Inclusive Minds: The voices of lived experience
Inclusive Minds co-founder Beth Cox explains how it works to promote authentic voices and lived experiences in children’s publishing. Through a network of Inclusion Ambassadors, Inclusive Minds is making it easier for inclusion, representation and diversity to be an intrinsic part of children’s publishing.
INCLUSIVE Minds is a “collective for people who are passionate about inclusion, diversity, equality and accessibility in children’s literature, and are committed to changing the face of children’s books”. It was founded in 2013 by Alex Strick and Beth Cox, who both have a background in children’s books. The aim is to support the publishing industry and help them access real people, real experiences and real lives that can inspire them and change the face of books. Alex and Beth met on the In The Picture project, a scheme that aimed to increase the visibility of disabled characters in picture books. The Lottery- funded scheme ran for three years from 2005 to 2008 and brought together a
team of people with experience in both children’s books and disability issues, including Beth and Alex.
Beth became aware of the scheme shortly after joining publisher Child’s Play, which she said “had an ethos where they wanted to include more diverse characters, including disabled characters beyond wheelchair users, but weren’t really sure how to move forward”. The steering group for Scope’s In the Picture project was a chance for various professionals to come together and discuss ways forward. It showed there was a pathway to better representation and inclusion in children’s publishing, while at the same time highlighting some of the barriers that were in place. The process of working with others in a positive environment helped to not only lead to better representation of disabled children, but was one of the key initiatives (alongside the Quentin Blake Award and Booktrust’s Bookmark project) that helped pave the way for Inclusive Minds.
A trigger for change Alexandra Strick Autumn-Winter 2019
“It was a total game changer,” says Beth. “We would meet up every three months or so and talk about what we were working on, people would feedback on various projects to help us ensure authenticity and it gave the team at
Beth Cox
Child’s Play confidence in what we were doing. It made us realise that including a disabled person, was about so much more than including a picture of a person in a wheelchair. From this starting point we understood how to do more research and open doors to new people. It was a real trigger for making changes.” The idea that inclusion is about more than simple representation and that characters need to be developed and authentic has fed into the work and ethos of Inclusive Minds. Beth says that during the first days of In the Picture, there were still times when mistakes were made, but having a network where problems could be discussed openly allowed those involved to learn from the mistakes.
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Inclusive Minds
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