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Journals and memoirs, Biography of persons with disabilities, Canadian biography
Human-narrated audio
Twenty-three-year-old Ardra Shephard is sleeping with the wrong guy, living in a crappy apartment, and spending money she doesn't have…
on designer shoes, boozy brunches, and weekends in NYC. Making mistakes while you figure stuff out is what your twenties are all about. Then a doctor tells Ardra she has MS, and those two letters split her life into a Before and After. While over a million people in North America live with Multiple Sclerosis, there is no certainty when it comes to the progression of the disease. By her mid-thirties, Ardra is struggling to walk, and it's terrifying. When she starts using mobility aids, she faces feelings of otherness and not belonging like never before. As Ardra's deepest fears keep coming true, she starts to learn the most important lesson: She's been sold a lie about disability—it isn't a fate worse than death. Having survived all of her worst-case scenarios, she begins to realize that a difficult life doesn't have to be a joyless life. Fallosophy isn't about fighting an unwinnable battle. This is a story about Plan Bs and pivots. Ardra serves up wisdom like a bartender who has been there: with good humor and a gentle refusal to sugarcoat reality—in this case, what it's really like to walk unsteadily through life with a progressive, disabling illness in a world that would rather not build a ramp
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Biography, Disabilities, Biography of persons with disabilities, Social issues, Journals and memoirs, Family and relationships, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
"A tender, beautifully written essay collection that is about so much more than parenting a child with a disability." —…
Erin Pepler, author of Send Me Into The Woods Alone A raw and intimate portrait of family, love, life, relationships, and disability parenting through the eyes of a mother to a daughter with Down syndrome. With the arrival of her daughter with Down syndrome, Adelle Purdham began unpacking a lifetime of her own ableism. In a society where people with disabilities remain largely invisible, what does it mean to parent such a child? And simultaneously, what does it mean as a mother, a writer, and a woman to truly be seen? The candid essays in I Don't Do Disability and Other Lies I've Told Myself glimmer with humanity and passion, and explore ideas of motherhood, disability, and worth. Purdham delves into grief, rage, injustice, privilege, female friendship, marriage, and desire in a voice that is loudly empathetic, unapologetic, and true. While examining the dichotomies inside of herself, she leads us to consider the flaws in society, showing us the beauty, resilience, chaos, and wild within us all
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Journals and memoirs, Biography of persons with disabilities, Canadian biography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
"A memoir based on columnist, fashion-show TV host, podcaster and MS advocate Ardra Shephard's award-winning blog, Tripping on Air. Twenty-three-year-old…
Ardra Shephard is sleeping with the wrong guy, living in a crappy apartment, and spending money she doesn't have on designer shoes, boozy brunches and weekends in NYC. She hates her office job, but it pays for the lessons she needs to make it as an opera singer. She isn't thrilled about her current situation, but she isn't panicked. She knows she's got time! Making mistakes while you figure stuff out is what your twenties are all about. But then when a doctor tells Ardra she has MS, those two letters split her life into a Before and After. While over a million people in Canada and the United States live with Multiple Sclerosis, there is no certainty when it comes to the progression of the disease. By her mid-thirties, Ardra is struggling to walk, and it's terrifying. When she starts using mobility aids, she faces feelings of otherness and not belonging like never before. As Ardra's deepest fears keep coming true, she starts to learn the most important lesson: She's been sold a lie about disability--it isn't a fate worse than death. Having so far survived all of her worst-case scenarios, she begins to realize that a difficult life doesn't have to be a joyless life. Today, twenty years after her diagnosis, Ardra's journey isn't over. MS will always be a force to be reckoned with, but the woman Ardra is, day after day, is no longer negotiable. Fallosophy serves up wisdom like a seasoned bartender who's seen it all, and doesn't try to sugarcoat what it's really like to live with a progressive, disabling illness in a world that would rather not build a ramp."
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Journals and memoirs, Disabilities
Human-narrated audio
A humorous, profound debut memoir about chronic pain, accessibility, and young adulthood, by an acclaimed essayist and cartoonist.In 2021, Gabrielle…
Drolet developed a condition that made her unable to use her hands. It only worsened over time, and as a writer and artist, she had to learn new ways of creating and expressing herself. The experience completely changed her life and her outlook. Look Ma, No Hands explores both the difficulty and the humour of developing chronic and life-altering pain in her twenties. Each chapter looks at a different aspect of her life touched by her disability: how she learned to write when she couldn’t type; how she learned to manage the most mundane daily tasks. She moves cities and as her work as a writer and cartoonist builds has to navigate different byzantine health systems without the privilege or security of having a family doctor, even as she moves into her new apartment and embarks on first dates. And she does all of this with the most wonderful sense of the absurd. Look Ma, No Hands is utterly charming and shares profound reflections on life’s curveballs, and explores how, in Drolet’s words, "you can live a full—even funny—life in a disabled body."
