Disability Biography

Hilda’s family didn’t know she had muscular dystrophy. They just knew their preschooler was losing her ability to walk. But they were determined to find a cure. Being disabled in Cameroon meant not only obstacles to transport, but visits to diviners and evangelists, threats of sexual assault, discrimination, and a crisis of faith. Despite the hardship Hilda has faced, her family’s unwavering support and God’s unwavering grace have helped her persevere to become a national broadcaster.

Born four weeks premature and weighing little more than five pounds, Scott A. McCreight had a rough start and uncertain future. He was placed for adoption, but the good news didn’t last long: shortly after, Scott was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Developmental delays permeated his childhood, the odds for a “normal” life seemingly stacked against him.

«Sono Rachele e ho 29 anni. A un mese dalla nascita, è stato detto ai miei genitori che avevo la fibrosi cistica, una malattia genetica degenerativa da cui non si può guarire. La malattia non si vede perché colpisce principalmente gli organi interni; tutte le secrezioni sono alterate e molto dense, il muco ristagna ed è difficile respirare. Quando sono stata invitata a un evento della Fondazione per la Ricerca sulla Fibrosi Cistica, mi sono chiesta: come faccio a unire la mia passione per i motori con quello che mi sta più a cuore?»

Robert was a young man struggling to make it on his own when in 1990, he suffered a violent and traumatic experience when someone put a bullet through his brain. Robert tells the amazing story of survival during a time when life shriveled to dark emptiness and his future seemed hopeless.

Growing up in Mineral Wells, Texas during the 1950s and 60s was anything but idyllic for Walter Ashby. Due to a misdiagnosis and medical error, his sister Janie went from being a lively young girl to a shell of a person who required their parents’ attention 24 hours a day, every day. To add insult to injury, his parents received another blow: before Walter was six-years-old, he lost 98 percent of his vision, leaving him legally blind.

There Are No Answers Here, Only Questions is the true story of two life-altering events and the personal transformation that resulted from their unlikely collision. It's the story of an owner preparing to sell his business and retire just as he is diagnosed with cancer.

Bonner Paddock grew up just wanting to be ordinary. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age eleven, he guarded the truth about his health, building a normal life and keeping his secret from everyone—most of all himself—for the next eighteen years. But the sudden death of a friend’s young son due to cerebral palsy forced Bonner to reevaluate who he was and spurred him to pursue one breathtaking experience after another.

This book is about the life of the author. It focuses on her faith, her hope, and her endurance during the years of her illness. In this true story, you will learn the how and why about the effects that changed her family’s life—the author’s Crohn’s disease, the 14 blood clots, toxic gut syndrome, colitis, tumors, ulcers, vertigo, weight gain and loss, pregnancies, the many surgeries, and how her body would not wake up after some of her surgeries.

Robert L. Metts was an adventurer and a disability activist that cared deeply about the lives of people with disabilities around the world. After receiving a BA in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, Bob continued his education there to earn a PhD in economics with a focus on economic development. While in Kenya conducting research for his PhD dissertation, he had firsthand experience with the conditions disabled people faced in developing countries.

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.

"Det var inget jag hade valt, detta att inte höra ihop med dem. Det var bara så att jag inte gjorde det. Jag kunde inte ändra på det och jag visste inte vad en människa var meningen att vara. Inuti kände jag mig ledsen. Varför blev de alltid så arga? Varför begrep de inte?". Redan i tidig ålder insåg Gunilla Gerland att hon inte var som alla andra. Hon ville gärna röra vid saker som var böjda, undvek helst att tugga maten och hade ett stort behov av att få vara ifred.

Lorenzo Amurri non nasce come scrittore, lo diventa in seguito a un tragico incidente di sci che, a soli 26 anni, frantuma la strada artistica sulla quale viaggiava sin da giovanissimo: chitarrista rock, produttore musicale. Un ragazzo dinamico e trasgressivo senza mezze misure. Dall'incidente e dalla sua nuova condizione segnata dalla tetraplegia e dall'impossibilità di stringere ancora tra le braccia la sua chitarra, Lorenzo rinasce. Nel 2008 decide di affidare al suo blog Tracce di ruote "riflessioni, denunce e cronaca della sua seconda vita".

