Difference Maker of the Year, Caden Teneycke raises awareness about accessibility and inclusion
With a TikTok following of over 800,000, Caden uses his platform to advocate for accessibility. Across TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, Caden seeks to spread awareness to his 1.2 million followers about living with his rare form of dwarfism. His posts provide a sense of community for others who face similar accessibility challenges. Caden is a recipient of the Rick Hansen Foundation School Program (RHFSP) Difference Maker of the Year award (each year, RHFSP accepts nominations to learn more about the wonderful work youth are doing across the country. This year’s recipients are youth and classrooms or groups comprised of young people who have made a positive impact in the lives of people with disabilities in their school or community).
“Rick is my dad’s hero, so I’ve grown up tuning in on the Foundation,” Caden said. “It’s a huge honour to be recognized when receiving his award award.”
Rick Hansen Foundation
Deaf Republic
By Ilya Kaminsky
This story opens in an occupied country in a time of political unrest. When soldiers, breaking up a protest kill a deaf boy, Petya, the gunshot becomes the last thing the citizens hear everyone in the town goes deaf, and their dissent becomes coordinated by sign language. The book follows the private lives of townspeople encircled by public violence: a newly married couple, Alfonso and Sonya, expecting a child; the brash Momma Galya, instigating the insurgency from her puppet theater; and Galya’s girls, heroically teaching signs by day and by night luring soldiers one by one to their deaths behind the curtain.
Graywolf Press
Dancing After Ten
By Vivian Chong and Georgia Webber
Vivian Chong’s life was changed forever when a rare skin disorder, TEN (Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis), left her with scar tissue that left her without sight. In the wake of this traumatizing experience, Chong was forced to learn a new way of being in the world. She not only survived but thrived, forging a new identity and discovering anew how to express herself creatively.
Chong teams up with cartoonist Georgia Webber—whose own autobiographical graphic novel eloquently depicts her own struggles with disability.
Fantagraphics Books
