Why AZ Chapman Wrote Cerebral Palsy Party: A Children’s Book About Inclusion ~ 1025

Tim Villegas
MCIE: Why be sorry about having cerebral palsy when you can throw a party instead? That’s the question AZ Chapman asks in her new children’s book written as an introduction to CP for elementary school learners.

My name is Tim Villegas from the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education, and you are listening to Think Inclusive, a show where with every conversation we try to build bridges between families, educators, and disability rights advocates to create a shared understanding of inclusive education and what inclusion looks like in the real world. You can learn more about who we are and what we do at mcie.org.

AZ Chapman is a writer from California. She was diagnosed as a toddler with cerebral palsy, which primarily affects her speech and fine motor skills. Chapman is a college-educated woman who earned her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies with a minor in special education from California State University East Bay. Chapman is also a highly ambitious athlete. She started competing in her local Special Olympics program at the age of 13 and couldn’t imagine her life without this amazing experience. She has competed in multiple events including swimming, track, basketball, soccer, bocce, bowling, and golf.

Here is what we cover in today’s episode: she shares why she wanted to write Cerebral Palsy Party, what her experience in school was like, and what her hopes and dreams are for the future.

Before we get into today’s interview, I want to tell you about our sponsor Together Letters. Are you losing touch with people in your life, but you don’t want to be on social media all the time? Together Letters is a tool that can help. It’s a group email newsletter that asks members for updates and combines them into a single newsletter for everyone. All you need is email. We are using Together Letters so Think Inclusive patrons can keep in touch with each other. Groups of 10 or less are free, and you can sign up at togetherletters.com.

And now my interview with AZ Chapman.

Tim Villegas
AZ, tell us a little bit about your book.

AZ Chapman
So the book is called Cerebral Palsy Party. It’s a book to help introduce elementary school students to their peers who have cerebral palsy.

Tim Villegas
What is the story of the book? How would you describe it?

AZ Chapman
So it’s not really a story, right? It’s like a PowerPoint. It’s more explaining what cerebral palsy is, explaining what adaptive technology some people use, and how to be a good friend and ally to people with cerebral palsy.

Tim Villegas
And so how would you say people can be a good friend to people with cerebral palsy?

AZ Chapman
Just be our friend. You don’t have to do anything special. You don’t have to teach a class. Just be a good human. Find out what we are interested in, and if you like it and want to hang out with us, make sure the space is accessible. If the person with CP uses a wheelchair, make sure the space is accessible and stuff like that.

Tim Villegas
So have you always wanted to write a book?

AZ Chapman
The story behind that is kind of, sort of. My dad always said, “AZ is a good writer. She should write a book.” And then the story behind CP Party was I was on a Facebook forum, and a mom said there is not a good book for my daughter—she was in first grade at the time. This was back in 2012. The name Cerebral Palsy Party came to me, and I started writing. That’s how I came up with the idea for the book.

Tim Villegas
So in the book, like you said, it isn’t really a story. It’s more of an explanation of what cerebral palsy is, right? What else can you tell us about the book?

AZ Chapman
It took a long time finding an illustrator.

Tim Villegas
Why was that so hard?

AZ Chapman
My friend from college was going to do it, and we were going to publish it sooner than this year. But the illustrations got stolen from her car. Then she was trying to become a therapist at the time and was in school, just way too busy to start over from scratch. So I was running around, and this was in 2020 with George Floyd. There are a lot of groups with Down syndrome online, but not a lot of groups with cerebral palsy. So I joined one for Black people with Down syndrome. One of them, Rita, had written a book about her son Orion who has Down syndrome. She had a deal for a book series, and her illustrator was amazing. I saw his work and thought, “Oh my god, I want him to illustrate.” And that’s how I found the illustrator.

Tim Villegas
Nice. So once you found the illustrator, how long did it take you to make the book?

AZ Chapman
It took about a year going back and forth.

Tim Villegas
But it’s out now. Have you gotten some good feedback from it?

