People with Disabilities

In 2011, three years after leaving the NFL, Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease that paralyzes the entire body. Doctors gave him three years to live. He was thirty-four years old. As Steve says, he is now ten years past his expiration date....

When Abraham Verghese, a physician whose marriage is unraveling, relocates to El Paso, Texas, he hopes to make a fresh start as a staff member at the county hospital....

A moving account of resilience, hope, fear, and mortality and how these things resonate in our lives, by actor and advocate Michael J. Fox....

From the author of the groundbreaking anthology Disability Visibility comes another revolutionary collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience, and intimacy in all its myriad forms....

Paige Layle was normal. She lived in the countryside with her mom, dad, and brother Graham. She went to school, hung out with friends, and all the while everything seemed so much harder than it needed to be. A break in routine threw off the whole day....

Follow Michael and his guide dog, Roselle, as their lives are changed forever by two explosions and 1,463 stairs. In this harrowing story of trust and courage, discover how blindness and a bond between dog and man saved lives and brought hope during one of America’s darkest days....

In a memoir that is as wildly funny as it is emotionally shattering, Selma Blair tells the captivating story of growing up and finding her truth....

A neuro-diverse writer, advocate, and father meditates on his life, offering the radical message that we should stop trying to fix people and start empowering them to succeed....

In this unprecedented book, Grandin delivers a report from the country of autism....

A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn't built for all of us and of one woman's activism - from the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco to inside the halls of Washington - Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann's lifelong battle to achieve respect....

Ever since he was small, John Robison had longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits had earned him the label "social deviant"....

This intimate memoir reveals the woman inside one of autism’s most prominent figures, Jennifer O'Toole. At the age of 35, Jennifer was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, and for the first time in her life, things made sense....

They all thought he was gone. But he was alive and trapped inside his own body for ten years....

A memoir-in-essays from disability advocate and creator of the Instagram account @sitting_pretty Rebekah Taussig, processing a lifetime of memories to paint a beautiful, nuanced portrait of a body that looks and moves differently than most....

Katherine and Jay Wolf were a young couple living the dream in Southern California, but all was nearly lost when Katherine suffered a shocking near-fatal brainstem stroke and struggled to find hope in a life that looked nothing like the one they had before....

I discover a "lost" aunt, separated from our family due to racism and discrimination against the disabled. She had a mental disability due to childhood meningitis. She was taken away in 1942 when all Japanese Americans were considered the enemy and imprisoned....

Thousands have been wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Five have survived quadruple-amputee injuries. This is one soldier's story....

Diagnosed with pathological demand avoidance (PDA) in his teenage years, Harry Thompson looks back with wit and humour at the ups and downs of family and romantic relationships, school, work and mental health, as well as his teenage struggle with drugs and alcohol....

So begins Chloé Cooper Jones’s bold, revealing account of moving through the world in a body that looks different than most. Jones learned early on to factor “pain calculations” into every plan, every situation....

Ido in Autismland opens a window into non-verbal autism through dozens of short, autobiographical essays each offering new insights into autism symptoms, effective and ineffective treatments, and the inner emotional life of a severely autistic boy....

Before becoming the actor, producer, advocate, and model that people know today, Nyle DiMarco was half of a pair of Deaf twins born to a multi-generational Deaf family in Queens, New York....

A deafblind writer and professor explores how the misrepresentation of disability in books, movies, and TV harms both the disabled community and everyone else....

An inspirational, life-affirming memoir from the great-grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien....

The incredible life story of Haben Girma, the first Deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School, and her amazing journey from isolation to the world stage....

Fairy tales shape how we see the world, so what happens when you identify more with the Beast than Beauty? Amanda Leduc looks at fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm to Disney, showing us how they influence our expectations and behaviour....

In 2011, three years after leaving the NFL, Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease that paralyzes the entire body. Doctors gave him three years to live. He was thirty-four years old. As Steve says, he is now ten years past his expiration date. His memoir is the chronicle of a remarkable life, one filled with optimism and joy, despite the trauma and pain and despair he has experienced.

