Disability Science

At first glance, Josh Hanagarne seems an improbable librarian. He stands 6'7", competes in strongman contests, and was diagnosed in high school with Tourette's syndrome. But books are his first love - Josh's earliest memories involve fantastic adventures between the pages of Gulliver’s Travels and a passionate infatuation with Fern from Charlotte’s Web. Everything in Josh’s life - from his Mormon upbringing, to finally finding love, to learning to control his tics through lifting - circles back to a close connection with books.

In 1959, the year Terry Galloway turned nine, the voices of everyone she loved began to disappear. No one yet knew that an experimental antibiotic given to her mother had wreaked havoc on her fetal nervous system, eventually causing her to go deaf. As a self-proclaimed "child freak," she acted out her fury with her boxy hearing aids and Coke-bottle glasses by faking her own drowning at a camp for crippled children

Despite the progress of decades-old disability rights policy, including the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, threats continue to undermine the well-being of this population. The U.S. is, thus, a policy innovator and laggard in this regard. In Politics of Empowerment, David Pettinicchio offers a historically grounded analysis of the singular case of U.S. disability policy, countering long-held views of progress that privilege public demand as its primary driver.

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.

Jarra never wanted to be a celebrity. All she ever wanted was to gain some respect for the people left on Earth: the unlucky few whose immune system prevents them from portaling to other planets. Except now she's the most famous Earth girl in the universe - but not everyone in the universe is happy about it, nor the fact that she has found love with a norm. Jarra's actions have repercussions that spread further than she ever could have imagined, and political unrest threatens to tear apart the delicate balance of peace between humanity's worlds.

Jarra is one of the unlucky few born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Derided as an “Ape” - a “throwback” - by the rest of the universe, she is on a mission to prove that Earth girls are just as good as anyone else. Except now the planet she loves is under threat by what could be humanity’s first-ever alien contact. Jarra’s bravery - and specialist knowledge - will once again be at the center of the maelstrom, but will the rest of the universe consider Earth worth fighting for?

Rosemary Mahoney tells the story of Braille Without Borders, the first school for the blind in Tibet, and of Sabriye Tenberken, the remarkable blind woman who founded the school. Fascinated and impressed by what she learned from the blind children of Tibet, Mahoney was moved to investigate further the cultural history of blindness. As part of her research, she spent three months teaching at Tenberken's international training center for blind adults in Kerala, India, an experience that reveals both the shocking oppression endured by the world's blind, as well as their great resilience.

A former Social Security Administration (SSA) attorney goes behind the scenes to show you why it’s so difficult to win a Social Security Disability case. Working as an attorney advisor for over 10 years, the author drafted and reviewed thousands of disability decisions. During this time, he learned why the system is stacked against the claimant throughout the process. After he left SSA, he wanted to make this knowledge available to everyone.

Discover six stories sharing one impactful message in this fantasy collection.

This book explores the sex lives of women with disabilities in Nepal, showing that many women suffer more than men despite prevailing disability policies that emphasize nondiscrimination against people with disabilities. It also argues that far from general perceptions of women as asexual, women with disabilities are capable of leading highly creative and fulfilling sexual lives.

In Autistic Superpowers: A Shareable Summary of Autism Spectrum Strengths to Appreciate in a Neurotypical World, discover a groundbreaking perspective that celebrates the unique abilities, talents, and perspectives of Autistic individuals. Whether you’re Autistic, a loved one, or simply someone curious about the beauty of neurodiversity, this book will transform the way you see Autism—not as a list of deficits, but as a spectrum of incredible strengths that make the world brighter and better.

When you hear the word “disability”, what comes to mind? Cheryl Schiltz tells her story of being introduced to disability. She shares her journey from a silent world to one that encased her in constant anxiety. Her life as she knew it had disappeared. It became one of a continuous fight between psychological and physical change. Noise. From her childhood, you’ll find yourself traveling with her as she discovers the power to gain control. She shares her story openly and honestly, raw and sensitive.

In the early 2010s, reports began to emerge of deaths linked to a government department. Suicide notes, coroners' reports, and research by disabled activists pointed to failings within the Department for Work and Pensions—the DWP—the government body responsible for the disability benefits system. As years passed, and austerity tightened its grip, the death toll mounted, and an even more disturbing picture emerged: bureaucracy, politicians, and the private sector had combined over thirty years to reckless, deadly effect.

Challenging the view that autism is something that needs to be ‘cured', Virginia Bovell testifies to the extraordinary care Danny has received for over 30 years and the everyday kindness and decency of the people – ‘the band of angels' – that surround him. She asks us to consider what makes a thriving individual versus an inadequate one; what it means to be ill versus what it means to not to conform; what roles society values and rewards; and how humans might flourish outside of failing political and economic systems.

More than 2,000 years ago, Aristotle said: "let there be a law that no deformed child shall live." This idea is alive and well today. During the past century, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. argued that the United States can forcibly sterilize intellectually disabled women and philosopher Peter Singer argued for the right of parents to euthanize certain cognitively disabled infants. The Life Worth Living explores how and why such arguments persist by investigating the exclusion of and discrimination against disabled people across the history of Western moral philosophy.

More the Same than Different: What I Wish People Knew About Respecting and Including People with Disabilities is a practical guide for anyone who may not have much experience interacting with people with disabilities and wants to feel more comfortable.

The Underdogs tells the story of Karen Shirk, felled at age 24 by a neuromuscular disease and facing life as a ventilator-dependent, immobile patient, who was turned down by every service dog agency in the country because she was "too disabled". Her nurse encouraged her to tone down the suicidal thoughts, find a puppy, and raise her own service dog. Karen did this, and Ben, a German shepherd, dragged her back into life.

Sight Unseen reveals the cultural and biological realities of race, gender, and sexual orientation from the perspective of the blind. Through 10 case studies and dozens of interviews, Ellyn Kaschak taps directly into the phenomenology of race, gender, and sexual orientation among individuals born blind, along with the everyday epistemology of vision. Kaschak's work reveals not only how the blind create systems of meaning out of cultural norms but also how cultural norms inform our conscious and unconscious interactions with others regardless of our physical ability to see. She exposes gender, race, and sexual orientation as unconscious and pre-verbal in the sighted, an aspect of implicit bias.

A brilliantly honest, funny, and insightful account of a Buddhist's life, work, and family. For Satyadasa, the Buddhist path has been fulfilling and often joyous, but also full of doubts and obstacles.

Si no es cada cuatro años que se celebran los paralímpicos, si no se acerca el Día Internacional de las pcd, cuando las marcas realizan acciones; si no es que el gobierno da beneficios fiscales para impulsar la inserción laboral de este grupo, el resto del tiempo las personas con discapacidad viven entre las sombras.