ABSTRACT
Guided by disability studies and childhood studies, this chapter demonstrates how disability is communicated to children. This chapter has two guiding questions: first, how do adults communicate disability to children? Second, does the communication of disability maintain or disrupt the normative expectations that adults have of children, such as compulsory able-bodiedness and reaching one's potential? In this chapter, I discuss how autism and Down syndrome are communicated to children. I first consider how Julia, an autistic muppet on the children's show Sesame Street, portrays autism. Then, I discuss the children's storybook Be Good to Eddie Lee, about a young boy with Down syndrome. This chapter shows that despite communicative efforts (such as television and storybooks) perceived to disrupt normalcy, communication to children about disability may maintain normative expectations of children and disability—such as how disabled children are often produced as potential problems to be navigated in order for children without disabilities to reach their full potential.
