It’s Hard Not To Stare. Tim Huff

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      It’s Hard Not To Stare: Helping Children Understand Disabilities

      Copyright ©2013 Tim J Huff

      All rights reserved

      Printed in Canada

      International Standard Book Number 978-1-927355-28-2

      ISBN 978-1-927355-29-9 EPUB

      Published by:

      Castle Quay Books

      Pickering, Ontario, L1W 1A5

      Tel: [phone]

      E-mail: [email protected] www.castlequaybooks.com

      Cover art by Tim J Huff

      Discussion guide by Jan Fukumoto

      Cover and interior design by Diane Roblin Lee, ByDesign Media www.bydesignmedia.ca

      Printed at Essence Publishing, Belleville, Ontario

      This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission of the publishers.

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Huff, Tim, 1964-, author, illustrator

      It’s hard not to stare : helping children understand disabilities / written & illustrated by Tim Huff ; foreword by the Honourable David C. Onley ; parent & teacher discussion guide by Jan Fukumoto.

      (Compassion series ; 2)

      Issued in print and electronic formats.

      ISBN 978-1-927355-28-2 (pbk)--ISBN 978-1-927355-29-9 (epub)

      1. People with disabilities--Juvenile literature. 2. Compassion--Juvenile literature. I. Fukumoto, Jan, 1958-, author of discussion guide II. Title.

      HV1568.H83 2013 j362.4 C2013-905365-4

      C2013-906113-4

      FOREWORD

      As Ontario’s first Lieutenant Governor with a physical disability, I adopted accessibility as the overarching theme of my term of office. I defined accessibility as that which enables people to achieve their full potential.

      I chose this definition because I wanted people to understand that while the ubiquitous blue and white wheelchair symbol shows the location of physically accessible facilities, it doesn’t mean that all barriers to accessibility have been removed. While such things as ramps, automatic doors and wheelchair parking spots have helped people with disabilities greatly, another kind of barrier still stubbornly remains.

      In fact, the barrier that most often affects people with disabilities is not physical or part of their own condition. It is instead attitudinal, other people’s attitudes.

      Over the years in various speeches, I have asked this question: “When you meet someone with a disability for the first time, what do you see; their disability or their ability within?”

      We’d all like to say we see the ability because it’s an answer that makes us feel good. But we all know that is not true: we all see the disability. And there’s nothing wrong with that as long as we don’t let the first glance become a longer look that then becomes a stare, a negative opinion or value judgment on the person.

      Tim Huff’s It’s Hard Not to Stare: Helping Children Understand Disabilities is a remarkable contribution to the dialogue that is taking us closer and closer to being a fully accessible society. He does this through words and images that gently, respectfully but bluntly pose questions and observations about people with disabilities. Words like: “It’s hard not to stare at some people, sometimes. Are they okay? Will they be fine?”

      In the end, important lessons are conveyed for children and as important, for all of us too.

      People with a whole range of disabilities are portrayed as fully functioning members of society who are only really handicapped if other people judge them negatively.

      Tim Huff’s words and illustrations touch our hearts and minds, guiding children forward from staring to caring. In this he appeals to our better selves and in so doing helps make us all a better, more compassionate and loving people.

      David C. Onley, O.Ont.

      Lieutenant Governor of Ontario

      A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR…

      to parents, teachers and caregivers

      When I was 16 years old, I naively volunteered to serve at a unique camp for deaf and disabled children—The Bob Rumball Camp of the Deaf. The impact of this decision was extraordinary and set me on an unpredictable life journey filled with profound meaning, adventure and mystery. And while I have striven to serve well throughout my life and full-time career among people who have so often felt categorized, stigmatized and marginalized, I am overwhelmingly humbled by how I have been continuously blessed in their midst. Even as this book is released, I am extremely sensitive to the fact that words and definitions—socially, culturally and professionally—change so rapidly. A great many of the words and definitions at the centre of my own formal developmental service worker education long ago and within the various agencies that I’ve been associated with over the years are now considered nothing shy of “wrong.” Even as this book is released using the word “disabilities,” I wonder how long that moniker will be considered socially or politically correct. Yet my prayer is that the heartbeat and tenor of this book will sustain its value in the years to come, regardless of the ever-changing language.

      Ultimately, I believe that when we nurture compassion in a child for one area of life, the potential is great that this goodness will spill over into all other areas. Teaching, modelling and discussing the principles and values of understanding, compassion and service, can and will, impact the social framework of generations to come. And what our children reveal in the process, teaching us in return, is most often extraordinary.