 2001 – Easter Seals has teamed up with ER actress Alex Kingston to launch AccessAbility @ your library, a national reading initiative designed to celebrate the personal accomplishments of people with disabilities.

The program, developed with the American Library Association (ALA), strives to reinforce the values of diversity and inclusion – acknowledging individual differences – through heart-warming and motivational stories that feature a main character with a disability. With more than 54 million people with disabilities nationwide, this program can make a meaningful difference on how disabilities are perceived.

Kingston, who joined television's top-rated series, ER, during its fourth season (1997-98) as the spirited British surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Corday, is helping to spread the word about AccessAbility @ your library by "starring" in a poster and video that will be displayed in libraries and Easter Seals centers across the country.

"Working with Easter Seals is a fantastic opportunity," said Kingston. "Easter Seals has contributed enormously to helping people accept and understand people with disabilities. I think it's important – particularly with a reading program like this – that people learn more about how successful people with disabilities can become."

Central to the program is a list of ALA-recommended books for children and adults – all featuring characters with disabilities.

"The books on our list tell entertaining stories about how people who happen to have a disability have accomplished their personal goals, whether raising a family or climbing Mt. Everest," said James E. Williams, Jr., president and CEO of Easter Seals. "We see these same kinds of accomplishments every day at Easter Seals, whether it's discovering how to overcome and live with a physical disability or learning how to speak and read. We hope these stories will connect with people on an emotional level and make an immediate impact on their lives."

Easter Seals Launches Reading Initiative/Add One

The adult list features Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man's Journey to Climb Farther Than the Eye Can See by Erik Weihenmayer – an action-packed memoir in which the author recalls his initial rebellion against becoming blind and his subsequent passion for mountain climbing. The childrens' list includes Mama Zooms by Jane Cowen-Fletcher, a simply told story of a young child's mother who zooms in her wheelchair!

The program begins with a national kick-off event in Chicago, with libraries across the country hosting local programs, events and displays built around the AccessAbility @ your library theme.

For more information, or to contact Easter Seals (National Easter Seal Society), see their website at: www.easter-seals.org