Disability Memoir

For 20 years, Lisa Murphy, Jeff Murphy, and a group of volunteers traveled the world with the Mobility Project, delivering mobility to the poorest people on the planet. They helped tens of thousands of disabled poor to gain mobility and hope. The disabled received wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches from the United States, items they never would have been able to afford. Like Simon of Cyrene, we helped people carry their cross of disability. From the hot tropical jungles of Costa Rica, Thailand, and São Tomé to the deserts of Afghanistan, the disabled poor got a new chance at life.

They say if you want to make God smile, tell him you have a plan. Dwight’s plan was to live his dream, teach math, coach football, and build a comfortable life for himself. Fate had other things in store for him. The story of Dwight’s physical and emotional journey from life as an able-bodied young man chasing his dreams only to have his world turned upside down by the thoughtless act of a 71-year-old drunk driver.

In "You're Not Doing It Right," Ellen Patnaude bravely opens the door to the haunting reality of Lewy body dementia (LBD) and unravels its profound impact on families. One of the most common types of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, LBD is marked by fluctuations in cognition, hallucinations, and motor symptoms. The journey begins with subtle warnings of small changes in her mother's behavior that worry Patnaude's father, but go unnoticed by the author and her sibling.

The world spun and rolled as I collapsed at Macy’s in San Francisco to the voices of Christmas carols being sung and bells ringing. Fresh out of the ICU and a week later, a beige man gave me a beige folder with a dark diagnosis that would color the rest of my life - multiple sclerosis. This set off a tidal wave, a tsunami inside of me that ravaged my body and crushed my lungs. The MS Diaries is a memoir that seeks to impart the journey inside one man’s mind struggling with a severe chronic illness through uncensored personal anecdotes and humorous situations.

Is it possible to find strength in struggle and purpose in pain? Ask Dr. April Jones, a young mother who battled her two-year-old son’s cancer while getting her doctorate. Her struggle to make the heart-wrenching decisions with her family led to a discovery of God, courage, and a happiness within that helped her transform scary misfortune into a joy-filled life. In No Mess, No Message, Dr. Jones shares her real, raw journey and reveals insight into how powerful thinking and strong faith can lead to inner healing.

Dr. Paul Boskind, a successful psychologist and LGBTQ+ advocate, thought he had everything under control. Diagnosed with a blinding retinal disorder at twenty-one, he defied the odds, building a fulfilling life. But years earlier than expected, his vision began to fade. The Blind Man Game is Paul’s poignant journey of self-discovery as he navigates the emotional turmoil of losing his sight and sense of self. With his future uncertain, Paul must draw on his expertise and inner strength to confront grief, fear, and a world no longer designed for him.

After three long years, Johnny’s young son, Sam, experiences a breakthrough. But even as calm comes to Sam's body, the illness makes off with his mind. Violent outbursts, strange obsessions - what has happened to his sweet boy? Cinematically weaving three generations of fatherhood, Remember, You’re the Greatest is a memoir of hard questions. Of unexpected joy in the ache of mystery. And the power of a special needs child to teach a father what greatness truly looks like.

In this candid, humorous, and insightful book, author, political science lecturer, and “Dudeist Priest” Arch Grieve provides listeners with a first-hand account of the many lessons he has learned (often the hard way) as a person living with bipolar disorder. This guidebook is a must-listen for anyone who has recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or knows someone who has.

Rachel Kolb was born profoundly deaf the same year that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, and she grew up as part of the first generation of deaf people with legal rights to accessibility services. Still, from a young age, she contorted herself to expectations set by a world that prioritizes hearing people. Now in Articulate, Kolb blends personal narrative with cultural commentary to explore the different layers of deafness, language, and voice.

In less than sixty days, published author and family chiropractor Kristi Hellenbrand would suddenly lose the ability to walk. The brightest doctors would not be able to figure out why. Part memoir, part research thesis, the author reveals with raw honesty her journey through Lyme Disease and the seemingly impossible passage to rediscovering wellness. In 2020, a sudden and mysterious illness - said to not exist in Georgia - took everything from her. This is the story of the deep, dark place where only grief takes you, but also the story of how she saves her own life.

Love for a Deaf Rebel introduces listeners to a vivacious Canadian woman who was born into a silent world and with the foundation for schizophrenia. With pathos and nostalgia, the author recounts his roller-coaster ride with Pearl, a vivacious deaf maverick, who, unknown to him, had paranoid schizophrenia. We follow their encounters through actual notes written before Derrick learns sign language; we go on their motorcycle ride to Mexico and Guatemala; we watch as the happy couple moves to Bowen Island, a British Columbia community with just three paved roads.

In Step Out on Nothing, Byron Pitts chronicles his astonishing story of overcoming a childhood filled with obstacles to achieve enormous success in life. Throughout Byron's difficult youth - his parents separated when he was twelve and his mother worked two jobs to make ends meet - he suffered from a debilitating stutter. But Byron was keeping an even more embarrassing secret: He was also functionally illiterate.

Preeti was barely six years old when doctors diagnosed her deteriorating vision as a condition due to optic atrophy. Those were difficult days but with the support and encouragement of her parents she learnt to get the best out of her disability. She looked for possibilities, focused on every positive she could dream of, always playing her best shot at facing challenges and failures with dignity and without shame.

In Laughing and Crying Alone, we are offered a compelling account of the struggles associated with bipolar disorder. Alternately heartbreaking and uplifting, we follow Lisa through the laughter and the tears. Exploring Lisa's feelings of isolation, Laughing and Crying Alone provides compassion and validation to those with mental illness while shedding a much-needed light on mental health. And through it all, we see a wife and mother come to terms with the uncertainties of living with bipolar disorder and reemerge to embrace the new normal with confidence and ease.

Eight Fingers and Eight Toes: Accepting Life's Challenges is a story of the power of a mother's love for her children and her journey of self-love. It is a story of struggles and learning to accept and overcome challenges. One takes a front row seat as the author learns answers to questions asked decades ago that result in part from the family being the first ever to have their entire genome sequenced.

A young man with special powers is forced to retire from a life of violent crime and escape from New York City at the age of 18. He gets his life together and becomes a respected physician. Thirty years later, he is afflicted with a mysterious illness silently sweeping across the globe. While desperately struggling to find redemption and a cure, he learns that violent associates from his past and federal law enforcement agents are still relentlessly in pursuit.

This memoir combines the drastic losses which occur due to severe episodic memory deficits with the greater agency currently afforded to all of us as made capable via ingenuity and technology. In this book memory loss is considered within the present-day environment of novel solutions heretofore unimaginable. All of us may never need to worry about recalling key life events ever again.

In a series of beautifully textured stories, the author takes the listener on a fascinating journey as she travels with Teela, her lively "golden dog", through airports, city streets, and southwest desert landscapes, exploring these surroundings with changed sight. This unusual account of travel will inspire the sighted as well as the blind, offering pointed observations on processes of learning to work with a service animal and on coming to terms with a disability.

When the newly qualified vet, James Herriot, arrives in the small Yorkshire village of Darrowby, he has no idea of the new friends he will meet or adventures that lie ahead. From the author whose books inspired the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small, this first volume of unforgettable memoirs chronicles James Herriot's first years as a country vet, with the signature storytelling magic that has made him a favourite the world over.

What would you have left if you awoke and were told you would be paralyzed from the eyes down for the rest of your life? After an almost fatal car crash and a botched surgery to repair nerve damage, that was Clay Byars' reality at 18 years old. Determination became the only constant in his life from that point on, and miraculously he quickly began to defy the odds. Clay discovered a life far different from that of his identical twin brother, Will.