Social Disabilities

In The Price of Silence she takes a devastating look at how we address mental illness, especially in children, who are funneled through a system of education, mental health care, and juvenile detention that leads far too often to prison. In the end she asks one central question: if there's a poster child for cancer, why can't there be one for mental illness? The answer: the stigma.

Come, Let Me Guide You explores the intimate communication between author Susan Krieger and her guide dog Teela over the 10-year span of their working life together. This is a book about being led by a dog to new places in the world and new places in the self, a book about facing life's challenges outwardly and within, and about reading those clues - those deeply felt signals - that can help guide the way.

Do you know an adult with autism, Down syndrome, or another special need? One in eight people on our planet live with some form of disability. And they all deserve to live productive, engaged lives. Are we willing to help them accomplish this goal? The mother of an adult with autism, Andrea Moriarty leveraged her son’s passion, talent, and personality to help him create an out-of-the-box vocation: A podcast. After more than 80 interviews, she recognized three vital attitudes that people with disabilities teach us - risk taking, humility, and kindness.

They put a price on his head. They did everything they could to disrupt his mission. Finally, when an antitank mine tore off his right foot, the warriors of jihad in Iraq thought they had neutralized one of their most resourceful, determined foes.

When Tim Lefens walked into the Matheny School in New Jersey to show slides of his paintings, his one-hour visit became a life-changing experience. The students he met had severe physical challenges: only one of them could talk, none could walk, and all lacked the use of their hands.

Conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker have fascinated the world since the 19th century. In her captivating book, Chang and Eng Reconnected, Cynthia Wu traces the "Original Siamese Twins" through the terrain of American culture, showing how their inseparability underscored tensions between individuality and collectivity in the American popular imagination.

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.

Cosima Unfortunate has spent all her life at the Home for Unfortunate Girls – a school where any disabled children, or children deemed different, are sent, whether their families want it or not. It is there that she meets her friends – Pearl, Mary and Diya – and they start to practise mini heists involving the theft of cakes, biscuits and other sweet goodies. But when Cos finds out that Lord Francis Fitzroy, the explorer behind the Empire Exhibition, is planning to adopt them, she and her friends plot the biggest heist of their life.

A 16 ans, Jacques Sémelin apprend qu'il va devenir aveugle. Pendant des années, il garde ce secret pour lui et affronte seul l'angoisse et la progression de la cécité.

In a series of beautifully textured stories, the author takes the listener on a fascinating journey as she travels with Teela, her lively "golden dog", through airports, city streets, and southwest desert landscapes, exploring these surroundings with changed sight. This unusual account of travel will inspire the sighted as well as the blind, offering pointed observations on processes of learning to work with a service animal and on coming to terms with a disability.

Natalie O'Rourke was an ordinary little girl from Birmingham in all respects save one: she was lonely. When she discovered how much she loved horses, she decided she wanted to grow up and run a riding stables. She wanted her stables to cater for children and adults with disabilities, additional needs and anyone who needed a friend—people who you might not expect to find riding, but who she knew could find happiness through horses, because she had.

My name is Harper Drew. I'm using my new journal to take note of all the totally ridiculous things that seem to go on around me with my family and friends. I seem to be the only one who sees all of this stuff for what it is. Completely beyond normal. Recently I've been logging Drew Dial Ratings for all the mayhem. On a scale of zero to 10, how likely is someone to say or do something that would be less sensible than (for example)...a demented camel?

Published in 1996, Life as We Know It introduced Jamie Bérubé to the world as a sweet, bright, gregarious little boy who loves The Beatles, pizza, and making lists. At four he is like many young people his age, but his Down syndrome leads most people to see him only in terms of his disability. Twenty years later Michael Bérubé chronicles his son's growth and his growing love of the world, writing as both a disability studies scholar and as a father.

In the tiny Iowa farm town of Atalissa, dozens of men, all with intellectual disabilities and all from Texas, lived in an old schoolhouse. Before dawn each morning, they were bussed to a nearby processing plant, where they eviscerated turkeys in return for food, lodging, and $65 a month. They lived in near servitude for more than 30 years, enduring increasing neglect, exploitation, and physical and emotional abuse.

Developed by experts in the fields of early childhood and activism, this topic-driven book offers clear, concrete language and compelling imagery to introduce the concept of disability. This book celebrates all bodies and abilities, just as they are, and addresses the inequities and opportunities for change in today’s world.

When Helen Keller was very young, she got a rare disease that made her deaf and blind. Suddenly, she couldn't see or hear at all, and it was hard for her to communicate with anyone. But when she was six years old, she met someone who changed her life forever: her teacher, Annie Sullivan. With Miss Sullivan's help, Helen learned how to speak sign language and read Braille. Armed with the ability to express herself, Helen grew up to be come a social activist, leading the fight for people with disabilities and so many other causes.

Three months into her pregnancy with her first child, Hilary Yancey received a phone call that changed everything. As she learned the diagnosis - cleft lip and palate, a missing right eye, possible breathing complications - Hilary began to pray in earnest. Even in the midst of these findings, she prayed that God would heal her son. God could do a miracle unlike anything she had seen. Only when Hilary held her baby, Jack, in her arms for the first time did she realize God had given her something drastically different than what she had demanded.

Introduce young learners to topics of disability, accessibility, and inclusion in an easy-to-understand ABC book format. Designed for both disabled and non-disabled listeners, complicated issues are made simple through compassionate writing. This book has something for everyone, from children to adults!

Blinded at age three, Mike May defied expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family man. He had never yearned for vision. Then, in 1999, a chance encounter brought startling news: a revolutionary stem cell transplant surgery could restore May's vision.

After her elderly owner passes away, Star—a deaf Australian shepherd—is brought to a local shelter. Star feels scared and alone—until she meets 12-year-old Julian. After getting in trouble at school yet again, Julian volunteers at the shelter and realizes he can communicate with Star in a way that no one else can. Their bond continues to grow, and Julian and Star become inseparable. Then the unthinkable happens: Funding for the shelter dries up. The only way to save Star is to adopt her, but he has to prove that he can stay out of trouble and train a dog like Star.