AZ Chapman
I haven’t gotten any reviews yet, but everybody is really excited for me. We actually haven’t had a book signing, but we’ll do that sometime in the future.

Tim Villegas
Cool.

AZ Chapman
But everyone has been very excited for me.

Tim Villegas
Great. How does it feel to be a published author?

AZ Chapman
It feels good.

Tim Villegas
Yeah. So you were telling me before—I don’t know if you want me to publish this or not—but you said you’ve been having trouble finding some work?

AZ Chapman
Yeah.

Tim Villegas
I guess to start off talking about work, what is it that you’re interested in?

AZ Chapman
I’m interested in special education and education in general.

Tim Villegas
Yeah, so what specifically in special ed?

AZ Chapman
Ideally, my dream job would be a high school special ed teacher for moderate to severe that actually included the kids in general ed. So everything except what I would do at first, but yeah.

Tim Villegas
Yeah. You said you went to college? What did you go to college for? What was your degree?

AZ Chapman
Liberal studies with a minor in Special Ed.

Tim Villegas
Okay. And you went to what university?

AZ Chapman
Cal State East Bay.

Tim Villegas
Cal State East Bay. Okay. What is it about school that you really love?

AZ Chapman
The kids. The fact that I’m a firm believer in the power of education. I want to give back. From what I’ve seen and what I’ve experienced—the good and the bad—I want to make it better for the next generation so they don’t have to struggle. So they do know science.

I was fully included K–5, but then in middle school I was placed in a study hall for kids with disabilities. In that study hall, I got bullied for two years. I now have PTSD as a result that I’m now at thirty trying to work through with a therapist.

I feel like I understand history very well. I understand English. I can even do math if I had to. But science—I never had those two foundational years. I feel like I don’t know science at all. I took some science in high school, and actually biology I feel pretty comfortable doing, but nothing higher than biology. I’m terrible at chemistry and I never could fidget so…

Tim Villegas
So after middle school and after being in study hall, what was high school like?

AZ Chapman
High school I did the same requirements. I was in that study hall, but then in my senior year, I was in a special ed personal finance class. The teacher was really mean to me.

Tim Villegas
And then you graduated.

AZ Chapman
Yeah, and then college was fine.

Tim Villegas
So what do you think would have helped you in middle and high school?

AZ Chapman
I think I would have been better off just being assigned to general ed curriculum instead of partway, especially in middle school. I probably would have gotten less bullied.

Tim Villegas
Did they have special education classes at the middle school and high school?

AZ Chapman
Yeah, they did.

Tim Villegas
But you weren’t in those—you were in a different class, you were in the study hall class?

AZ Chapman
No, the study hall was supposedly special ed study hall.

Tim Villegas
Oh, I see. So you were in a separate class for middle and high school.

AZ Chapman
For one period, yeah.

Tim Villegas
One period, yeah. But you felt like if you were included during that time, you would have been better off.

AZ Chapman
Yeah.

Tim Villegas
AZ, what do you hope to accomplish with the book and also with all of your other advocacy?

AZ Chapman
I want to make the world a better place for people with disabilities.

Tim Villegas
Are there some people that you look up to within the disability community?

AZ Chapman
Judy Heumann, obviously. You. I follow Imani Barbarin, Crutches and Spice. So I follow all of them.

Tim Villegas
Thank you. Yeah, Judy Heumann’s great. Crutches and Spice—awesome. Well, what else do you want to say about what you want to do with your life or the book or anything else? What do you want to say to the people who are listening?

AZ Chapman
Please go out and buy my book, it’s only $14. Leave a 5-star review on Amazon, that would be appreciated.

Tim Villegas
Okay.

AZ Chapman
And just be nice and be kind. There is so much hate in the world and so much divisiveness, but if you can be kind and model that for young people? I mean, that’s it.

Tim Villegas
After this interview, AZ announced that she was accepted into a teaching program at California State University East Bay. All the best of luck to AZ. Her students will be lucky to have her.

