Disability Biography

After 30 years of a healthy, rewarding, and exciting life, I wake up in a hospital bed unable to move. The neurosurgeon leans down and breaks the news: You won't regain any function in your body and you will never walk again. My medical insurance sends me home, discontinues my care, and tells me to "adapt to my new life". Little Big Steps is the story of the pivotal moments, interactions, and breakthroughs following the injury that turned my life upside down.

Award-winning author Mark Richard delivers a fascinating and unique memoir. Born in the South with deformed hips, Richard was tagged a “special” child. Nothing was expected of him. But as a young man, he decided to strike out and experience as much of our strange world as he possibly could.

In this inspirational memoir, Derrick Coleman, Jr., the Seattle Seahawks fullback who won the 2014 Super Bowl with the Seahawks in his second year in the NFL, relates his inspirational story of hard work and determination in his own words. Showcasing his unlikely and challenging journey to become the first deaf athlete to play offense in the NFL, he talks about overcoming internal and external obstacles in the course of reaching your true potential.

Born without arms or legs below his elbows and knees, Kyle Maynard excels as a champion athlete, inspirational speaker, college student, and male model. No Excuses is his inspirational autobiography that shows how a positive, can-do attitude gives someone we might see as disadvantaged the advantage over life.

When fourth grader Alex Schwartz first met his cello, his eyes lit up with wonder, and a smile appeared on his face as bright as the potential his new cello teacher saw within him. The cello positively impacted all aspects of his development, including focus, fine motor, and gross motor skills.

Justin Adkins was a star football player in high school with good grades and lots of friends. Then, one day he woke up in a hospital in excruciating pain, unable to walk or talk. No matter how tormenting life became, Justin’s parents fought alongside their son. Pulling together in this unfamiliar territory, the family explored the options available for a teen with a disability, and the future ahead of him. The listener will be inspired by this story of true perseverance.

As a stroke survivor who has seen every obstacle imaginable, giving up would have been easy, but "where there's a Bill, there's a way." Along with the support of his family, stroke buddies, countless friends, faith, hope and perseverance he has beaten all odds. Born and raised in South Texas, an athlete his entire life, with a root in faith and family, Bill was well on his way to writing a book about coaching and basketball when a severe stroke stopped him in his tracks.

Unexpected Joy is a book about an inspirational young man who makes friends everywhere he goes. He is not like everyone else. He has special needs. He has taken his father and others on a journey they did not choose. His father learned to embrace the journey over many years. This is a story of struggle, depression, deliverance, redemption, acceptance, and eventually joy wrapped in an adventure of a lifetime of challenges.

Connected at the chest by a band of flesh, Chang and Eng Bunker toured the United States and the world from the 1820s to the 1870s, placing themselves and their extraordinary bodies on exhibit as "freaks of nature". More famously known as the Siamese twins, they eventually settled in rural North Carolina, married two white sisters, became slave owners, and fathered 21 children between them. More than a biography of the twins, this is a study of 19th-century American culture and society that reveals how Americans projected onto the twins their own hopes and fears.

I Sverige finns mer än en miljon anhöriga som vårdar eller stöttar en närstående med fysisk eller psykisk ohälsa eller funktionsnedsättning. Även om var och en har sin unika historia är det mycket som förenar oss. Anhörig i ett hav av känslor ger röst åt våra berättelser. Om ovisshet och oro, otillräcklighet och frustration, skuld och skam, sorg och maktlöshet. En situation som kan utveckla oss som människor, men också utmana och slita ut oss. Det handlar om avgrunder och guppande känslohav, men också om stillsamma solgläntor och fascinerande utsiktsplatser.

"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.

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!

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.

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.

At 90 years old and blind, Lorraine decided there was never a better time to get started as a writer. Juggling career, marriage, motherhood, and staying a vibrant senior demands constant skill upgrading. Lorraine’s early childhood development expertise, for instance, was perfected during her 81 months of pregnancy. As a first generation of Russian immigrant parents, Lorraine’s daily walk with God is a testament to her belief and love-filled life. She says, “Hope is not a plan, but it is a promise that’s given when faith and belief become action.”

The GIs called her Joey. Hundreds owed their lives to the tiny Filipina who stashed explosives in spare tires, tracked Japanese troop movements, and smuggled maps of fortifications across enemy lines. As the Battle of Manila raged, Josefina Guerrero walked through gunfire to bandage wounds and close the eyes of the dead. Her valor earned her the Medal of Freedom, but what made her a good spy was also destroying her: leprosy, which so horrified the Japanese they refused to search her.

Pascuala Herrera, a Mexican immigrant woman with a physical disability resulting from childhood polio, had the odds against her, yet she conquered simply by working hard, having unfailing faith, and finding her own life purpose. Although her mother always told her that life was a valley of tears, Pascuala learned that although there were many difficult moments in her life, there were also beautiful miracles that happened every day.

At the height of popularity for radio stations and DJs in the '70s and '80s, Curry blazed a trail for himself as “Kid” Curry. His iconic “Bed Check” segment helped propel him to star status in Miami. It followed him during his 20-year path to the dream job of Major Market program director. The perks of the job included hanging out with music legends, being invited to the White House, meeting Johnny U and a Watergate burglar, traveling around the world to find the next “number one” song and, the best part, helping listeners in need.

Autism: The Fight Inside is an audiobook made to educate young men and young women of the dangers that form from gangs. It was made to help young people make better choices with their lives.

Meet Priscilla and Dave — two headstrong people with very different but complementary disabilities. When they met, fireworks flashed, but they soon became inseparable and each other’s "other half". Together, they attacked and overcame every obstacle in their way — and had one hell of a time doing it. Follow the story of their fiery love affair among moments of raucous laughter, fear, joy, sadness, and incredulity at people's behavior.