Title search results
Showing 161 - 180 of 861 items
This Brain Had a Mouth: Lucy Gwin and the Voice of Disability Nation
By James M. Odato. 2021
&“This biography provides valuable insight into the personality behind one of the most influential disability rights publications. A genuine page-turner.&”…
—Fred Pelka, author of What We Have Done Author, advocacy journalist, disability rights activist, feminist, and founder of Mouth magazine, Lucy Gwin (1943—2014) made her mark by helping those in &“handicaptivity&” find their voice. Gwin produced over one hundred issues of the magazine—one of the most radical and significant disability rights publications—and masterminded its acerbic, sometimes funny, and often moving articles about people from throughout the disability community. In this engrossing biography, James M. Odato provides an intimate portrait of Gwin, detailing how she forged her own path into activism. After an automobile accident left her with a brain injury, Gwin became a tireless advocate for the equal rights of people she termed &“dislabled.&” More than just a publisher, she fought against corruption in the rehabilitation industry, organized for the group Not Dead Yet, and much more. With Gwin&’s story at the center, Odato introduces readers to other key disability rights activists and organizations, and supplies context on current contentious topics such as physician-assisted suicide. Gwin&’s impact on disability rights was monumental, and it is time her story is widely known.Metamorphosis: Who We Become after Facial Paralysis
By Faye Linda Wachs. 2023
Losing her smile to synkinesis after unresolved Bell’s palsy changed how Faye Linda Wachs was seen by others and her…
internal experience of self. In Metamorphosis, interviewing over one hundred people with acquired facial difference challenged her presumptions about identity, disability, and lived experience. Participants described microaggressions, internalizations, and minimalizations and their impact on identity. Heartbreakingly, synkinesis disrupts the ability to have shared moments. When one experiences spontaneous emotion, wrong nerves trigger misfeel and misperception by others. One is misread by others and receives confusing internal information. Communication of and to the self is irrevocably damaged. Wachs describes the experience as a social disability. People found a host of creative ways to reinvigorate their sense of self and self-expression. Like so many she interviewed, Wachs experiences a process of change and growth as she is challenged to think more deeply about ableism, identity, and who she wants to be.Loving Our Own Bones: Rethinking disability in an ableist world
By Julia Watts Belser. 2023
Open the Bible, and disability is everywhere. Moses stutters and thinks himself unable to answer God's call. Isaac's blindness lets…
his wife trick him into bestowing his blessing on his younger son. Jesus heals the sick the blind, the paralyzed, and the possessed. For centuries, these stories have been told and retold by commentators who treat disability as misfortune, as a metaphor for spiritual incapacity, or as a challenge to be overcome.Loving Our Own Bones turns that perspective on its head. Drawing insights from the hard-won wisdom of disabled folks who've forged difference into fierce and luminous cultural dissent, Belser offers fresh and unexpected readings of familiar biblical stories, showing how disability wisdom can guide us all toward a powerful reckoning with the complexities of the flesh. She talks back to biblical commentators who traffic in disability stigma and shame, challenging interpretations that demean disabled people and diminish the vitality of disabled lives. And she shows how Sabbath rest can be a powerful counter to the relentless demand for productivity, an act of spiritual resistance in a culture that makes work the signal measure of our worth.With both a lyrical love of tradition and incisive political analysis, Belser braids spiritual perspectives together with keen activist insights-inviting readers to claim the power and promise of spiritual dissent, to nourish their own souls through the revolutionary art of radical self-love.Hope Fights Back: Fifty Marathons and a Life or Death Race Against ALS
By Andrea Lytle Peet. 2023
The incredible story of a young woman living with ALS, who defies all odds by finishing fifty marathons and, in…
turn, inspires people to &“go on, be brave.&”Andrea Lytle Peet was thirty-three years old—an urban planner living in D.C., newly married, and a triathlete—when she received the death sentence of an ALS diagnosis (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease). After grappling with the fact that she will likely become paralyzed and die within two to five years, Andrea experienced an unexpected spark that changes her outlook in the most magnificent way. Inspired by Jon Blais, famous for finishing the IRONMAN World Championship while fighting the same disease, Andrea sets an "impossible" goal to become the first person with ALS to complete a marathon in all fifty U.S. states on her recumbent trike—since she is no longer able to run. In her mission, Andrea recaptures the freedom that racing always gave her and inspires others to appreciate what our bodies can do. Her mindset shifts to accepting that although she is dying faster than she might have otherwise, we are all on the same path. Andrea, along with her husband and ALS community, prove that we all have choices in how we spend our precious lives—no matter what challenges we face. Hope Fights Back chronicles what happens when we choose to live instead of waiting to die. It is a "love letter to life" and