This Autism Acceptance Month I want to do something positive. I want to get books by autistic authors to autistic people who are otherwise unlikely to be able to access them. Autistic people are over represented in hospitals (including psychiatric wards), prisons, substance misuse services, children’s homes and foster placements, and homeless shelters. Autistic people are also more likely to be living in poverty and unable to afford books.

I think that it’s important for autistic people to see ourselves represented in all kinds of fiction and for us to have access to non-fiction books written by autistic people. I also think it’s important to support autistic writers.

My idea is for the autistic communities, allies, publishers, book shops and anyone else who wants to support this project, to come together to get books to autistic people.

There are two parts to this. We need to get books and we need to find places to send them to where autistic people can access them.

Getting Books

If you are an individual who can afford to buy a book for an autistic person, I will be providing links to wish lists where you can buy a book that will be sent directly to people/organisations. I will make it clear who the wish list is for so if you specifically want to provide books to autistic people in prison or autistic children in hospital etc you can do so.

If you are a bookshop who would like to donate books by autistic people, I will promote your bookshops on Twitter. Please email me (see below).

If you are a writer or publisher who would like to donate copies of your own book please email me (see below). I will promote your book on Twitter.

If you are a business who would like to support this, again I will promote you on Twitter.

I will not be taking any cash donations and books will be going directly to the intended recipients.

Getting Books To Autistic People

I have contacted some organisations already about distributing the books but my contacts are limited and I want to get these books to as many people as possible.

I would really like to hear from people either working for or with connections to:

-Homeless shelters

-Refuges

-Hospitals/psychiatric wards

-Substance misuse services

-Children’s Homes

-Local Authority Virtual Schools

-Prisons

-Day Centres or homes for disabled adults

 

If you know of or are part of any other organisation that you think should be considered for this project, please let me know. I’m sure there are lots of places that would benefit that I haven’t thought of.

Rules

There will be guidelines for sending books. Different institutions have their own rules about what you can send to them and not following these rules will result in books not getting to the intended recipients.

No one will be given personal details of any vulnerable people. Books are being sent to institutions and organisations and not individuals to protect people. Many places (like refuges) will have their own safeguards to protect the people who use their services.

I will not be accepting any donations of money or anything other than books. Please do not ask people to donate money to you to buy books for this and please do not donate to anyone asking for donations for this (obviously you can get together with your friends and put money together if you can’t afford to buy a book).

Thank you to my patreon supporters

I had a patreon that I was using to raise money for something that unfortunately never manifested. I will be using the money that I raised through patreon to buy books for this project so I just want to thank all of the people who supported me on patreon and let them know that this is what their money is going on.

Contact

You can email me brookewinters3@gmail.com

Tweet me @BrookeWinters33

Or comment on this post.