Disability Memoir

We are all born with a series of gifts and curses. It is my experience, that some of those form your self-identity, and dictate much of your life. Attention Deficit Disorder was mine. Growing up I felt hindered by the inability to focus; therefore self-identified as a failure. Yet here I am, 40 years old, professionally and financially successful, artistically trained and skilled, and most importantly happy. In this book, I reflect on why I failed so much at certain elements of my life. I forgive my former self for how I erred as a son, brother, partner and friend.

On June 10, 2008, Carol Decker walked through the hospital doors a healthy woman with flu-like symptoms and early labor contractions. Three months later, she returned home a blind triple-amputee struggling to bond with a daughter she would never see. Unshattered recounts Carol's fight for survival against sepsis and its life-shattering complications. From excruciating skin grafts to learning how to function in daily life without lower legs, a left hand, and her sight, Carol takes us on a personal and raw, yet inspiring journey.

Hey guys, you might know me already from one of my social media channels where I talk about the highs and lows of living with Tourette's syndrome. I've loved sharing those times with you and - as there are lots of things I can't fit into a 60-second video - I've decided to write a book! It's the full story of how I came to be diagnosed and how having Tourette's has changed my life. Writing it has given me an opportunity to talk about things I haven't felt ready to share before - for some reason it's easier to put down private things in written words than in a video!

After a diagnosis of a degenerative eye disease, John Samuel’s life—and his chance at success—started to vanish. In a world systemically unequipped for accessibility, disability inclusion is often left out of conversations about diversity. For people with disabilities, it can feel impossible to adapt and thrive when you’re already set up for failure.

As a new mother to three nonverbal, profoundly autistic children, Christine Slack Roach felt lost and alone. There were resources about autism and about raising children with disabilities. But she couldn’t find anything that resonated with what she was experiencing with her own children. As her three children approach adulthood, Christine feels compelled to share the miracles, joys, pain and unending love she has experienced learning about and raising her kids so that other parents in a similar situation will know that they are not alone, and there are resources out there.

Vaneetha Risner contracted polio as an infant, was misdiagnosed, and lived with widespread paralysis. She lived in and out of the hospital for 10 years and, after each stay, would return to a life filled with bullying. When she became a Christian, though, she thought things would get easier, and they did: carefree college days, a dream job in Boston, and an MBA from Stanford where she met and married a classmate. But life unraveled. Again.

God's Immeasurable grace. It's the most important ingredient for the perfect love story. Tragic circumstances often stretch relationships to their breaking point. But God's grace is always more than enough. For Ken and Joni Eareckson Tada, enduring quadriplegia, chronic pain, cancer, and depression only made their love more vibrant through 30 years of marriage. Discover a bond that has seen the worst and claimed the best. Listen about Joni and Ken’s challenges firsthand. Discover God's immeasurable grace along the way, as their story inspires and enriches your own relationships.

This is not a self-help book. This is a war cry. This Is Not a Breakdown: It’s a Bipolar Awakening is a raw, rebellious, no-apologies journey through the chaos and clarity of living with bipolar disorder. Caprice doesn’t sugarcoat the mood swings, the meds, the breakdowns, or the brilliance. He drags the truth into the light — and sets it on fire. For the ones who’ve been called too much. Who’ve disappeared when it got heavy. Who love hard, crash harder, and come back louder. No recovery clichés. No “inspirational” masks. Just real stories, hard-won wisdom, and a whole lot of fire.

Lucy Edwards is a UK-based blind broadcaster, content creator, Pantene Ambassador and disability activist. At only 17 her world went to black. In an instant Lucy lost her eyesight due to a rare condition called Incontinentia Pigmenti. She had to learn how to navigate her life all over again, the beginning of an extraordinary journey to find self-acceptance and happiness. Lucy took to the internet and started to upload her experiences. Through sharing her day-to-day routine in her viral 'How does a blind girl?' video series, Lucy's story gripped the nation.

