Disability Memoir

At a time when we are all more rudderless than ever, we look for the very best teachers and mentors to guide us. In Fully Alive, an unusual and gripping memoir, Timothy Shriver shows how his teachers have been the world's most forgotten minority: people with intellectual disabilities. In these pages we meet the individuals who helped him come of age and find a deeper and more meaningful way to see the world.

On Halloween day 1990, Sterling Krysler—husband, father, pilot, newly arrived in Hawai'i—suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury while body surfing at a local beach. Ever the optimist, Sterling accepted the life-changing injury becoming advocate and inspiration to many in the "disability community." This is a family-centered story brimming with love, joy, and humor. This is his story—before and after.

Devenir aveugle : pour Marie-Christine comme pour quiconque, cette idée est inconcevable et terrifiante. C’est pourtant la sentence que la jeune femme de 30 ans reçoit au printemps 2018 : elle ne verra plus. Jamais. Les couchers de soleil, son visage dans le miroir ou la frimousse de son fils : désormais, tout n’existera que dans sa mémoire, jusqu’au jour où ces images disparaîtront comme peau de chagrin.

Linda Dezenski pulls no punches in this raw and revealing memoir. Born with Cerebral Palsy, Linda takes us on a rollercoaster ride through the ups and downs of life with a body that doesn't always cooperate and a society that often misunderstands. But Getting to the Real Me isn't just about struggles—it's a story of triumph. With humor and heart, Linda shares her lightbulb moment: disability doesn't define her, it's just part of the package. Join Linda as she learns to embrace her whole self and discovers her mission to help others do the same.

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.

For Magda Newman, normal was a goal—she wanted her son Nathaniel to be able to play on the playground, swim at the beach, enjoy the moments of childhood that are often taken for granted. But Nathaniel's severe Treacher Collins syndrome—a craniofacial condition—meant that other concerns came first. Could he eat without the aid of a gastrointestinal tube? Could he hear? Would he ever be able to breathe effortlessly?

Le 3 avril 2015, on diagnostique à Marine, jeune étudiante dynamique de 21 ans, une sclérose en plaques, appelée plus communément SEP. L'urgence de la situation, le besoin de prendre une décision quant à la prise d'un traitement ou non et le manque d'informations, l'amène à s'interroger. "La maladie c'est toi qui l'as, il faut donc chercher la solution en toi." Son traitement ? Réaliser un projet rêvé : le voyage.

Erik Weihenmayer is the first and only blind person to summit Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Descending carefully, he and his team picked their way across deep crevasses and through the deadly Khumbu Icefall; when the mountain was finally behind him, Erik knew he was going to live. His expedition leader slapped him on the back and said something that would affect the course of Erik’s life: “Don’t make Everest the greatest thing you ever do.” No Barriers is Erik’s response to that challenge.

Thousands of soldiers die every year to defend their country. United States Army Staff Sergeant Travis Mills was sure that he would become another statistic when, during his third tour of duty in Afghanistan, he was caught in an IED blast four days before his 25th birthday. Against the odds, he lived, but at a severe cost - Travis became one of only five soldiers from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to survive a quadruple amputation.

As a child, Matt Hay didn’t know his hearing wasn’t the way everyone else processed sound—because of the workarounds he did to fit in, even the school nurse didn’t catch his condition at the annual hearing and vision checks. But by the time he was a prospective college student and couldn’t pass the entrance requirements for West Point, Hay’s condition, generated by a tumor, was unavoidable: his hearing was going, and fast. A personal soundtrack was Hay’s determined compensation for his condition.

Kevin’s life was forever changed on a random Wednesday when he was just 20 years old. An aspiring musician at the time, he was planning to attend music school and pursue his dream of becoming a composer. A stroke dismantled every plan and everything in his life. In Taken By Surprise, Kevin chronicles his battles with the stroke. After a risky brain surgery, he was in a coma for nearly a month and spent six weeks in an acute rehab facility to learn how to walk and talk all over again.

In I'll Pray for You and Other Outrageous Things Said to Disabled People, Hannah Setzer volunteers to go first and say the things that we all think, but rarely say. Hannah has lived her whole life as a disabled woman and is here to share her story, though don't think for a second that this is inspiration porn. In fact, Hannah's disability is the least interesting thing about her!

What would your life look like if you measured success by your improvements instead of your victories? Chris Nikic, the first person with Down syndrome to ever complete an IRONMAN® triathlon, inspires others to achieve their goals by getting one percent better better every day.

From the time she was a toddler, Lou Ann Walker acted as the ears and voice for her parents, who had lost their hearing at a young age. As soon as she was old enough to speak, her childhood ended, and she immediately assumed the responsibility of interpreter - translating doctors’ appointments and managing her parents’ business transactions. Their family life was warm and loving, but outside the home, they faced a world that misunderstood and often rejected them.

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.

Mothering under normal circumstances takes all you have to give. But what happens when your child is disabled, and sacrificing all you've got and more is the only hope for a decent future? Full of rage and resilience, duty and love, Ashley Bristowe delivers a mother's voice like no other we've heard.

An unflinching and luminous memoir that explores a father’s philosophical transformation when he must reconsider the questions what makes us human? and whose life is worth living? Before becoming a father, Chris Gabbard was a fast-track academic finishing his doctoral dissertation at Stanford. A disciple of Enlightenment thinkers, he was a devotee of reason, believed in the reliability of science, and lived by the dictum that an unexamined life is not worth living. That is, until his son August was born.

Backbone is a life-fulfilling message about managing chronic pain and living a life of purpose. For two decades, Karen Duffy, New York Times bestselling author, former MTV VJ, Revlon model, and actress, has managed to live an enriching life despite living in a state of constant pain. In this powerful, inspirational, funny, and important manual for surviving pain, Duffy draws on her experience as a patient advocate, trained recreational therapist, and hospice chaplain to illuminate gratifying methods people can use to cope with chronic pain.

In My Two Elaines, author Marty Schreiber, former governor of Wisconsin, watches his beloved wife, Elaine, gradually transform from the woman he fell in love with in high school, and who diligently supported his political career, to the Elaine who knows she is declining and can’t remember how to cook a meal, and finally to the Elaine who no longer recognizes Marty or their children. Beyond sincere, practical advice, My Two Elaines gives the listener permission to feel the full spectrum of emotions, including humor, even in the face of this relentless illness.

Look at It This Way answers questions we all may have been reluctant to ask, it gives us a glimpse into what blind people experience living in a sighted world, and it breaks through barriers that may cause people to think that differences equate to superiority or inferiority.