Disability Advice You Didn’t Know You Needed
Published October 6, 2026 by Sasquatch Books. ISBN: 9781632176363.
A sharp, funny, useful guide for people who mean well, people who absolutely do not, and everyone who has ever petted a guide dog without asking first. Also for the disabled people who really want a book to hand out before the dreaded first date with a nondisabled person.
Signed copies are available through Elliott Bay Book Company. Barnes & Noble is offering 25% off with code PREORDER through June 26, 2026.
Cover image of Dear Blind Lady: Disability Advice You Didn’t Know You Needed by Elsa Sjunneson. The cover has a teal background with bold black title text, a white cane with a red tip, sunglasses, and a sticky note reading “But what do we call blind people?”
About the Book
Dear Prudence meets AITA, but for disability: finally, a book for all the questions nondisabled people keep wanting to ask and disabled people are very, very tired of answering.
The go-to unfiltered resource for navigating relationships, social spaces, life milestones, and all the awkward, funny, terrible, heartwarming moments in between.
Deafblind author and disability rights activist Elsa Sjunneson answers the questions nondisabled people are afraid to ask, and disabled people are tired of answering. Think Savage Love with disability justice in its teeth: practical advice, messy truth telling, and enough useful scripts to survive your next family gathering, first date, baby shower, book club, panel, HR meeting, or unsolicited prayer ambush.
Beyond the Q&A, you’ll find:
sample dating app profiles
scripts and sample language you can steal
ableist bingo cards you’ll never want to win
Discover how to navigate bad dates, worse dates, weddings, parenthood, microaggressions, WTF moments, how to offer help without being weird, how to refuse help without apologizing for existing, how to throw a baby shower for a disabled parent-to-be, and what to do when someone makes your disability the punchline.
With any luck, one day a book like this won’t need to exist. Until then, here it is.
Praise for Dear Blind Lady
“Full of personal stories and professional observations about everything from dating to unsolicited prayers, Dear Blind Lady blows up stereotypes and offers solutions for people who are trying to figure out where disabled people belong in the world. The answer, by the way, is that they belong everywhere.”
—Annalee Newitz, bestselling author of Stories Are Weapons
Launch Events
Elsa is available for readings, interviews, bookstore events, panels, keynotes, and conversations about disability, culture, access, publishing, and why the wrong question is often the whole problem.
For launch-season events, press, rights, and publicity, contact Larissa Melo Pienkowski at Azantian Literary: larissa@azantianlitagency.com.
For access needs, form issues, or general site inquiries, email snarkbatassistant@gmail.com.