Portrayals of disabilities in Children’s fiction: A literature review of anglophone, francophone and hispanophone studies

Abstract

The present paper provides an overview of research on portrayals of people with disabilities in children’s fiction. A literature search identified 163 studies on this topic. A detailed survey of 78 analyses of corpora of books specifically intended for young children, rather than for adolescents or young adults, showed that most research has focused on certain types of disability, notably neurodevelopmental disorders. In addition, most studies have examined fiction books written in English, which raises the question of whether their results can be generalized to other languages, especially in the case of communication disorders such as dyslexia. This review also reveals the interest expressed by research in the quality of portrayals of disabilities in children’s fiction and the evolution of research on this topic since the 1990s, a decade characterized by the development and implementation of inclusive policies in most North American and European countries.