Disability Memoir

Operated on as an infant, without anesthesia, Wendy P. Williams began life at war with her body. There were tubes everywhere, in and out of every opening, her mother reminded her on every anniversary of her surgery. Autobiography of a Sea Creature takes listeners on Williams’ difficult sensory journey toward healing, as she communes along the way with horseshoe crabs, dolphins, and other marine life that taught her the restorative power of beauty, resilience, and interdependence.

Be inspired by the story of Kevin Atlas (formerly Laue), whose faith and perseverance helped him become an NCAA Division I basketball player, despite being born with only one arm. Even before entering the world, Kevin Atlas was a fighter. He should have died in childbirth, as the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice, but he survived because his left arm was in the middle of it, allowing blood to flow to his brain. But since circulation was cut off in that arm, he was born with his left arm ending just below his elbow.

Now you can go where no one has been before: deep inside a mind with high-functioning autism. In his roller coaster of a life, Dylan Volk (aka Dielawn) has lived all over the country, tried to fit in with many different crowds, and been in jail a few times. Now he has written a tell-all book to give you all the juicy details. Don't listen to this book before you go to sleep - you may be up all night!

Carly-Jay Metcalfe was born with cystic fibrosis, survived a double-lung transplant at the age of 21 and faced a rare cancer at the age of 30. What she has endured should have killed her, but her humour, courage and optimism became her best survival skills. From her hospitalised childhood to her many friendships, loves and losses, Metcalfe shares the fickle nature of life with candour and warmth. She writes with compelling insight about organ donation, opioid addiction and survivor's guilt, while still managing to find joy amongst the wreckage.

Public Hostage, Public Ransom starts with the autobiographical story of William Bronston, the activist physician whose early professional California training steels him with a deep moral, professional, and cultural bond to the huge 6,000-person disabled population he encounters incarcerated in Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, NY, on whose behalf he daily battles to humanize and ultimately catalyze a federal class action lawsuit against the state to close the death-making institution.

When her son was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, Irma Velasquez was devastated. It was the pre-internet era of the early 1990s, and both information and experts were hard to find. Desperate for answers, she sought out therapists and educational programs designed to teach Aaron how to become successful in school and in life. But those early years ended up teaching Irma more than they taught Aaron. Irma realized her desire to "fix" her son had been a masquerade to fulfill her own needs, and she began to love him just as he was: perfect.

This is Nadina LaSpina's story - from her early years in her native Sicily, where she contracts polio as a baby, a fact that makes her the object of well-meaning pity and the target of messages of hopelessness, to her adolescence and youth in America, spent almost entirely in hospitals where she is tortured in the quest for a cure and made to feel that her body no longer belongs to her, and to her rebellion and her activism in the disability-rights movement.

When John Tovey lost his sight at the age of 42, he thought his life was over. He was wrong, it was just beginning. John had followed a bad path drifting in and out of trouble. He was sent to improvement schools, a young offenders institute and eventually a prison. John was on self-destruct and thought nothing or no one could help him. Then he became the victim of a vicious attack by a notorious train ‘steaming’ gang. John knew he had to take the witness stand.

Hall is authentic, transparent, and raw as she shares the many facets of her dynamic life and colorful personality. The chapters are like peeling an onion as Hall deftly delivers the most dismal times of her life. Listeners will experience so many emotions but will ultimately cheer for Hall’s escape, redemption, and power to rebuild a successful life. She credits her beloved 93-year-old grandmother's unconditional love and wisdom for giving her the endurance and strength to overcome all that life has dealt her.

Schizoetry by definition means: a literary work fusing poetry with the mind of a schizophrenic. This is a genre that I created. All my work revolves around the life and times of a paranoid schizophrenic. My work is very educational and inspiring to those in the system of mental health as well as those outside of the system. It gives insight as to how we think, feel, perceive, and process information.

Growing up with a learning disability, Josh was often told what he wouldn't be able to do. Fortunately, he did not listen. With the help of some wonderful teachers and friends, Josh found that he can do more than others ever predicted. Follow Josh on his journey through school, work, and his long-time participation in Special Olympics. Watch him confront challenges, overcome obstacles, and keep moving forward. This inspiring story will have you rooting for Josh from start to finish.

What would you do if it happened to you? If you awoke one day when you were twelve years old to be informed that your life was suddenly over? Well . . . Here is what I did. If you became the wealthiest person you would ever know just three and a half years later? What would that be like? Well, this is what it was like when it happened to me.

Finding Re2pite is a diary that uncovers how suffering can impact the heart of the fitness-minded. Within this audiobook, you'll learn how suffering breaks us, shapes us, and sends us. Whether it's providing wheelchairs in third world countries or helping parents with local respite care, any exposure to those impacted by special needs will help you realize what is significant and what is not.

Samantha Matthews was born in Texas in 1996. Not long after her birth, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. As a child living with this disability, she had to learn how to overcome many obstacles in life. As the years progress, she grew in determination and resilience to live her best life. Everyone has their struggles and challenges in life. It can be difficult to get people to see the person behind a disability.

Kamata's adventures with her teen—who happens to be deaf, with cerebral palsy, and in a wheelchair—through subterranean Tennessee, to the islands of Japan, and to the top of the Eiffel Tower ultimately lead to a daughter's increasing independence, a mother letting go of expectations, and advocacy for travel which prohibits discrimination.

A unique self-help memoir subliminally written from the perspective of a first time mom with undiagnosed Adhd, raised in Saint Louis, Missouri. She studied her experiences and those around her to recognize and identify, unhealthy patterns in society. Motherhood illuminated the struggles and weight that women have been thanklessly carrying for centuries. Producing emotionally unstable and traumatized children that become adults and spread their pain and grief among society.

In her memoir Do You Dream in Color?, Laurie Rubin looks back on her life as an international opera singer - who happens to be blind. From her loneliness and isolation as a middle school student to her experiences skiing, Rubin offers her young listeners a life story rich in detail and inspiration drawn from everyday challenges. Beginning with her childhood in California, Rubin tells the story of her life and the amazing experiences that led her to a career as an internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano.

Hannah Daly is a pediatric occupational therapist and an advanced sensory integration practitioner who is profoundly dyslexic, dyspraxic, and has sensory processing disorder. She has multiple university degrees but still cannot read or write. In Knowing No Boundaries, she gives an honest account of living with these hidden disabilities. This book is a unique coming-of-age, feel-good memoir that strikes the balance of vulnerability and humor.

How a mechanic rose above poverty and chronic anxiety to build a national enterprise and found peace with himself and his past in the process. Prepare to embark on a journey of emotions. This must-listen memoir explores the resilience of the human spirit. I literally could not stop reading From Turmoil to Triumph.

In 2018, Joe Hammond, wrote a piece for the Guardian about the 33 birthday cards he was writing for his two sons. It was shared by thousands. In A Short History of Falling he tells the story behind that piece, about the experience of living with - and dying of - motor neurone disease (ALS). A Short History of Falling is not a lament. It is a deeply imaginative meditation on what it feels like to confront the fact that your family will persist through time without you.