Representation of Disabled People in UK Children's Books
Reflecting Disability Study Findings
The Reflecting Disability study shows that 10% of children's books include disabled characters, but only a narrow range of conditions are represented.
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Reflecting Disability announces the long-awaited results of its study of the representation of disabled people in children’s books showing that 10% of children’s books feature disabled people in some way.
This study was funded by Arts Council England, and analysis was carried out by The Reading Agency. It is the first project of its kind to offer a comprehensive and robust exploration of the extent and quality of disabled characters in picture books, fiction and non fiction across a full year (2024) of UK children’s publishing for 3-11 year olds.
Representation: What we found
With 90% of children’s books not yet appearing to feature disabled people in any way, the findings highlight valuable opportunities for publishers and creators to build on the promising initial picture.
The study found that books rarely reflected the specific conditions, impairments and differences that children most commonly experience (social/behavioural, mental health and learning/learning disabilities). Books depicted characters with mobility conditions (for example, wheelchair users), deaf characters and those with vision impairments more often but usually placed them in the background.
Please note:
We use ‘conditions, impairments and differences’ or ‘conditions’ rather than ‘disabilities’. This reflects the social model of disability: the impairment, condition or difference belongs to the person, but disability is created by societal barriers.
Arts Council England is proud to have supported Reflecting Disability through its development, from the earliest stages of creating a robust framework with disabled and neurodivergent experts, through to the publication of these landmark findings. This research provides the children's publishing sector with an important evidence base. While it is encouraging to see many positive representations, the findings also highlight significant opportunities for publishers, authors, and illustrators to ensure that more children can see themselves, their families and their communities reflected in the stories they read. We look forward to seeing the sector build on this work and use the forthcoming toolkit to support even more inclusive and representative children's literature.
Julia Kingsford, Director of Literature and the South West, Arts Council England
The Reflecting Disability team also noticed that many representations of disabled people and the equipment they use lacked accuracy and/or consistency. In many cases, small, simple changes would have made a huge difference to authenticity.
This points to a broader observation from our review. Representation is only part of the picture. How someone actually navigates the world day to day matters just as much. Publishers and creators who understand context add a layer of accuracy that representation alone misses.
In summary, publishers and creators have real opportunities to broaden the range and deepen the authenticity of representation.
The forthcoming Reflecting Disability Toolkit will offer practical advice on how to do just this.
For true inclusion we need to go beyond representation. The stories that were truly nuanced, where the disabled characters came across as fully rounded people, were a joy to read. But there were a frustrating number of books where a small tweak, or just asking the right questions at the development stage, could have completely transformed the representation and made it more authentic.
I would urge publishers and creators to consider the whole context of a disabled person’s life and convey that through nuance rather than didacticism. To show rather than tell.
Beth Cox, Editorial Inclusion Consultant and Reflecting Disability Co-Facilitator
Key figures
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There were 4009 children’s picture books, fiction and non-fiction books for 3-11 year olds published in 2024.
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Of these, 398 feature a disabled character in some way.
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This indicates that 10% of the children’s picture books, fiction and non-fiction published in 2024 feature disabled characters.
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This suggests that 90% (over 3500) did not feature any disabled people.
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3.6% included at least one disabled person as a core character (This equates to 145 books).
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2.6% featured a group cast including disabled characters (103 books).
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4.2% only featured disabled people in the background (167 books).
Please note:
In the study, 'core characters' included those who were sole or joint leads, secondary characters, antagonists, and prominent background characters (those appearing at various points throughout the book and who were connected to the main character in some way).
Some of the books featuring a group cast may also be counted in the core-character figure above.
Accessibility
The study also analysed potential barriers to reading across the list of titles, including inaccessible design and layout, hard to read text and language that makes the book unnecessarily hard to understand.
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67% of books reviewed had at least one barrier to reading.
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18% featured consistent barriers
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57% had occasional barriers to reading
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This is a significant gap that leaves many disabled people, including children and the adults reading to them, struggling to access books that reflect their own experiences.
Over two thirds of the books reviewed had at least one barrier to reading. While we need more books in different formats (like audio, digital and braille), we also need all books to build in basic accessibility from the start. Things like layout, font, visual clutter and the relationship between words and pictures can have a huge impact on how easily a child can access and enjoy books. And what makes a book more accessible for disabled children often makes it better for everyone.
Alex Strick, Author and Reflecting Disability Co-facilitator
The bigger picture
Of 4009 books published in 2024 for 3-11 year olds, 398 (10%) included some form or representation of disabled people, across core characters, group casts and background characters. This seems encouraging given that 12% of children (1 in 8) and 25% of the population (1 in 4) in the UK is disabled according to national statistics.
However, this 10% figure reflects the number of books published, not the total number of characters in those books. It does not mean 10% of characters in children's books are disabled.
It’s also important to remember that this is a snapshot of books published in one year, not all the books that are readily available to children in libraries, bookshops and schools.
This means that the overall proportion of disabled characters that children are likely to come across when engaging with books, is much smaller – and smaller still for characters with a prominent role.
