Welcome to the first Made Possible update of 2019!

News: this groundbreaking collection of essays by learning disabled high achievers has just entered the pre-press stage, and publication's set for February 2020 (check out the status on the book's webpage!)!

It might seem a long way off, but this allows time to work on everything from copyediting to typesetting and cover design. It's crucial that the book's excellent contributors are involved in any changes or developments (during copy editing, for example), and our deadlines allow for this to happen. 

The longer timescales in book publishing have taken me some getting used to (not to mention, er, the entire book publishing thing as a whole..) but I'm really excited to see this project influenced by my sister (pictured above) entering its next stage. 

When I launched the crowdfunding campaign for the book, I wrote about needing to challenge society's often inflexible, negative attitudes towards the 1.5m people with learning disabilities in the UK. And recently, I touched on related issues about the treatment of learning disabled people in a report for the Guardian. In contrast to this, I spoke to a care worker who supports learning disabled people for another story a few days ago. He told me that finding and then acting on what makes people tick makes him smile. He said that while care staff rightly get information on someone's support needs or medication, what's equally vital is descriptions beyond physical care need that get to the heart of a person.

There's a point to me sharing his words - they sum up the ethos of Made Possible.

Getting to the heart of the person is what Made Possible will do. In this book, people will tell their own stories and describe what drives them - all in their own words.

I’m so excited to see the manuscript continue on its editorial journey and I’ll carry on plotting its progress via these updates.

Finally, I wanted to thank Made Possible's latest supporters who recently pre-ordered their copies of the book:

I'm really grateful for everyone's ongoing support and interest in this work, so feel free to share the information here or link up about #MadePossibleon on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram.

Thanks,

Saba