Frederick Moore spent his 1950s Minneapolis childhood obsessively teaching himself guitar and writing songs. In the 1960s, his bands Skogie and the Flaming Pachucos reached local stardom. After, they put everything they had into their cars and caravanned to Los Angeles. From a garage in suburban Arleta, they evolved Skogie into a new band called The Kats. In the 1980s, The Kats sold out every major club in Los Angeles.

Frank Rivera is an advocate for not only Sarcoidosis, but also for the rare disease and chronic pain community. This audiobook is about how to rise above adversity and the strength of one person. One person can make a difference if you work hard. Frank has dealt with adversity as a child with leukemia. His mother having health issues herself taught him strength and love. He fought through tough times during his childhood to only find out as an adult, after misdiagnosis, he has a rare disease that has no cure.

In this inspiring memoir, Emily Falcon chronicles her lifelong journey with a congenital cardiac condition. In 1982, at seven weeks old, she had a heart attack that destroyed 40 percent of the left side of her heart. This was her entry into a world of multiple cardiac procedures, surgeries, hospitalizations, and a later diagnosis of glaucoma. Balancing these serious conditions defined her life.

Musical director and arranger David Loud, a legendary Broadway talent, recounts his wildly entertaining and deeply poignant trek through the wilderness of his childhood and the edge-of-your-seat drama of a career on, in, under, and around Broadway for decades. He reveals his struggle against the ravages of Parkinson's and triumphs repeatedly. This memoir is also a remarkable love letter to music. Loud is the Ted Lasso of the theater business, ever the optimist!

When Emmett de Monterey is eighteen months old, a doctor diagnoses him with cerebral palsy. Words too big for his 25-year-old artist parents and their happy, smiling baby. Growing up in South East London in the 1980s, Emmett is spat at on the street and prayed over at church. At his school for disabled children, he's told he will be expelled if the rumours are true, if he's gay; at his mainstream school, teachers refuse to schedule his classes on the ground floor, and he loses a stone from the effort of getting up the stairs.

In this intimate story of relationship resilience, marine biologist Beth Mathews’s adventurous life as a professor and mother in Alaska is upended when her healthy husband is slammed by a rare type of stroke. Jim’s radical approach to recovery clashes with Beth’s instinct to keep him safe at home and sets them on a collision course as he insists on ambitious sailing expeditions with Beth and their young son in Alaska’s magnificent yet unforgiving waters.

Sam always knew he was starting life on the back foot. When his parents split, Sam, his mother and his brother had to learn to survive in a world not built for single-parent families. Add to that Sam's diagnosis with a form of dwarfism and the odds seemed stacked against them. As surgeons kept breaking and resetting Sam's legs in attempts to keep him walking, disability and poverty collided, and it took all the family's strength not to crumple in the impact. In Broke, lawyer and disability advocate Sam Drummond weaves a poignant, stirring and deeply compassionate tale of life on the fringes.

Luisa L’Audace wächst als einziges behindertes Kind in ihrem Heimatdorf auf. Warum sie im Sportunterricht immer als Letzte gewählt wird, in der Pause nicht mitspielen soll und ihre Freundinnen plötzlich nicht mehr neben ihr sitzen wollen, versteht sie lange Zeit nicht. Während andere Kinder Freizeitbeschäftigungen nachgehen, verbringt Luisa viel Zeit in Krankenhäusern, bei Therapien und Spezialist*innen. Als sie mit 14 einen Rollstuhl bekommt, fühlt sie sich zum ersten Mal in ihrem Leben frei. Doch mit der neu gewonnenen Mobilität nehmen auch die Anfeindungen zu.