Of the 398 books, 167 (42%) featured disabled characters only in the background, this equates to more than 2 in 5. These fleeting appearances leave little room for nuanced or fully rounded characters, limiting the opportunity to reflect children’s real-life experiences of disability.
Children learn from the worlds we build in books, and as creators, we draw what we know. Picture books must break the cycle of exclusion by including meaningful, everyday disability representation into our visual storytelling. There is something truly magical about seeing yourself reflected authentically; even as a deaf adult, I am deeply moved when I see my lived experience mirrored in the media. My wish is that all children can open a book and instantly see themselves in our stories.
Emma Clements, Illustrator and Steering Group Member
Voice and agency of disabled characters
Overall, just under half of the books in the sample (46%) featured at least one disabled character who was positioned as actively influencing what happens. This equates to 4.6% of all children’s books published in 2024.
Core disabled characters often have an active influence.
Out of 183 core disabled characters identified in children’s books:
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57% consistently impacted what happened in the book through their actions, words or ideas.
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32% of core characters sometimes influenced what happened but at other times took a passive role.
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Only 9% of core disabled characters were passive, with little or no influence over what happened in the story.
This is an encouraging picture that challenges longstanding tropes of disabled people as passive or dependent, suggesting a positive shift towards more active and empowered representation.
Disabled children deserve to see themselves in stories as whole, complex and joyful human beings, not simply as characters defined by their disability or included to teach others a lesson. Representation matters because books help shape how we see ourselves and how we understand other people. Authentic disability representation gives disabled children the opportunity to feel seen and valued, while helping to challenge stereotypes and broaden understanding for everyone.
Jacqueline Stephens, Disability Advocate, Entrepreneur and Steering Group Member
Moving forwards
Publishers and creators have clearly focused on including disabled people in children's books in recent years, but these headlines shouldn't make the industry complacent. As the data shows, there’s a clear need to build on the quantity of representation but also the range and quality.
Reflecting Disability will launch a toolkit later this year which will provide in-depth analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data and, most importantly, practical guidance to support publishers and creators.
We want to encourage book publishers and creators to level up, not down, the numbers of portrayals of different disabled people. We urge you to continue to portray many more disabled people, carefully and authentically. We still need to see more wheelchair users and people with hearing devices, but we also encourage you to increase the range of disabled characters, so that children see themselves, their families and their communities reflected in the books they read.
June Eaton, Disability Advocate and Steering Group Member
The Steering Group also stress that while authenticity is vital, the pursuit of "perfect" portrayals shouldn’t deter book creators from including disabled characters. "Good enough" portrayals should be celebrated as a positive step in the right direction.
We have designed the toolkit to help publishers, editors, authors and illustrators to make positive changes and additions to their books. To stimulate, not stifle, creativity and imagination. Reflecting Disability does not endorse either censoring or prescribing content.
Background information
Our sample and their position in the market:
We used multiple ways to contact children’s publishers, with repeated approaches to invite them to register for the study and submit all eligible books for 3–11-year-olds. Publishers registered with the study published 2,929 books between them. This is 73% of the 4,009 titles eligible for consideration in the study in 2024.
Publishers with the highest share of the market were all part of the study. The biggest eight children's publishers in 2024 had a 63.2% share of the TCM (Total Consumer Market). The top 20 children’s publishers were responsible for 84.5% of their sector in 2024 (the year of the study). The top 15 of these were all registered and submitted titles (excluding CGP whose titles wouldn’t have been eligible for the study).
Robust methodology
Facilitated by Beth Cox and Alexandra Strick, Reflecting Disability was developed through a disabled-led process. It was guided by a Steering Group of authors, illustrators and experts and alongside advice and guidance from The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) who have carried out the Reflecting Realities research since 2017. The Steering Group researched and agreed category labels to describe d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent characters in children's books, with the aim of allowing comparative analysis against UK population statistics. The team then rigorously tested and refined the framework, with input from publishers.
A fully trained and supported team of publishing students from Oxford Brookes University, Bath Spa University and the University of Derby then analysed these books using the framework.
The Reading Agency cleaned and processed the review data and standardised the variables for cross-analysis. The Reading Agency aligned the disability categories created by the Steering Group with the categories listed in the Office of National Statistics’ Impairment Harmonised Standard. This let them compare representation in the book sample directly against disabled children in the population. The Reading Agency also carried out further analysis to identify trends and patterns and create population-wide estimates.
The resulting data and exploration shows how disabled people are represented in UK children's books published in one full year, helping publishers and creators improve representation over time.
For more information on the background and methodology, visit the How it Works page.
I believe everyone, especially people with disabilities, should be represented in children's stories so that they see who we truly can be, understand that our lives are worth living and value us as people. Books can show that we have gifts and talents and feelings just like anyone else and we can be good company.
Tommy Jessop, Actor, Author, Campaigner for the rights of people who have Down syndrome and Steering Group Member
Please note:
Reflecting Disability uses language that reflects the Social Model of Disability. Language choice is personal, though, so individual quotes may use different terms.