Showing titles in People with Disabilities

In My Two Elaines, author Marty Schreiber, former governor of Wisconsin, watches his beloved wife, Elaine, gradually transform from the woman he fell in love with in high school, and who diligently supported his political career, to the Elaine who knows she is declining and can’t remember how to cook a meal, and finally to the Elaine who no longer recognizes Marty or their children. Beyond sincere, practical advice, My Two Elaines gives the listener permission to feel the full spectrum of emotions, including humor, even in the face of this relentless illness.

It only takes a second to change your life. At age 21, Ryan Atkins had everything going for him: A full-ride scholarship in a prestigious business program, a well-paying internship, an opportunity to pitch a business plan to venture capitalists in New York City. He was living his dreams and preparing for a future of success. But the day before leaving for New York, Ryan was in a life-altering car accident that robbed him of the use of his arms and legs. Paralyzed from the shoulders down, he found himself struggling to grasp just how fundamentally his life had changed.

Sometimes, dyslexia can go unnoticed for years, almost half a lifetime in fact. The effects of dyslexia are more than just bad spelling and illegible handwriting. I didn’t realize I was dyslexic until I was 41. By that time, I’d lost my job due to spelling mistakes more times than I can remember. But dyslexia is more than just making mistakes.

Tiffani, the author, becomes an intimate friend as you speaks to you about her deepest thoughts, fears, and worries. Her love, strength, honesty, and determination to care for her family at all costs is inspiring.

This often heartbreaking account by Carol, whose son, Paul, was born with many difficulties, including autism, is told with the honesty and sincerity necessary to portray the conflicting emotions faced by any family, and particularly a mother, in such circumstances. The overbearing feelings of guilt, failure and inadequacy have to be resolved to enable a happy life with her family.

When a 200-pound glass partition fell on Donna Fado Ivery's head resulting in brain injury, disability, and chronic pain, she could no longer count on walking, speaking, or thinking. How would she care for her infant, her preschooler, her husband, and herself? How would she continue to serve as pastor? With humor and humility, this inspirational memoir speaks to Donna’s struggle through medical, social, and church prejudice with the abiding support of family and the Holy Spirit.

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.

From the steel town of Scunthorpe to the Steel City of Sheffield, Bill’s life demonstrates the importance of perseverance and faith as he tells his personal story of loss and hope, with the aim of inspiring others who are struggling with the situations life throws at them. Anyone who reads this book cannot fail to be struck by the uniqueness of it, nor by how the author’s Christian faith carried him through - literally - the darkest of times. Now I See is truly an inspirational book.

Robert Mercer's life could have been very different. He was born with very low vision and as a youngster struggled in school. But through the intervention of a caring teacher and the support of his family, he found his way to the Halifax School for the Blind and into the classroom of Mrs. Beaton. It was there he discovered his voice, a voice he uses to recount his remarkable journey from a shy little boy to a community leader.

Everyone always ask me what it is like being autistic. The reality is, being autistic is unique to each person. In this audiobook, I explain an aspect of my autism called "escaping into imagination" and how I use it to create a make-believe world to accelerate how amazing my autism is. It has often been said that people with autism struggle with pretend-play. I feel this is a misunderstanding. Just because we do not pretend play like other kids does not mean we do not have imaginations or use them to pretend in our own world.

Seahawks star running back Curt Warner and his wife, Ana, were prominent figures in Seattle in the early 1990s. When they dropped from the public eye after Curt’s retirement, everyone assumed it was for a simpler life. But the reality behind their seclusion was a secret they hid from even their closest friends: their twins, Austin and Christian, had been diagnosed with severe autism. What followed was a painful struggle to hold their family and their marriage together in a home filled with chaos, emotional exhaustion, and constant fear for the safety of their unpredictable but beloved boys.

Blind from birth, Graeme Innes was blessed with a family who refused to view his blindness as a handicap, instilling in him a belief in his own abilities; blessed with a determination to persevere. After a long and successful career as a lawyer, company director and Human Rights Commissioner, Graeme has written his story. Finding a Way shares his memories of love and support, challenges, failures and overcoming the discrimination so many people with disabilities face.

A young man once called unteachable journeys across America to investigate the lives of those, like himself, who are forced to create new ways of living in order to survive.

Hearing Maud: A Journey for a Voice is a work of creative non-fiction that details the author’s experiences of deafness after losing most of her hearing at age four. It charts how, as she grew up, she was estranged from people and turned to reading and writing for solace, eventually establishing a career as a writer. Central to her narrative is the story of Maud Praed, the deaf daughter of 19th century Queensland expatriate novelist Rosa Praed.

When an idealistic activist objects to her siblings’ plan to ship their disabled sister off to a nursing home, she’s forced to choose between family and her sister’s freedom. This riveting true story is brought to life by a cast of over a dozen actors, including Jackie Blackmore as Franke James and Lauren Potter—who starred in the famed TV series Glee—as Teresa Heartchild.

Twisted Rage is a compilation of thoughts coming from the mind of a man who lives with schizophrenia. It exhibits confusion between good and evil, right and wrong, and all other extremes. The confusion brings the listener down a path of empathy for the writer, sympathy for the writer, hope for the writer, and ultimately love for the writer.

Genius or Lunatic goes deeper into the mind of a paranoid schizophrenic. There is so much confusion in there. So much contradiction. So much religiosity. And there is much desire to know, understand, and find the truth. Along the ride you will find yourself saying, "But in this poem didn't he just say this"? It will bring out emotions that you won't expect. This brings you into his pain and lets you experience it firsthand.

Lionheart is an inspiring story of love, forgiveness, and the power of music. On April 27, 2016, while riding his bicycle in Nashville, Tennessee, David was hit by a distracted driver. Doctors told him he would never walk again. His life had changed forever. Lionheart is the richly detailed and intimate account of David's crash, recovery, and return to music: From thinking he lost everything, to appearing on national television (twice), to marrying his soulmate, Kristi - to finding a life and purpose beyond his wildest imagination.

No one would ever guess that simply hanging curtains could be life-changing! In the blink of an eye, Paula's world turned upside down as a broken leg morphed into life threatening events that pushed her reality into a darkness we only see in movies. Legless tells the story of Paula's fight to triumph over heartbreaking trauma while depression and suffering snapped at her desire to live. Unwilling to surrender for the sake of her family, she dug deep into the meaning of life at every setback and found herself changed, transformed and seeing herself through the eyes of a new normal.

Left partially paralysed below the rib cage by polio, Anne Wafula Strike was forced to flee her native Kenyan village, moving across the country with her family. After overcoming additional adversity, including the loss of her mother and ableist prejudice, Anne moved to the UK, where she discovered her talent for wheelchair racing. The first East African to compete in her sport, representing Kenya in the 2004 Paralympics before joining Paralympics GB, Anne is now a fierce advocate for the promotion of the games around the world, and a champion of disabled rights.