a beautiful love story between Andrea and her husband, David. Andrea&’s words are awe-inspiring for athletes and non-athletes alike. The reader intimately witnesses Andrea&’s tenacity, determination and bravery, not only in accomplishing her fifty marathons goal, but in her day-to-day life with ALS. In a world where &“hope&” sometimes feels quiet and aspirational, Andrea reveals that hope is, instead, a valiant warrior that changes everything when it fights back. In Hope Fights Back, readers will be empowered by Andrea's force as an athlete and a woman fighting the battle of her life. For readers of Until I Say Goodbye, Let Your Mind Run and Between Two Kingdoms, Hope Fights Back is a magnetic and radiant story filled with soul-baring honesty, love and true grit. A documentary about Andrea&’s triumphant journey, Go On, Be Brave, will premier at the 2023 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.Unblinded: One Man’s Courageous Journey Through Darkness to Sight
By Traci Medford-Rosow, Kevin Coughlin. 2018
Living with a Spinal Cord Injury: My life as a Quadriplegic
By Joseph English. 2024
Joseph English was living his best life when a car accident changed everything. He suffered life changing injuries, and the…
doctors told him there was no chance of recovery. Facing life as a quadriplegic, Joe lost his business, his romantic partner, and, for a while, his will to carry on. His story, told with extensive contributions from his family and friends, charts his journey from being dead at the roadside to finding something to live for as he recounts his progress from injury to survival. With absolute candour, Joe tells the whole story of his accident, his rehabilitation, and his recovery. Full of advice and suggestions from professionals in the rehabilitation journey, this book is remarkably frank about the struggles Joe has endured, and the times when he felt as if life wasn’t worth living. It addresses all the most difficult issues around life after paralysis, including loss of identity and letting go of the past, as well as providing practical information on topics such as assistive technology, financial claims and legal support. It also outlines the various roles of those in the rehabilitation team. His doctors and specialist practitioners give their unique perspectives into their processes and procedures, helping to demystify them, while Joe’s family and friends ask the kinds of questions readers will be asking too, making this an invaluable guide to what to expect for anyone going through a similar experience. The book shows – by lived example – that there is always more to live for. It is essential reading for those with paraplegia, quadriplegia and other spinal injuries, and their families, friends and care-givers. It is also valuable for neuropsychologists, neurologists and other rehabilitation therapists, as well as students in medicine, nursing, allied health and neuropsychology.The Wild Mandrake: A Memoir
By Jason Jobin. 2023
On the cusp of adulthood, a young writer’s life is stalled as he faces cancer that keeps coming back.Doctors used…
to tell him he was cured. That was a long time ago. Ever since he first left home at age nineteen, writer Jason Jobin has had cancer. Every five years, like clockwork, it relapses, and yet he always pulls through, surrounded by friends and family but isolated by illness. Chemotherapy, surgeries, radiation — these persist, but they aren’t the milestones of his life. They can’t be, he won’t let them be.From helicoptering into the Yukon backcountry to teaching in an elite writing program, Jason strives to enter adulthood with some normalcy, but his is the life of “a special case.” And he does live. He lives working at a deli for minimum wage as his students come down the hill to shop and ask what he’s doing there. He lives measuring out nausea pills and benzos while his roommates drink and smoke and party. He lives lying to girlfriends about past diagnoses because what can you say? What do you build on rubble? He lives high and low and in between. Again he is sick, again he is cured. It’s miraculous. A great gift. But never enough.Told in short glimpses, this story redefines what it means to survive. Jobin brings together the illuminated moments of loss and joy as he navigates chronic illness and builds from it something new and wildly unexpected.The country of the blind: A memoir at the end of sight
By Andrew Leland. 2023
A witty, winning, and revelatory personal narrative of the author’s transition from sightedness to blindness and his quest to learn…
about blindness as a rich culture all its own “ The Country of the Blind is about seeing—but also about marriage and family and the moral and emotional challenge of accommodating the parts of ourselves that scare us. A warm, profound, and unforgettable meditation on how we adjust to new ways of being in the world.” —Rachel Aviv, author of Strangers to Ourselves We meet Andrew Leland as he’s suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind: he’s midway through his life with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that ushers those who live with it from sightedness to blindness over years, even decades. He grew up with full vision, but starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon—but without knowing exactly when—he will likely have no vision left. Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Leland embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him: not only the physical experience of blindness but also its language, politics, and customs. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, “typical” life to one with a disability. Part memoir, part historical and cultural investigation, The Country of the Blind represents Leland’s determination not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it—to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening. Thought-provoking and brimming with warmth and humor, The Country of the Blind is a deeply personal and intellectually exhilarating tour of a way of being that most of us have never paused to consider—and from which we have much to learnAgatha Tiegel Hanson: Our Places in the Sun
