Disability in Publishing, a United States–based organization of disabled individuals who work in traditional publishing, launched in late July via a virtual town hall. The group’s mission to “create community, provide resources, and increase accessibility across the industry in order to increase disability visibility and retain the talent of disabled publishing professionals” was well represented in the highly accessible event, which was simulcast on YouTube and Twitter and attended by people who are personally disabled and others looking to make their organizations more inclusive. For those who missed the live event, both videos and a transcript are available on the group’s website.

The speakers, all members of the organization, included literary agents, editors, marketing professionals, writers, and product innovators. They clearly laid out their goals of supporting individuals and organizations through advocacy, education, networking, and community, and working from an intersectional perspective.

Erin Madison, marketing manager at Penguin Publishing Group and a member of the communications team, explained who the founders are and how they got started. “We are a group of disabled and neurodivergent people who work in traditional publishing in the United States, inspired by organizations that have already made great strides to make publishing more inclusive, like the People of Color in Publishing and Latinx in Publishing. Our team first met in late 2021, to start building an organization that would focus on promoting inclusivity for disabled and neurodivergent people in publishing. The founding of this group was driven by the fact that we’re all trying to navigate an industry built on traditions that were not developed with us in mind, and often prevent people like us from working or growing in the industry. This means that our voices are often not represented in the industry, and because of this, they often don’t show up in books either. We also fully believe that universal design and inclusivity benefits everyone.”

The organization is in the beginning stages, with many potential projects to come, all of which will be available to members. Ismita Hussain, a literary agent at Great Dog Literary and Disability in Publishing’s external relations lead, clarified the membership structure and qualifications. “Membership is free, and open to individuals with disabilities who work or aim to work in the U.S. publishing industry, which includes employees of publishers and literary agencies, distributors, journalists who cover publishing, employees of literary magazines, book influencers, book scouts, as well as independent editors, agents, publicists, and freelancers who work in the industry.” In the future, the group plans to collaborate with other groups such as authors and librarians.

Hussain clarified that they “are still in the process of applying for nonprofit status, so we are not currently able to accept donations directly. Many of the projects that we are planning, which were shared in the town hall, are on a timeline by which we hope to have nonprofit status in order to properly fund them. Until we officially receive nonprofit status, we are covering costs and funding programming through sponsorships, and auctions/fundraisers organized by our founding members. It’s been extremely heartening to receive the support, financial and otherwise, from individuals and entities across publishing and we hope to soon be able to accept donations in order to give back to the disability community within the industry.”

The group’s definition of disability “is broad and inclusive of physical, mental, invisible, and chronic illnesses and neurodivergence, among others,” continued Hussain. “In short, if you consider yourself disabled, we welcome you here. Individuals don’t have to publicly self-identify or disclose their disability to us in order to use our resources. We know that self-identifying as disabled in this industry can be precarious, and we welcome you to participate to the extent that you feel comfortable. We also obtain explicit consent from everyone who is mentioned or listed on our website.”

Programming and resources will have a two-part emphasis: helping disabled employees thrive in the publishing industry, and advocating for a more welcoming industry for people with disabilities. There are currently three directories on the website, for agents, editors, and freelancers, which includes writers, editors, sensitivity readers, illustrators, and more. It also lists no-fee job postings, an event calendar, and an accessibility guide for employers.

Sarah Fisk, literary agent at the Tobias Literary Agency and Disability in Publishing’s programming lead, spoke about upcoming projects in the works, including “a blog for articles about topics related to our mission…advice for disabled people looking to enter the publishing field, advice for people who are trying to figure out how to navigate a certain issue at their workplace, that kind of thing. We’re also going to have a newsletter for organization updates, related news, hopefully job listings, and we’ll also repurpose some of that blog content so that gets sent out.”

“We also want to do organized advocacy,” added Fisk, “both public facing and industry facing. We hope to be a resource for publishers and other publishing-related companies who are looking for information on how to be more inclusive to disabled employees and authors. We want to have resource materials for employers, disabled employees, and others looking to learn more. We want to have town halls like this, meetings, panels, social events, networking events geared towards disabled people who work in publishing.” Fisk also shared that they hope to provide interview coaching for disabled people trying to break into publishing or advance in publishing. The group hopes to offer an ombudsman or legal consultation similar to what the Authors Guild has, though that is a long-term goal that may take several years to achieve. Other long-term goals Fisk shared included a mentorship program, internship stipends inspired by We Need Diverse Books, and an emergency fund for members inspired by the American Booksellers Association.

The organization also hopes to have conference consultants and resources for conferences on making their events more accessible, inspired by the Crime Writers of Color’s conference liaison program, Fisk added, and wants to facilitate an industry survey focused on disability.

Madison Parrotta, senior editor at Includas Publishing, a sensitivity reader for physical disability and mobility devices at Salt and Sage Books, and a member of Disability in Publishing’s communication team, outlined a number of ways to get involved: “If you’re an agent or an editor who is interested in supporting books that involve disability, or supporting books by writers with disabilities…get in touch with us, and we can add you to our directory. If you’d like to support industry professionals who identify as disabled or having a disability, consider hiring someone from our freelance directory. If you’d like to write a…piece [related] to health, illness, disability, or a combination of the three for our blog, please email us with your pitch. And if you have other ideas or suggestions for ways in which you can support our mission, please feel free to again get in touch with us. We also have a Slack group for disabled publishing professionals or hopefuls to network and share resources and commiserate. So please email us or DM us on Twitter if you’d like to join.”

In response to a question about how to find books with good representation of disabled people and avoid harmful tropes, Hussain responded that the organization plans to include reviews of such titles on the blog and newsletter, and asked readers who wanted to write such reviews to get in touch.

Hussain also welcomed outreach and collaboration from library workers. “We would love to connect with libraries and librarians, especially in this day and age, with book banning being a large issue. We are open to working and collaborating with libraries, especially in making sure that disability-related books are accessible to our communities. Any libraries or librarians who have ideas on collaborating to increase disability rep, both on bookshelves and in our communities, can send us an email.”