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Social issues, Family and relationships, Biography of persons with disabilities, Biography, Disabilities, Journals and memoirs
Human-narrated audio
"A raw and intimate portrait of family, love, life, relationships, and disability parenting through the eyes of a mother to…
a daughter with Down syndrome. With the arrival of her daughter with Down syndrome, Adelle Purdham began unpacking a lifetime of her own ableism. In a society where people with disabilities remain largely invisible, what does it mean to parent such a child? And simultaneously, what does it mean as a mother, a writer, and a woman to truly be seen? The candid essays in I Don't Do Disability and Other Lies I've Told Myself glimmer with humanity and passion, and explore ideas of motherhood, disability, and worth. Purdham delves into grief, rage, injustice, privilege, female friendship, marriage, and desire in a voice that is loudly empathetic, unapologetic, and true. While examining the dichotomies inside of herself, she leads us to consider the flaws in society by taking our hands and showing us the beauty, resilience, chaos, and wild within us all."
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Disabilities, Biography of persons with disabilities, Journals and memoirs
Human-narrated audio
Well-known disability activist and social media influencer, Melissa Blake, offers a frank, illuminating memoir and a call to action for…
disabled people and allies. In the summer of 2019, journalist Melissa Blake penned an op-ed for CNN Opinion. A conservative pundit caught wind of it, mentioning Blake's work in a YouTube video. What happened next is equal parts a searing view into society, how we collectively view and treat disabled people, and the making of an advocate. After a troll said that Blake should be banned from posting pictures of herself, she took to Twitter and defiantly posted three smiling selfies, all taken during a lovely vacation in the Big Apple: I wanted desperately to clap back at these vile trolls in a way that would make a statement, not only about how our society views disabilities, but also about the toxicity of our strict and unrealistic beauty standards. Of course I knew that posting those selfies wasn't going to erase the nasty names I'd been called and, the chances were, they would never even see my tweet, but that didn't matter. I wasn't doing it for them; I was doing it for me and every single disabled person who has been bullied before, online and in real life. When people mock how I look, they're not just insulting me. They're insulting all disabled people. We're constantly told that we're repulsive and ugly and not good enough to be seen. This was me pushing back against that toxic, ableist narrative. For the first time, I felt like I was doing something empowering, taking back my power and changing the story. Her tweet went viral, attracting worldwide media attention and interviews with the BBC, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, PEOPLE magazine, Good Morning America and E! News. Now, in her manifesto, Beautiful People, Blake shares her truths about disability, writing about (among other things): the language we use to describe disabled people ableism, microaggressions, and their pernicious effects what it's like to live in a society that not only isn't designed for you, but actively operates to render you invisible her struggles with self‑image and self‑acceptance the absence of disabled people in popular culture why disabled people aren't tragic heroes Blake also tells the stories of some of the heroes of the disability rights movement in America, in doing so rescuing their incredible achievements from near total obscurity. Highlighting other disabled activists and influencers, Blake's work is the calling card of a powerful voice-one that has sparked new, different, better conversations about disability
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Journals and memoirs, Biography of persons with disabilities
Human-narrated audio, Human-transcribed braille
"When Kate Gies was four years old, a plastic surgeon pressed a synthetic ear to the right side of her…
head and pulled out a mirror. He told her he could make her "whole"--could make her "right"--and she believed him. From the age of four to thirteen, she underwent fourteen surgeries, including skin and bone grafts, to craft the appearance of an outer ear. Many of the surgeries failed, leaving permanent damage to her body. In short, lyrical vignettes, Kate writes about how her "disfigured" body was scrutinized, pathologized, and even weaponized. She describes the physical and psychic trauma of medical intervention, and its effects on her sense of self, first as a child needing to be fixed, and later, as a teenager and adult, navigating the complex expectations and dangers of being a woman. It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished is the story of a girl desperately trying to have a body that makes her acceptable and of a woman learning to own a body she never felt was hers to define. In an age of speaking out about the abuse of marginalized bodies, this memoir takes a hard look at the medical system's role in body oppression and trauma."
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Women biography, Journals and memoirs, Disabilities
Human-narrated audio
From social media star and change-maker Molly Burke, a vulnerable, honest, and darkly humorous memoir on navigating the challenges of…
being a blind woman in a sighted world When Molly Burke was four years old, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative eye disease that leads to eventual blindness, forcing her to see the world through new eyes—literally. Growing up disabled didn't stop her from playing sports, becoming a rock-climbing instructor, or winning a beauty pageant, but other people's narrow perceptions of her held her back. Years of relentless bullying, toxic work environments, a rodent-infested apartment, and life's lowest moments were juxtaposed with red carpets, first-class flights, and personal and professional achievements. Throughout her life, Molly has learned to appreciate the duality, and, most importantly, she's learned the beauty of being unapologetically yourself and standing up for what you truly believe in. In Unseen , Molly chronicles her journey as a disabled woman, entrepreneur, and entertainer, illuminating what her experiences have taught her and what she hopes others can learn from her hardship and successes. Part memoir, part rallying cry for a more compassionate and empathetic world, Unseen recounts Molly's life and experiences fighting against the expectations society set for her and, in doing so, helps readers find their own voice, inner strength, and self-acceptance