By Kathy Jankowski. 2023
Agatha Tiegel Hanson (1873-1959) is regarded as a seminal figure in Deaf history for her writing, advocacy, and leadership, though…
her accomplishments merit recognition within the larger context of American history as well. Barely fifteen years old in 1888, Tiegel Hanson became one of the first women to attend the nation's only college for Deaf students, the National Deaf-Mute College, now known as Gallaudet University. Amid the hostility and skepticism of male students and faculty, she achieved exemplary academic success and was the first woman to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from the college. Upon facing stringent campus restrictions and exclusion from male-only organizations and activities, Tiegel Hanson cofounded a society for female students. Her prerequisite graduation presentation, "The Intellect of Woman," was a powerful oratory that urged women to “move on till all barriers crumble and fall.” Throughout her life, Agatha Tiegel Hanson worked to advance the rights of Deaf people and women, and she was a passionate advocate of sign language rights. Her contributions include creative written works as well as influential treatises. She served in leadership positions at several Deaf organizations and, along with her husband, noted Deaf architect Olof Hanson, she played a vital role in the Deaf cultural life of the time. In Agatha Tiegel Hanson: Our Places in the Sun, author Kathy Jankowski presents a portrait of this trailblazer, and celebrates her impact on the Deaf community and beyond. This biography will be of interest to those already familiar with Tiegel Hanson’s legacy as well as to readers who are discovering her extraordinary life for the first time.Sipping Dom Pérignon Through A Straw (Father Anselm Novels #13)
By Eddie Ndopu. 2023
An inspirational and truly intersectional memoir from global humanitarian and social justice advocate Eddie Ndopu-a queer, Black wheelchair user and…
one of the UN Secretary-General's 17 Advocates for the SDGs.There are many more examples throughout my life where, if I had listened to people who told me to be comfortable with merely existing, I would now be a shrunken version of myself. I would not have emerged as one of Amnesty International's most influential campaigners straight out of college. I would not have gone on to graduate from Oxford. I would not have been appointed as a United Nations SDG Advocate. I would be eating mashed-up vegetables instead of drinking Dom Pérignon through a straw.Eddie Ndopu was born in 1990 with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a rare degenerative motor-neuron disease, and told that he wouldn't live beyond age five. Now, thirty-one years old and stronger than ever, he continues to celebrate each turn around the sun as an existential defiance of the odds.Having fought his way through South Africa's archaic and ableist school system, Eddie became the first-ever disabled African to be given a full scholarship to Oxford University. Gay, Black and a wheelchair user, he is now an eminent thought-leader and holds positions at two of the most important organizations on the planet: the United Nations and the World Economic Forum.From flirting with diplomats on dancefloors to wearing lipstick to board meetings, Eddie has spent his life challenging the bias of those who occupy the highest echelons of power and prestige. Through redefining the boundaries of identity and ability, Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw is Eddie's odds-obliterating story that illustrates what true leadership can look like and reminds us to never forget that you are bigger and more expansive than the space you currently occupy.(P) 2023 Hachette AudioLosing Music: A Memoir
By John Cotter. 2023
“I was in the car the first time music seemed strange: the instruments less distinct, the vocals less crisp.” John Cotter…
was thirty years old when he first began to notice a ringing in his ears. Soon the ringing became a roar inside his head. Next came partial deafness, then dizziness and vertigo that rendered him unable to walk, work, sleep, or even communicate. At a stage of life when he expected to be emerging fully into adulthood, teaching and writing books, he found himself “crippled and dependent,” and in search of care. When he is first told that his debilitating condition is likely Ménière’s Disease, but that there is “no reliable test, no reliable treatment, and no consensus on its cause,” Cotter quits teaching, stops writing, and commences upon a series of visits to doctors and treatment centers. What begins as an expedition across the country navigating and battling the limits of the American healthcare system, quickly becomes something else entirely: a journey through hopelessness and adaptation to disability. Along the way, hearing aids become inseparable from his sense of self, as does a growing understanding that the possibilities in his life are narrowing rather than expanding. And with this understanding of his own travails comes reflection on age-old questions around fate, coincidence, and making meaning of inexplicable misfortune. A devastating memoir that sheds urgent, bracingly honest light on both the taboos surrounding disability and the limits of medical science, Losing Music is refreshingly vulnerable and singularly illuminating—a story that will make readers see their own lives anew.Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History (Chicago Visions and Revisions)
