A Fareham man has written three books about disabled children

Dan White has written three books for Pearson which explore the topic of children with disabilities and how with the right tools, they can achieve anything.

The three books aim to update the way that disabled children are portrayed within the media and he has a close connection to the subject, as his 16-year-old, Emily White, is a wheelchair user herself.

The 50-year-old was approached by the book publisher after being involved in writing the Department of Ability comic.

Dan said: ‘Too many books infantilise characters with a disability, making them either one-dimensional or victims of their situation. I wanted to address this by creating a range of books that show the real life experiences of a child with a disability.

‘Emily embodies every disabled child, she is confident, outgoing and if people say she can’t do something, she asks why. If you give disabled children the right tools, they will prove that they can do anything and everything anyone else can do.’

The three books follow a character called Brook who is a ‘sassy’, ‘confident’ wheelchair user who goes on different adventures, the first one being to the moon where her imagination takes her.

The second book looks at the history and how some of the most pivotal disabled people are forgotten or not mentioned as much as they should be, and Dan said it was really important to him to explore how disabled people should be included.

The third book looks at how other children would feel if they became disabled, and Brook’s character shows Farook that he does not need to miss out on things in life because he is disabled.

Dan has also been approached by Ladybird, and there will be a book coming out next year from them, also highlighting the importance of inclusion.

He said: ‘Other publishers are getting it. They are getting it that disabled kids should be in books. It is part of life, and it should be seen everywhere and people should embrace it rather than turn away from it.’