Disability Biography

Mike grew up on a tree farm in Missouri and spent his childhood on horseback with dreams of becoming a cowboy. The connection he formed with horses shaped his earliest understanding of freedom and purpose. But as adulthood beckoned, he traded his saddle for a suit, building a thriving career and raising a family while his childhood aspirations faded into memory. When a devastating diagnosis of a rare genetic neurological disease struck in his mid-thirties, everything changed.

Up All Night not only grips listeners in unrelenting humor, but it offers a fresh voice embracing listeners with graphic injuries, tender recollections, big surprises, and love. Posing nuanced psychological questions while never losing its heart, Up All Night traces the challenges of living with undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome before the social disorder became known in 1992.

On an island off the coast of Massachusetts, six miles across the cobalt blue Waters of the Nantucket Sound, there is a place where hope flourishes. The island is Martha’s Vineyard. The place is Camp Jabberwocky, a sleepover summer camp for people with a variety of disabilities.

My Autistic Fight Song is a memoir that follows Rosie Weldon’s journey from a college drop out as she tries to achieve her dream of being a qualified accountant. With the odds stacked against her and the stakes high, she refuses to give up on her dream. Of two things Rosie was sure. First, she wanted to be an accountant. Second, she was destined to be alone. But when life threw at her an autism diagnosis and a mystery girl, she was left asking: Who would employ her and was she capable of falling in love?

In this heartwarming and candid memoir, Tim Howard does something he would never do on a soccer field: he drops his guard. As fiercely protective about his privacy as he is guarding the goal for the US national team and for Everton in the English Premier League, Howard opens up for the first time about how a hyperactive kid from New Jersey with Tourette's syndrome defied the odds to become one of the world’s premier goalkeepers.

With humility and candor, artist activist Mary Fisher inspires us when, in her eighth decade, she creatively takes on disease, poverty, hunger, injustice, racism and the role of women. Uneasy Silence tells her story of speaking truth to power while living with AIDS, journeying through cancer and surviving a near-death experience. Her steady concern for The Other enables her to find the strength to stand up, speak up and make a difference, inspiring us to do the same.

Mutter Anna Maria erlitt im Jahr 2013 eine schwere Gehirnblutung, einen Schlaganfall, welcher sie zu einem absoluten Pflegefall machte und ihren Charakter sehr wesentlich veränderte. Die Familie, Ehegatte Friedrich, genannt Fritz und Tochter Sabine (die Autorin), standen vor nie geglaubten Herausforderungen. Das Buch beschreibt sehr umfangreich die Facetten des geänderten Alltages, nimmt dabei Leser*innen sehr ehrlich auf eine „Achterbahnfahrt der Gefühle" mit.

In 1959, at the age of 21, Max Starkloff was in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. His doctors doubted he would live longer than a few days, and, if he survived, the hope for his quality of life would be minimal. How did this young man with barely a high school education become the leader of a powerful disability rights movement and the founder of the Starkloff Disability Institute? This is his remarkable story.

What if the very thing that once held you back… became your superpower? In Breaking the Limits, renowned neuromuscular physician Dr. Nivedita Jerath takes you on an unforgettable journey through the lives of extraordinary individuals living with disabilities—people who refused to be defined by their diagnoses and instead, reshaped their futures. From courageous patients to trailblazing athletes, scientists, artists, and entrepreneurs, this powerful audiobook explores how strength can be found in struggle, and how disability can be a launching point for purpose, innovation, and greatness.

Living with multiple sclerosis was never going to be easy. The phrase 'I rule it, it doesn't rule me' was to become Lydia's benchmark. She clung fiercely to these words. They would booster her strength in the years ahead when at times, fear of the pain and its affects, especially the horrendous agony of an MS attack, would almost break her.

I matti ci incuriosiscono, ci costringono a riflettere, ci cambiano lo sguardo, ci mettono davanti ai nostri fantasmi, non ci lasciano mai indifferenti. La storia dell’uomo è costellata di individui eccentrici, bizzarri, anticonformisti, visionari, in molti casi con disturbi psichici gravi, ma altamente creativi in campo letterario, artistico, scientifico. Partendo da queste considerazioni, è nata l’idea di una sorta di calendario che racconti, al posto del santo del giorno, il matto del giorno.

A story of chemotherapy, of ancestral trauma, of parenting, and of religious and spiritual questions. Here you will find camaraderie—a friend for the journey. This book weaves together the story with the most potent Integrative resources for finding peace, hope, and health through difficult medical experiences.

Monday, March 11, 2024, was remarkably uneventful—indeed, frankly dull—until around 5 p.m. that evening when Carl Davies collapsed in a heap. It was a day that would change his life forever. Stroke Me! Recounts the story of his recovery from a near-catastrophic brain haemorrhage. The author details, in often graphic detail, every step of his journey, from the stroke itself to the pain of physical and occupational therapy. He leaves no stone unturned as he describes the impact his illness has had on him and his family. Stroke Me!

My name is Joseph A. Peragine. I am a paranoid schizophrenic. On October 22, 2000, I tried to kill myself in a severely hallucinogenic state due to undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. I was suffering from this illness for many years leading up to that day. Every October since I started my recovery in 2000, I reflect on my life and am extremely thankful that I was fortunate enough to have been given a second chance.

Tommy Jessop is a multi-award winning actor, theatre performer, and campaigner. Tommy has been at the vanguard of bringing awareness of the potential of people living with Down syndrome to the media, and to government. A Life Worth Living will be Tommy's story - from his journey into acting and campaigning while showing his unstoppable determination, charisma, and love for life.

Can four words change a life? On a rainy autumn day, four words changed the life of a young cardiology nurse. Four little words hurled across a dimly lit exam room struck fear in a mother’s heart. “You are legally blind.” Anita’s journey through blindness began with the devastating diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa, an untreatable, degenerative retinal disease. At the age of 33, she was forced to face not only vision loss, but also the loss of driving, her nursing career, and even her independence. Anita was convinced that life was over.

Aos 22 anos, um acontecimento inesperado tornou Andrea Schwarz em uma pessoa com deficiência, desafiando seus sonhos e projetos para o futuro. Enfrentando as barreiras impostas pela sociedade, a autora transformou seus desafios em asas. Com coragem, disciplina e uma pitada de rebeldia, ela enfrentou as dificuldades e demonstrou que é possível construir uma vida admirável e alcançar realizações significativas.

Sandra Allen did not know their uncle Bob very well. As a child, Sandy had been told Bob was “crazy”, that he had spent time in mental hospitals while growing up in Berkeley in the '60s and '70s. But Bob had lived a hermetic life in a remote part of California for longer than Sandy had been alive, and what little Sandy knew of him came from rare family reunions or odd, infrequent phone calls. Then in 2009, Bob mailed Sandy his autobiography.

Ada d’Adamo est danseuse. Elle a passé sa vie à rechercher la grâce, la perfection du geste. Lorsqu’elle met au monde Daria, rien ne l’avait préparée à devenir la mère d’une enfant lourdement handicapée, qui jamais ne pourra voir ni marcher. Elle commence alors à écrire et penser cet amour hors du commun qui la lie à Daria, où tout est sans cesse à inventer. Mais une dizaine d’années plus tard, Ada découvre qu’elle-même est malade.

This is the very personal and frank account of A. W. J. Pilgrim’s battle with schizophrenia, in the context of his whole life story. He is a Londoner, dad and talented prolific artist painter and author. Learn how his illness progressed, how he struggled, his personal thoughts about it, detailed accounts of being sectioned, effects of medications, psychosis, hallucinations & delusions. At the end of his story, he begins a weight loss journey, and a more peaceful life out of the city.