By Jaipreet Virdi. 2020
At the age of four, Jaipreet Virdi’s world went silent. A severe case of meningitis left her alive but deaf,…
suddenly treated differently by everyone. Her deafness downplayed by society and doctors, she struggled to “pass” as hearing for most of her life. Countless cures, treatments, and technologies led to dead ends. Never quite deaf enough for the Deaf community or quite hearing enough for the “normal” majority, Virdi was stuck in aural limbo for years. It wasn’t until her thirties, exasperated by problems with new digital hearing aids, that she began to actively assert her deafness and reexamine society’s—and her own—perception of life as a deaf person in America. Through lyrical history and personal memoir, Hearing Happiness raises pivotal questions about deafness in American society and the endless quest for a cure. Taking us from the 1860s up to the present, Virdi combs archives and museums in order to understand the long history of curious cures: ear trumpets, violet ray apparatuses, vibrating massagers, electrotherapy machines, airplane diving, bloodletting, skull hammering, and many more. Hundreds of procedures and products have promised grand miracles but always failed to deliver a universal cure—a harmful legacy that is still present in contemporary biomedicine. Weaving Virdi’s own experiences together with her exploration into the fascinating history of deafness cures, Hearing Happiness is a powerful story that America needs to hear.Sipping Dom Pérignon Through A Straw (Father Anselm Novels #13)
By Eddie Ndopu. 2023
'Uncompromising... A masterful writer poised for even more great success' - Forest Whitaker, Academy award-winning actorA memoir, penned with one…
good finger, about being profoundly disabled and profoundly successful.Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare degenerative motor neuron disease affecting his mobility. He was told that he wouldn't live beyond age five and yet, Ndopu thrived. He grew up loving pop music and haute couture, lip syncing to the latest hits, and was the only wheelchair user at his school, where he flourished academically. By his late teens, he had become a sought-after speaker, travelling the world to give talks on disability justice. When he is later accepted on a full scholarship into Oxford University, he soon learns that it's not just the medical community he must defy - it's the educational one too. In Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw, we follow Ndopu, sporting his oversized, bejewelled sunglasses, as he scales the mountain of success, only to find exclusion, discrimination, and neglect waiting for him on the other side. As he soars professionally, sipping champagne with world leaders, he continues to feel the loneliness and pressure of being the only one in the room. Determined to carve out his place in the world, he must challenge bias at the highest echelons of power and prestige. Searing, vulnerable and inspiring, Ndopu's remarkable journey to reach beyond ableism, reminds us never to let anyone else define our limits.'Unflinching honesty and vulnerability... Prepare to be moved, enlightened, and profoundly touched' Sabrina Dhowre Elba, actress, model and UN Goodwill AmbassadorGreater Things: Triumph Over Adversity
By Kristin Beale. 2017
Kristin was thrown into a disability at the age of 14, and every day since then has been a struggle…
to overcome it. She has fought through the unavoidable physical stresses of her condition for over a decade and, even more, the heavy psychological burdens that follow closely behind. Greater Things is a raw perspective on everything from how people react differently to her situation, to learning how to navigate in and through an inaccessible world, to just trying to make the best of a crummy situation.Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better
By Polly Atkin. 2023
'It raises the standard of nature writing. This is both radical manifesto and activism in book form'Sally Huband, author of…
Sea Bean'Defiant and dazzling'Freya Bromley, author of The Tidal Year'Essential reading'Jessica J. Lee, author of Turning'Long before I knew I was sick, I knew I was breakable . . .'After years of unexplained health problems, Polly Atkin's perception of her body was rendered fluid and disjointed. When she was finally diagnosed with two chronic conditions in her thirties, she began to piece together what had been happening to her - all the misdiagnoses, the fractures, the dislocations, the bone-crushing exhaustion, the not being believed.Some of Us Just Fall combines memoir, pathography and nature writing to trace a fascinating journey through illness, a journey which led Polly to her current home in the Lake District, where outdoor swimming is purported to cure all, and where every day she turns to the natural world to help tame her illness. Polly delves into the history of her two genetic conditions, uncovering how these illnesses were managed (or not) in times gone by and exploring how best to plan for her own future. From medical misogyny and gaslighting, to the illusion of 'the nature cure', this essential, beautiful and deeply personal book examines how we deal with bodies that diverge from the norm, and why this urgently needs to change.This is not a book about getting better. This is a book about living better with illness.Falling into the Rhythm of Life: Life Lessons Straight from the Horse's Mouth
