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CELAPublic library services for Canadians with print disabilities

Centre for Equitable Library Access
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I don't do disability and other lies i've told myself

By Adelle Purdham. 2024

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)
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

Beautiful People: My Thirteen Truths About Disability

By Melissa Blake. 2024

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)
Biography of persons with disabilities, Journals and memoirs, Disabilities
Synthetic audio, Automated braille

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.

Look Ma, No Hands: A Chronic Pain Memoir

By Gabrielle Drolet. 2025

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, Disabilities
Synthetic audio, Automated braille

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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