Think Inclusive is written, edited, and sound designed by Tim Villegas, and is a production of MCIE. Original music by Miles Kredich.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, here is one way that you can help our podcast grow: become a patron and get access to ad-free episodes, behind-the-scenes posts, join our Together Letters group, and get a sneak preview of MCIE’s new podcast series Inclusion Stories.

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For more information about inclusive education or to learn how MCIE can partner with you and your school or district, visit MCIE.org. Thanks for your time and attention. And remember, inclusion always works.

Tim Villegas
Oh, hey, you’re still around. Great. So Tim here again. If you’ve listened this far into the episode, it means that you’re probably a superfan, which is amazing. So thank you, thank you, thank you for listening all the way.

Just for you—and you know, don’t tell anyone about this, okay—I’m going to add an extra five-minute interview with someone else, something completely different. A few months ago, a friend of mine, his name is Matt, was doing something really cool. For the month of March, he was trying to play catch with one person every day for the whole month. His catch partners were people from all different walks of life, different ages, different occupations.

He asked me to play catch with him. After we played, I brought my recording equipment and asked him a couple of questions about it. I thought it was really interesting. So again, if you’re listening to the very end, you get an extra special interview.

Tim Villegas
However you want to describe yourself, I guess.

Matt Somerlot
All right. So I’m Matt Somerlot. I live here in Marietta, Georgia, and I’m a good friend of Tim’s.

Tim Villegas
Awesome. All right. So Matt, we just played catch.

Matt Somerlot
We did. 80-degree weather at the end of March—can’t ask for better.

Tim Villegas
It’s beautiful. So tell me about why you wanted to play catch. You’re playing catch with one person every day for the month of March. Is that right?

Matt Somerlot
That’s correct. I’m participating in something called the 30 Days of Catch Challenge. There was an author, Ethan Bryan, who wrote a book called A Year of Playing Catch. He did it for an entire year a couple of years ago and then wrote a book about it. I read that, was very enthused by it, and knew the power of catch.

So when he put out a challenge in February—“Hey, in the lead-up to Major League Baseball’s opening day, I’m going to do a 30-day catch challenge. It’ll start on March 1, end on March 30. You have to play catch with 30 different people, can’t have the same person on another day.” There are also 15 goals, like playing catch with a firefighter, a musician, a school teacher, a stranger—those kinds of things.

I’m almost through the 15. I’ve got a couple more to do. And here we are. You are day—what is today—day number 24. So congratulations, Tim.

Tim Villegas
Thanks. And earlier we were talking about you noticing a difference when you play catch with your son.

Matt Somerlot
Yes.

Tim Villegas
Playing catch opened up some conversations that maybe you wouldn’t have been able to have otherwise.

Matt Somerlot
That’s exactly right. When you think about the game of catch, each of you has a mitt on, you’re throwing the ball back and forth, you can’t have a phone in front of you. That’s predominant in today’s society—kids have heads down. This is a true way to connect.

One of the guys I’m connected with is part of an organization called Play Catch for Good. He’s working on a ball with questions on it, so as you throw back and forth, you ask each other questions. Brilliant idea.

Like you pointed out, naturally in the yard throwing with my son, it became a way to unwind at the end of the day where I can learn about what’s going on. It was really fun. I could see confidence building in him too as he tried different pitches or threw harder. Between the connection and the confidence building, I saw a lot of power in the game of catch. I really feel like there are ways we can change the world through the game of catch—as corny as that sounds.

Tim Villegas
I’m all about changing the world, Matt.

Matt Somerlot
I know you are.

Tim Villegas
One more thing—you mentioned something about catch curriculum. Tell me more about that.

Matt Somerlot
Yes. Play Catch for Good developed a curriculum and rolled it out in several schools. It’s designed to reduce school violence, get people engaged, and build community. Community is built on connections, and playing catch builds those connections.

If you go to playcatchforgood.org, you can download the curriculum and incorporate it into schools. It’s all about getting kids together, just playing the game of catch, and seeing the results.

Tim Villegas
Matt Somerlot, thank you for your time.

Matt Somerlot
Thanks, Tim. Appreciate it.