By Sharon Campbell-Rayment. 2016
In every tragedy there is the ability to heal and rise above the challenge. In Falling into the Rhythm of…
Life, author Sharon Campbell-Rayment leads readers through her personal story of a devastating accident and her path to healing and recovery. She also provides readers with helpful lessons, tips and techniques called – Life Lessons Straight From the Horse's Mouth – written to equip readers on their own journeys.Karen: A True Story Told by Her Mother
By Marie Killilea. 1952
Winner of the Christopher Award: This bestseller tells the inspirational true story of a girl with cerebral palsy and the…
mother who wouldn't give up on her. In 1940, when Karen Killilea was born three months premature and developed cerebral palsy, doctors encouraged her parents to put her in an institution and forget about her. At the time, her condition was considered untreatable, and institutionalization was the only recourse. But in a revolutionary act of faith and love, the Killileas never gave up hope that Karen could lead a successful life. Written by Karen's mother, Marie, this memoir is a profound and heartwarming personal account of a young mother's efforts to refute the medical establishment's dispiriting advice, and her daughter's extraordinary triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds. Marie's activism spread awareness of the mistreatment of disabled people in America and led to the formation of multiple foundations, including United Cerebral Palsy. A larger-than-life story, Karen tells of a family's courage, patience, and struggle in the face of extreme difficulty. The New York Times wrote, "You'll want to read it most for Karen's own words: 'I can walk, I can talk. I can read. I can write. I can do anything.'"A Little Bit Broken: A Memoir
By Roz Weston. 2021
It never gets better, but it does get easier. That's the first thing Roz says to anyone who asks him…
for advice. Anyone who's fighting like hell, just hanging on or putting the pieces back together. When you're broken, fixed becomes an obsession. Roz is a multi-platform entertainer and storyteller who hosts three shows a day and sleeps five hours a night. On The Roz & Mocha Show, ET Canada Live and Entertainment Tonight Canada Roz built an audience and turned them into family. But as with most families, there is just some shit we don't talk about. From growing up in a small town to getting lost, drunk and terrified in New York while interning for The Howard Stern Show; from finding comfort in the arms and beds of strangers to kicking an opioid addiction he didn't know he had; from broken bones to broken hearts and a broken marriage. From navigating grief and guilt following the devastating loss of his father to persevering in the face of an ongoing and private battle with his own body. All is shared in Roz's disarming signature blend of blunt truth and humour. A Little Bit Broken is a deeply personal and inspiring account of self-forgiveness, redemption and recovering from bad choices—because let's face it, the reason we make bad choices is that they usually feel really good. And Roz has made them all. "This book is the whole story I've never shared before. . . . This is the shit we don&’t talk about. Welcome to the family."Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better
By Polly Atkin. 2023
'It raises the standard of nature writing. This is both radical manifesto and activism in book form' Sally Huband, author…
of Sea Bean'Long before I knew I was sick, I knew I was breakable . . .'A raw and exquisite meditation on chronic illness and our place within the landscape, from prize-winning poet Polly Atkin.After years of unexplained health problems, Polly Atkin's perception of her body was rendered fluid and disjointed. When she was finally diagnosed with two chronic conditions in her thirties, she began to piece together what had been happening to her - all the misdiagnoses, the fractures, the dislocations, the bone-crushing exhaustion, the not being believed.Some of Us Just Fall combines memoir, pathography and nature writing to trace a fascinating journey through illness, a journey which led Polly to her current home in the Lake District, where outdoor swimming is purported to cure all, and where every day Polly uses the natural world to help tame her illness. Polly delves into the history of her two genetic conditions, uncovering how these illnesses were managed (or not) in times gone by and exploring how best to plan for her own future. From medical misogyny and gaslighting, to the illusion of 'the nature cure', this essential, beautiful and deeply personal book examines how we deal with bodies that diverge from the norm, and why this urgently needs to change. This is not a book about getting better, this is a book about living better with illness.(P)2023 Hodder & Stoughton LimitedWith Love from Karen
By Marie Killilea. 1963
The Killilea family returns in the heartwarming sequel to national bestseller KarenWith Love from Karen picks up five years after…
the conclusion of Karen, the miraculous and true story of a girl with cerebral palsy who triumphed against all odds. It follows the Killileas through Karen's teen years and into adulthood. Karen and her family continue to face seemingly insurmountable obstacles: They must fight for Karen's right to attend public school, support Karen in her dream to raise and exhibit champion show dogs, and encourage her in her decision to use a wheelchair or walk on her own. Once again, the Killilea family proves that the power of faith, love, and courage in the face of adversity can make miracles happen.