Service Alert
Website maintenance April 24 10pm ET
On Wednesday April 24 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
On Wednesday April 24 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
Showing 81 - 100 of 204 items
By Eileen J Garcia, Isabel Beveridge. 2003
Raised in a village far from professional help during the Great Depression, Isabel Beveridge attended a distant residential school for…
deaf and blind children, and went on to become the first blind graduate of the University of British Columbia. She overcame many difficulties and challenges in her search for higher education and meaningful work in a competitive market, and was eventually awarded a place in the Alumni Hall of Fame of Columbia University in New York in recognition of her groundbreaking achievements as well as her lifetime of service to blind and visually impaired people. 2003.By Verne Edquist, Ed Edquist Verne. 1993
For nine to 10 months of the year, the Ontario School for the Blind was home to many children. Here,…
former students, including musician Jeff Healey, describe their lives at this school and reminisce about their experiences, both good and bad. 1993.By Joan Mactavish. 2001
Biography of Mae Brown (1935-1973), who was the first deaf-blind person to graduate from a Canadian university, and was a…
counsellor at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Her college tutor chronicles Brown's family, education, social and professional life, and triumphs and disappointments.By Cyril Wakefield. 1996
This book is of Cyril Wakefield's life in Lincolnshire. He was blind from a very early age but has, just…
as with sighted people, a variety of interests, desires and other characteristics. This is the story of an ordinary man who, as the result of misfortune in his very early years, has led a far from ordinary life. 1996.By Edward Hoagland. 2001
A prolific nature writer's autobiographical essays. In "In the Country of the Blind," Hoagland explores social and biblical notions of…
blindness and describes the loss and surgical restoration of his eyesight. Remembers teachers John Berryman and Archibald MacLeish and joining the circus at eighteen. 2001.By Allan Jones. 2018
The author was Canada's first blind diplomat, and his vivid account of life and work in Tokyo, New Delhi and…
Ottawa is a testament to the blind person's native capacity for innovation and practical adjustment. But the deeper message of Beyond Vision is more radical and consequential: the self - the real self that is normally veiled - does not go blind. The deep self stands entirely apart from the experience of sightedness or blindness, as a centre of stable equanimity. This is what the author discovered through his study and assimilation of Indian Vedantic philosophy. Jones briefly describes the basic features of Advaita Vedanta, and identifies startling findings of contemporary science that are consonant with the Advaitic view of world and self. He then outlines practical applications of Advaita, for example the mindfulness practice that allowed him to retain his white cane mobility skills despite chronic and untreatable spinal and muscular pain. 2018.By Janet Gray, Lorraine Wylie. 2009
On four occasions Janet Gray has won the World Disabled Water-ski Championships. She has been champion and world record holder…
in all three individual disciplines as well as overall champion. In competition with sighted water-skiers, she is one of the top skiers in Ireland and in the higher echelons of competitive skiing in the UK. And yet, in 2004, she nearly died. In the course of a training session in Tampa, Florida, Janet skied at high speed into a steel ski jump in the centre of the lake. 'Doctors assessing the extent of my injuries were united in their prognosis: I wouldn't survive the night.' But Janet Gray did not die. In fact, not only did she make a full recovery, she resumed her career in water-skiing and regained her world titles and previous ranking as World Disabled Water-ski Champion. This book tells her remarkable story. 2009.By Ryan Knighton. 2010
Describes Knighton's voyage through the first year of fatherhood, made more daunting by his blindness. He wonders how he will…
get to know his pre-verbal bundle of coos and burps when he can't see her smile or look into her eyes. Tackling these hurdles with grace and humour, Ryan is determined to do his part as a father, despite the pitfalls. Some strong language. 2010.By Ryan Knighton. 2006
Knighton, who teaches at Capilano College in Vancouver, began losing his sight early enough in life that milestones such as…
his first driving lesson and his first relationships with girls were anything but ordinary. Experiences in adulthood covered (often humorously) in this memoir include attending college in Vancouver, teaching English in South Korea, and getting married. Canada Reads 2012. 2006.By Richard Moore, Don Mullan. 2009
Richard Moore was ten years old when he was shot by a British soldier, on his journey past an army…
base on his way home from school. Here Richard Moore lends us his eyes as he shares his story, from his early years growing up on the Catholic working-class Creggan Estate in Derry, the second youngest of a family of twelve children. In it he describes the moment of grace that accompanied the realisation that he would never again see, where he accepted his fate instantly and without bitterness, and tells of wonderful childhood escapades, including 'endless cycles down Malin Gardens' guided by the voices of his friends. 2009.By H. Garland Minton. 1974
Late one evening in February 1966, the author was drinking a cup of tea in Waterloo Station. Suddenly, everything around…
him was enveloped in a veil of mist and, within minutes, he was blind. This is an account of that experience and of his efforts to come to terms with the catastrophe. 1974.By Cyril Axelrod. 2005
Born deaf and Jewish yet became a Catholic priest; could not walk until he was three yet his work has…
spanned five continents; could not speak until he was nine yet has knowledge of fifteen languages; grew up under apartheid but did pioneering multiracial work; lost his sight but never lost his vision; is now both deaf and blind but that is no barrier to his faith or work. This is a remarkable autobiography of a deaf-blind priest, who was brought up in the Orthodox Jewish faith. 2005.By Jacques Lusseyran. 1964
With the help of his friends he found that the "cure" for blindness was to "immerse oneself in a life…
that is as real and difficult as the lives of others". With the war Jacques, aged sixteen, decided to organize his school friends into resistance and was eventually betrayed to the Germans, interrogated by the Gestapo and incarcerated for fifteen months in Buchenwald. 1964. Uniform title: Et la lumière fut.By Sheila Hocken. 1988
Sheila Hocken's clan of chocolate Labradors began with Emma, a guide dog during the author's temporary blindness, and has expanded…
to include a German shorthaired pointer. In this story, she introduces four newcomers. Sheila also reveals her fear that an eye infection may once again threaten her sight. 1988.By Frank B Brady, Ron Hearnden. 1992
By Jason Roberts. 2006
Known simply as The Blind Traveler, James Holman (1789-1857) fought the slave trade in Africa, survived a frozen captivity in…
Siberia, hunted rogue elephants in Ceylon and helped chart the Australian outback. This is a spellbinding and moving rediscovery of one of history's most epic lives. 2006.By Lilieth Ferguson. 2012
With a promise to her parents to return in three years, Lilieth left her home in sunny Jamaica for the…
damp shores of England to continue her education in nursing in 1961. Diagnosed with glaucoma, Lilieth’s determination to obtain her nursing degree exacted a heavy personal toll. 2012.By Joyce Dudley. 2004
This book is about the author's six different guide dogs, and covers six hundred Guide Dogs in Westminster Abbey, losing…
your Guide Dog in a swift flowing river in Wales, being taken to the funeral of your 104 year old aunt by your guide dog and being guided to work daily for years to the hospital where you are a physiotherapist. 2004.By Alfred Hollins. 1998
This book gives a flowing account of the life of this eminent blind concert organist, pianist, and composer; who was…
soloist with the Berlin, London, and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Tracing his life from his birth in Hull in 1865, his education at the York Blind School and at the Normal College, Norwood; also describing his North American tours, and those in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Originally published in 1936. 1998.By Lisa Fittipaldi. 2004
When Lisa Fittipaldi went blind at age 47, she descended into anger and denial, until a child's watercolour set, thrown…
down like a gauntlet by her frustrated husband, opened the door to a new life. In this memoir, she paints a vivid picture of the perceptual and emotional darkness of her vision loss and her arduous journey to reclaim her life. 2004.