From being a little girl in a village in China with polio to a tech executive at Apple, Libo Cao Meyers has had quite a journey in life—a journey steeped in rich family legacy and powered by determination, growth, and love. Over the years and the miles, she’s embraced her differences and has allowed no one—including herself—to set limitations on what she’s able to accomplish. But just because she’s been successful doesn’t mean it’s been easy. Not by a long shot.

What would your life look like if you measured success by your improvements instead of your victories? Chris Nikic, the first person with Down syndrome to ever complete an IRONMAN® triathlon, inspires others to achieve their goals by getting one percent better better every day.

When PhD candidate Sarah Vallance is thrown from a horse and suffers a jarring blow to the head, she believes she walks away unscathed. The next morning, things take a sharp turn as she’s quickly led from work to the emergency room. By the end of the week, a neurologist delivers a devastating prognosis: Sarah suffered a traumatic brain injury that has caused her IQ to plummet, with no hope of recovery. Her brain has irrevocably changed.

When Jeremy and Emily Freeman’s teenage son Caleb was in a devastating car accident, doctors gave him a 10 percent chance of survival. Fear of losing a child was all too fresh for the Freemans—their seven-year-old son, Trey, had died just four years earlier from a genetic immunodeficiency. But God. In #butGod Jeremy shares the incredible story of Caleb’s recovery, the darkness that nearly overtook their family in the waiting, and the #butGod movement that captured the prayers of Christians around the world.

After a normal, healthy, full-term pregnancy, Margaret Moore's parents Anne and Terrence were shocked as a prolapsed umbilical cord left their daughter unable to breathe on her own. Margaret, nicknamed Meg, was not expected to live through the night and began to breathe on her own by the next day—a phenomenon that medical personnel deemed a miraculous recovery. Meg came home with a physical disability Cerebral Palsy and permanent dependence on others for help with feeding, dressing, hygiene, and transfers to and from her wheelchair and walker.

From the disability rights advocate and creator of the #DisabledAndCute viral campaign, a thoughtful, inspiring, and charming collection of essays exploring what it means to be black and disabled in a mostly able-bodied white America.

Our aim with this narrative is to share our journey through the labyrinth of cancer treatment—the decisions we faced, the paths we chose, and, most importantly, the lessons we learned. We hope to offer guidance, support, and perhaps a sense of solidarity to others who find themselves on a similar journey. This is not your typical medical guide; it is a well-researched companion for every aspect of your cancer journey and a deeply personal account of battling cancer from the perspective of a spouse.

In 1895, a specialist straps five-year-old Katharine Hathaway, then suffering from spinal tuberculosis, to a board with halters and pulleys in a failed attempt to prevent her from becoming a “hunchback” like the “little locksmith” who does odd jobs at her family’s home. Forced to endure her confinement for ten years, Katharine remains immobile until age fifteen, only to find that none of it has prevented her from developing a deformity of her own.

As a deafblind woman with partial vision in one eye and bilateral hearing aids, Elsa Sjunneson lives at the crossroads of blindness and sight, hearing and deafness—much to the confusion of the world around her. And she knows how wrong our one-size-fits-all definitions of disability can be. Part memoir, part cultural criticism, part history of the deafblind experience, Being Seen explores how our cultural concept of disability is more myth than fact, and the damage it does to us all.

Told with shocking honesty and in unbelievable detail, Bipolar: A Gift of Thorns is a profoundly insightful memoir that shines a light on one woman’s courageous journey and the stigma of bipolar disorder.

Lauren Windas is one of the estimated 250,000 people suffering with CFS in the UK. Whilst at university in 2012, she fell ill with a viral infection and was later diagnosed with CFS. Since then she has devoted herself to reclaiming her health and being able to live a full life, drawing on the knowledge of experts to help manage her often mysterious and hard-to-manage condition. In Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lauren recounts the highs and lows of her own health journey and experiences,.