Disability Biography

Abbey Curran was born with cerebral palsy, but early on she resolved never to let it limit her. Abbey made history when she became the first contestant with a disability to win a major beauty pageant. After earning the title of Miss Iowa, she went on to compete in Miss USA.

A puddle of water on a highway changed Dinesh Palipana's life forever. Halfway through medical school, Dinesh was involved in a catastrophic car accident that caused a cervical spinal cord injury. After his accident, his strength and determination saw him return to complete medical school—now with quadriplegia. Dinesh was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland, and the second person with quadriplegia to graduate medical school in Australia. Despite all of the pain and hardship he's faced, Dinesh now sees his accident as a turning point for the better in his life.

The story of one man’s experience of a major stroke and his attempts to recover from it ….. but, enough of that - this is also an account of a dog’s experience of life with unpredictable, irrational human beings and his attempts to deal with all of that.

Recycled Human is a continuation of my first book, Damaged Goods, but Recycled Human is aimed more at the re-entry into the general public. A big part of that shift involves various "transitional services" which are in fact not helping people. In fact, the services meant to help a person like me develop can be yet another oppressive system. When a person wants to change and truly is ready to face change, it can be challenging to find genuine resources. So here it is...this is my testimony of what I saw in myself and the system that needed changing.

In this audiobook, you will catch intimate glimpses of how manic depression or bipolar disorder affects not only those diagnosed but the entire support structure around them. You'll find inspiration and hope that our fractured mental health system still holds opportunities for healing and unearthing resilience. In Hard Pill to Swallow: My Manic Memoir, Logan carries you through his struggles with his identity as a gay/bisexual man coming to terms with addiction while simultaneously battling bipolar disorder.

I know this sounds a bit cliche, but life truly is a journey. It evidences as a unique sojourn for every individual person. This is the story of a child born seventy years ago. It is a story of triumph and setbacks, of joy and sorrow, of weakness and strength. But most of all, it is a story of courage. Brian J. Woznicki was born with cerebral palsy. He was dealt a very difficult hand in life.

Stroke of Love is the life story of a young stroke survivor from Texas named Hether Flanigan. It is a story of resilience, determination, strength, and love. A story about the human spirit, the will to live life to the fullest, the power of the human mind, and the love that surrounds us.

Es ist Nicoles zweiunddreißigster Geburtstag, als sie unter der Dusche steht und sich auf die Feier mit ihren zwei kleinen Kindern und ihrem liebevollen Mann freut. Abrupt wird sie aus ihren Gedanken gerissen, als sie einen Knoten in ihrer Brust ertastet. Eine Welt bricht für sie zusammen. Später stellen die Ärzte die Diagnose, dass in Nicoles Körper nicht nur ein hochaggressiver Tumor wächst, sondern dass sie außerdem dieselbe genetische Vorbelastung wie Angelina Jolie hat. Selbst nach erfolgreicher Therapie, bleibt die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer erneuten Erkrankung enorm hoch.

When Jeremy and Emily Freeman’s teenage son Caleb was in a devastating car accident, doctors gave him a 10 percent chance of survival. Fear of losing a child was all too fresh for the Freemans—their seven-year-old son, Trey, had died just four years earlier from a genetic immunodeficiency. But God. In #butGod Jeremy shares the incredible story of Caleb’s recovery, the darkness that nearly overtook their family in the waiting, and the #butGod movement that captured the prayers of Christians around the world.

On October 3, 2005, Kapacziewski and his soldiers were coming to the end of their tour in Northern Iraq when their convoy was attacked by enemy fighters. A grenade fell through the gunner’s hatch and exploded, shattering Kapacziewski’s right leg below the knee, damaging his right hip, and severing a nerve and artery in his right arm. He endured more than forty surgeries, but his right leg still wasn’t healing as he had hoped, so in March 2007, Kapacziewski chose to have it amputated.

The author describes in detail all the insanity, disturbing behaviors, oppressive symptoms, and various feeling associated with the mental battles within her own mind. The author suffers from clinical depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and borderline personality disorder. She struggles with suicidal thoughts and attempts, self-mutilating behaviors, mania, paranoia, anxiety, and psychosis with intense hallucinations of all five of her senses, and multiple delusions, including the belief that she is the "second-coming of Christ".

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.

While preparing to deploy with the US Army, Marcus suffered a severe spinal injury that left him paralyzed. After dying on the operating table twice, the surgeons saved his life, but told him he'd never walk again. Having no other option, Marcus started doing some brutally honest soul-searching, looking for the lesson to be learned from his injury. Once he started seeing his adversity as a gift instead of a curse, something miraculous began to happen....

In Everything Is Going to be K.O. Kaiya Stone writes about her own experiences of living with specific learning difficulties: from struggling at school to being diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia while at university, to performing her own one-woman stand up show inspired by her journey. Always funny and unfailingly honest, Kaiya outlines the frustrations of having SPLDS but also the ways in which they have fuelled her creativity.

Blindness in the 1950s was a social stigma. Stephen's mother wanted a normal life for him, so he fought desperately to uphold the illusion of sight. For a child frantic to fit in, each day was an exhausting pretence. He managed to ride a bike, when even reading involved pressing his nose to the page and painfully forcing his eyes to concentrate. Head up, he strode through a carefully memorized labyrinth of streets, hoping to fool passers-by that he could actually see.

Prize-winning journalist and the coauthor of smash New York Times best seller I Am Malala, Christina Lamb now tells the inspiring true story of another remarkable young hero: Nujeen Mustafa, a teenager born with cerebral palsy whose harrowing journey from war-ravaged Syria to Germany in a wheelchair is a breathtaking tale of fortitude, grit, and hope that lends a face to the greatest humanitarian issue of our time: the Syrian refugee crisis.

AUTISM UNLEASHED, GENIUS UNLEASHED celebrates the lives and achievements of 13 autistic visionaries, illuminating the profound contributions they have made in a variety of fields. These stories are not only a testament to their genius but also a beacon of hope and inspiration for anyone touched by autism.

Speaking My Truth is about a young man named Abdulahi Hassan who is born with a physical disability called Cerebral Palsy and tries to live a normal life. Regardless of his daily struggles he faces physically and mentally he is slowly learning to speak his truth and taking control of his own narrative one step at a time with a single beautiful smile.

This is a love letter from son to father. Part Big Russ and Me, part ADHD Is Awesome, Leland’s book, Born Lucky, is set to take its place as one of the most inspirational stories and victories for someone with special needs.

Nineteen people from across the globe, ranging in age from 20 to 70-plus, tell their stories of living and thriving in diverse fields - in sport, the arts, medicine, business, and more. With refreshing frankness, they share their successes along with their struggles - grit is the one characteristic they all have in common. These are not stories of people overcoming disability - they’re stories of people accommodating disability while pursuing their dreams. Pure Grit shines a light on boundless possibility whatever the individual challenge.