What is intimacy? More than sex, more than romantic love, the pieces in this stunning and illuminating new anthology offer broader and more inclusive definitions of what it can mean to be intimate with another person. Explorations of caregiving, community, access, and friendship offer us alternative ways of thinking about the connections we form with others—a vital reimagining in an era when forced physical distance is at times a necessary norm.

A journey from darkness to acceptance is a raw and compelling memoir chronicling one woman's harrowing personal struggle with mental illness. When a severe psychotic break abruptly derails Elisa's stable life as a wife and mother, she finds herself plunged into an unpredictable world ruled by the terrifying whims of her mind. This powerful personal account traces Elisa's odyssey through the fragmented mental health system, oscillating from psychiatric holds to outpatient programs and back again as doctors struggle to control her volatile mood cycles.

After the Flames is about one of the world's most famous burn victims: his incredible survival, his nightmarish path to recovery that helped revolutionize medical treatment for burn victims worldwide, the fame thrust upon him after he was declared a hero from the media, and the tumultuous years that followed, most of which were spent under the microscope of an unforgiving public eye.

This collection of autobiographical tales answers many readers' questions regarding the lives of those needing service dogs. What sorts of challenges do the legally blind face? How does one go about obtaining a guide dog? How can disabilities affect relationships? How does one cope with being diagnosed with a chronic and degenerative condition? Can an animal really become a dear friend? Not only are these stories engaging and heartwarming, but 100% of the profit from each purchase will be donated to Guide Dogs for the Blind in order to raise funds for those who need a canine companion. ...

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.

When Jackie Schuld’s therapist suggested she might be autistic, she scoffed. She knew there was no way she could be autistic. She was in her mid-30s and ran her own therapy private practice. Everything she learned about autism in her Master’s program in mental health counseling didn’t apply to her. She could make excellent eye contact. She could engage in deep conversations. She could attend social gatherings. She could make it through abrupt changes and remain flexible. How could she be autistic? The more she learned about autism — how it internally impacts autistics and how it can...

This book is a reflection of a mother’s experience when her daughter, after a sudden severe headache, was diagnosed with a torn brain aneurysm and arteriovenous malformation in the cerebellum. TJ, Evie’s brother, also shares his experience.

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 interpretations 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.

Subverting an ableist India’s expectations from a disabled person to be ‘inspirational’ and an ‘underdog who made it’ despite their illness, Abhishek Anicca writes about everyday stories of living with disability and chronic illness in this memoir-in-essays.

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.

At the age of sixty, and having lived with Parkinson’s disease for over ten years, Guy Deacon CBE set out on one last adventure: to drive solo from his home in the UK 18,000 miles and through twenty-five countries to Cape Town on the southern tip of Africa. This incredible journey, across Europe and down the full length of Africa, took the former British Army officer over twelve months. Along the way, he broke down five times, underwent one emergency evacuation, and took 3,650 prescription pills.

Nicolas Hamilton has been exceeding expectations since day one. Born with a form of cerebral palsy, Nicolas was told that he would never walk and would need a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Today he not only walks everywhere but he is the first disabled athlete to ever compete at the top level of British motorsport, The British Touring Car Championship, where he lines up on the grid alongside some of the world's best drivers. Now That I Have Your Attention follows Nicolas's remarkable journey and shares the valuable, tough, and often surprising lessons learned throughout his life.

There is no light without the dark At the end of the day, when the day is spent, there is only one thing to do: think. You know there's a problem. You know there's a very real, very likely, disaster ahead. But you ignore it. Or someone ignores it. Or, perhaps, you feel that nobody cares. Whatever the reason, hope is slim. Life is tough and drugs are tougher. But don't give in. There is a light amid the dark, and I will show it. Let me help you. Personally, let me guide you from a place I knew too well. Hopefully, to a place you'll embrace as well. What do you have to lose? Depression, Drugs...

Always With Me is a true story about the life of Moses Macias as he grew up in and out of the hospital for twenty-one years. He was born with spina bifida and cleft lip. As a result, he would have to endure dozens of surgeries as he would fight for his life growing up. Always With Me also details other struggles of growing up disabled such as bullying, depression, suicide, medical abuse, sexual abuse, and pain of receiving medical treatment throughout his life. Despite all the trauma he endures in life, he finds his faith in God.