Asians/Asian Americans With Disabilities Portrayed in Children's Picture Books

• In Event: Bringing Asian American Children and Families to Light: Expanding the Racial Discourse in Early Childhood

Abstract

Purposes
The purpose of this study was to investigate how Asian/Asian Americans (A/AAs) with disabilities are portrayed in children’s popular picturebooks - specifically those recognized with the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature (APAAL) and the Schneider Family Book Award (SFA). Exploration of the intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) between A/AA backgrounds and disabilities deepened this investigation, as we looked for how racial/ethnic identities and disabilities of characters interplayed in the characters and stories of the picturebooks with the APAAL or SFA.
Theoretical Background
Critical race theory was adopted, as the emphasis on the A/AAs in the APAAL and SFA books lends power to discourses of racial justice (Ladson-Billings, 2004). Furthermore, the AsianCrit theory (Iftikar & Museus, 2018) was helpful in seeking to understand intragroup differences among A/AAs, particularly using our dis/ability lens and the extrapolated intersectionality perspective (e.g., Li, 2019).
Methods & Data
We identified and analyzed a total of 53 picturebooks - 35 books that received the APAAL from 2001 to 2020, and 18 books that received the SFA from 2004 to 2020. These time periods comprehend all available APAAL and SFA picturebooks from the onsets of these awards to the time of this study conclusion. Qualitative content analysis was adopted for analysis in order to unpack explicit and implicit beliefs, attitudes, values, and ideas from the chosen texts (Fåraenkel et al., 2019). Our analysis consisted of three phases: 1) to identify the A/AA characters with disabilities; 2) to richly describe these characters in relation to the other characters, setting, plot, and illustrations; and 3) to critically analyze the representational issues, power relations, and inequalities related to ethnic/racial backgrounds. In all analytical phases, both the text and illustrations of sample books were analyzed.
Findings
The findings showed that the number of characters with disabilities and types of disabilities were disproportionately represented in the APAAL picturebooks compared to the general population of A/AA people with disabilities in the U.S. Among five characters that were identified to have a disability, three were primary protagonists and the other two were either secondary or tertiary. Regarding disability type, three characters exhibited orthopedic impairments, two possibly had Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and one showed signs of an anxiety disorder. Only two picturebooks among the 18 with the SFA depicted A/AAs with disabilities, one with hearing impairment and the other with ASD.
Significance
From a research standpoint, this study creates a new body of knowledge in A/AA characters with disabilities portrayed in children’s picturebooks. Moreover, this study provides educators, parents, and librarians with guidelines on selecting picturebooks that more authentically mirror every child, avoiding presenting one hegemonic race and ignoring people's disabilities. This study further informs authors and illustrators of the scarcity of A/AAs with disability in children’s picturebooks and the need for more diverse lived experiences of A/AAs with disabilities.

Authors

• Su-Jeong Wee, California State University - Los Angeles

• Sohyun Meacham, University of Northern Iowa

• Jinhee Kim, Kennesaw State University

• Sophia Han, University of South Florida

• Wu-Ying Hsieh, University of Northern Iowa