Acknowledgements

Our deepest thanks and gratitude go to all the people who made this guide possible, not least our disabled consultants who gave us their experiences, expertise, knowledge, vulnerability, compassion and respect. This guide wouldn’t be possible without you.

To our flagship supporters, Edinburgh International Book Festival, who have been behind us every step of the way. Your faith, feedback, advice, and support have been immeasurable, and we love our extended Inklusion team! Thank you for helping to make this guide possible and for being our home for the launch. In particular, thanks to Nick Barley for your generosity, Genevieve Fay and Sophie Moxon for your determination in making this a reality, and to Kate Seiler, planner extraordinaire, for making our launch dreams a reality.

Thanks also to EIBF for the wonderful video reel for our launch: thanks to Kate Seiler for coordinating, Andy Arneil for working his magic, and to Raymond Antrobus, Khairani Barokka, Elle McNicoll, and Paul Ralph for their fantastic contributions to the reel.

Huge thanks to our publishing partner, Penguin Random House UK, for being such great allies and taking on the design and production of the guide. Particular thanks to Zaahida Nabagereka, Siena Parker, Zainab Juma, and Meredith Adams for their faith, energy and commitment to making this happen. Thanks to Cinn Curtis for graphic and web design assistance, and for designing such a brilliant logo. Thanks to Loz for the fantastic design and Stewart Bremner for the wonderful illustrations, which really brought the guide to life!

To our amazing sponsors: Author Licensing and Collecting Society, Edinburgh City of Literature, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Faber & Faber, FANE, Hachette, HarperCollins, Leamington Books, Literature Alliance Scotland, National Centre for Writing, National Union of Journalists, Pan Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Publishing Scotland, Saraband, Scottish Book Festivals Network, Scottish Book Trust, Watkins Media Ltd, Wigtown Book Festival and Write Mentor. You showed us that you care about making the world an equal and inclusive place and we can't wait to see the creative ways in which you shape the industry moving forward.

To our fantastic researcher, Cat Mitchell, for all your time, effort and energy in finding all those gems in a haystack of statistics. Not an easy job – but your humour and good grace throughout was laudable.

Thanks also to our disabled community, our friends, and the Crip Collective for their trust, faith and solidarity, and for their continued support and advice.

To all the staff, directors, project managers, team leaders and EDI groups who listened, shared and responded – we’re eternally grateful.

To Philip Jones and The Bookseller team for being such great supporters of our work and spreading the word.

To Sinéad Burke, Zaahida Nabagereka, Jenny Kumar, and Jeda Pearl for making our launch so special.

To our wonderful supporting authors who jumped on board at the very beginning to give us their endorsements: Kit de Waal, Mat Osman, Val McDermid, Frances Ryan, Helen Sedgwick, Lizzie Huxley-Jones, David Bishop, Vivian French and Heather Parry.

Thanks to Viccy Adams for those early brainstorming sessions – you gave us laser focus and threw the wind in our sails at a crucial moment.

Huge thanks to all our readers who took the time to give us invaluable feedback on a draft of the guide. Special thanks to Jamie Hale.

Thanks to Gillian Hamnett for the initial proofread of our content.

We would also like to thank the following people for their support and advice throughout this project:

Lee Randall, Helen Weir, Cara McKeown, Nikesh Shukla, Jenny Kumar, Michelle Hodgson, Rebecca Wilkie, Philippa Cochrane, Heather Parry, Elle McNicoll, Hannah Stevens, Anna Biggs, Claire Askew, Stuart White, Sarah Broadley, Ellie Drewry, Sam Missingham, Meg Strahle, Mel Ramdarshan Bold, Andrew Kidd, Eliza Squire, Rachel Humphries, Ann Landmann, Grace Balfour, Sonali Misra, Molly Flatt, SYP Scotland, Scottish Book Trust, Arvon, Moniack Mhor, Cymera Festival, Open Book, UK Disability Publishing Network, Blackwells, Spread the Word, Portobello Books, Write Mentor, SCBWI, Society of Authors, SoA ADCI Group, and Nicola Solomon.

From Julie

My deepest thanks and gratitude go to Ever. Never did I expect to cross such an exhausting, elevating and illuminating bridge with you into the unknown of a brave new world, and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in crime. You’re the Yin to my Yang. Thank you for dreaming big with me.

To my writing community and my friends, in particular Rebecca Raeburn and Deborah Bailey, thank you for your unwavering kindness, generosity and support.

This guide wouldn’t exist without the support of our partners who have been our cheerleaders from the start. Cinn, there’s nothing quite like seeing my amateur scrawls turned into a beautiful and elegant graphic – thank you so much for making our brand shine and for finding the perfect balance between professional and punk (it does exist). Thanks too, for your help with our website.

Stephen, thank you for all your advice and feedback. But most importantly thank you for being my rock – and then some.

From Ever

Massive thanks to my friend, Ink partner, and co-disruptor, Julie, for going on this long, exhausting, rewarding and fruitful journey with me. Our different strengths and personalities complemented each other, bringing the guide to life in a way that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.

Thanks to Cinn for his support, web and graphic design assistance, for designing such a fantastic logo for Team Inklusion, and for building the web version of the guide. Thanks also to Stephen for his input and advice.