Kendle Haught

Nonnie Talks about Disability Kendle Haught

The 9th Volume in The Nonnie SeriesTM looks at the world of disability. Some children and young people live in a complicated world, where they may or may not encounter disabled individuals. Other children live with disabilities. This book seeks to create a learning tool for adults and young people where open conversation about disabilities and disabled young people can freely occur. In selecting 17-year-old Kendle Haught as my consulting author, I partnered with someone who lives an authentic life as a disabled teen. Kendle's insight was key to this book's birth. As always in my Nonnie Series, I wrote the dialogue and then gave it to Kendle for feedback. She was exceptional. She'd say things like "This is great! I would say that," and then gently add, "How about saying this?"Kendle was a peer educator with my program before I asked her to work on Nonnie Talks about Disability. Not only did she want to be a character in the book, she wanted the character to be as real as possible. This is a unique book because of her involvement. The new characters in the book - LaShauna, David, Dylan and Malik - are also real young people, although David, Dylan and Malik's names are changed. LaShauna is a dynamite peer educator, which is only right. Both Tamika and Alex are named for peer educators I worked with over 20 years ago. Explore human difference with young people in this book and learn about the lives and accessibility needs of young people with physical disabilities, autistic teens, teens living with Down syndrome and Deaf young people. Then, model respect for all people. Each Person is A Person of Worth.