Showing titles in People with Disabilities

This short biographical work describes the experiences of Chimezie Ihekuna, a Nigerian man born with a facial deformity. From one scenario to the next, Chimezie encounters ostracisation and indifference from peers and elders alike. He reflects candidly here on the impact this has had on his life. His story is an invitation to empathy for all those who listen.

Tracey had been told this so often as a child. Yet, two months after the horse-riding accident, Tracey was still not able to fulfil it. In fact, at that stage, she couldn’t do anything for herself. You’d think that after nearly losing her life and her abilities to live life as it was before because of the riding accident, that she’d be nervous about getting back on a horse. But her love for horses and riding was so deeply ingrained within her that she couldn’t imagine a life without it. Getting back on a horse...she was determined that she would.

Sometimes, dyslexia can go unnoticed for years, almost half a lifetime in fact. The effects of dyslexia are more than just bad spelling and illegible handwriting. I didn’t realize I was dyslexic until I was 41. By that time, I’d lost my job due to spelling mistakes more times than I can remember. But dyslexia is more than just making mistakes.

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.

Randi-Lee’s true story of coming to terms with her depression. Sharing thoughts around suicide and the harsh reality of feeling the need to hide these thoughts, each chapter outlines coping strategies that can help an individual explore their own mental health and lovingly embrace themselves. Worksheets are provided at the end of the book to but the strategies into practice. Stopping the stigma of mental health starts with speaking honestly and openly. Topics discussed include: therapy, medication, coping mechanisms, suicide, negative self-talk, positive self-talk, and self-care.

Autism and BPD are two conditions that affect every aspect of my life. I wouldn't be who I am if I were not autistic and did not have BPD. Within this book, you will listen to the struggles I've had to go through, from growing up, to confusing teenage years, to challenges in adulthood. You will also listen about the good times I've had in my life, and my reasons for carrying on when I was at my lowest. Some of the content within this book may be triggering, but if it helps just one person, it would have been worth it. I hope you enjoy listening to my story.

From the early stages of childhood development, a child learns from adults about boundaries and self-expression. When a child is bullied in all ways, as well as sexually, their view of the world becomes distorted. At age four, those boundaries were cast aside and thus my view of relationships, women, and sex was forever altered. It set the scene for later life where I had multiple relationships, cybersex, experiences with promiscuous women.

Tiffani, the author, becomes an intimate friend as you speaks to you about her deepest thoughts, fears, and worries. Her love, strength, honesty, and determination to care for her family at all costs is inspiring.

This often heartbreaking account by Carol, whose son, Paul, was born with many difficulties, including autism, is told with the honesty and sincerity necessary to portray the conflicting emotions faced by any family, and particularly a mother, in such circumstances. The overbearing feelings of guilt, failure and inadequacy have to be resolved to enable a happy life with her family.

This book begins with focusing on dealing with the societal ramifications/stigma of mental health disorders, the LGBTQ spectrum, and also looking at the religious stigma of the two. Finally, I will be telling my life story mainly from the years of 2012 to 2018 for the most part. Coming to terms, with my mental health disorder and identifying as a gay male.

While finishing off her degree in Gerontology at Umass Boston, Yvonne Decelis started writing about her life in the hope of showing others with similar conditions that they are not alone in the trials they face. Yvonne goes over her upbringing and life prior to, during, and after diagnosis covering things like medications, “healthful living”, work, SSDI disability benefits, friendships, and relationships, etc. This was also written for people seeking information on how to interact with others who have "invisible illnesses" like MS, Fibro, Post-traumatic Stress injury, etc.

A young man with special powers is forced to retire from a life of violent crime and escape from New York City at the age of 18. He gets his life together and becomes a respected physician. Thirty years later, he is afflicted with a mysterious illness silently sweeping across the globe. While desperately struggling to find redemption and a cure, he learns that violent associates from his past and federal law enforcement agents are still relentlessly in pursuit.

When a 200-pound glass partition fell on Donna Fado Ivery's head resulting in brain injury, disability, and chronic pain, she could no longer count on walking, speaking, or thinking. How would she care for her infant, her preschooler, her husband, and herself? How would she continue to serve as pastor? With humor and humility, this inspirational memoir speaks to Donna’s struggle through medical, social, and church prejudice with the abiding support of family and the Holy Spirit.

Kelley Jo Burke embarks on a wild journey to understand many things, including the part where her grandfather sort of murdered her grandmother. Returning to a house filled with her first memories of childhood, she begins to explore the complex origins of her own anxiety. Along the way, she reflects on alienation and immigration, mental health and generational trauma, and the nature of memory itself. A memoir filled with raw honesty, comedy, tragedy, and grace.

This is my true life story growing up with dyslexia. How I almost allowed dyslexia to destroy my life. The education system failed me. I slipped through the cracks. Dyslexia controlled most of my life. I could still have a life without reading and writing. I was able to get married. Raise a family and run my own business. How my whole world changed overnight. For 62 years, I stayed silent.

Half a world away from home in 1976, 18-year old Anne B. Thomas awakens on the side of a two-lane road paralyzed from the chest down. Fast forward through a rigorous year of physical therapy to when her doctor gives her an ominous warning: “You will live a long time and be a burden on your family for the rest of your life unless you check yourself into a nursing home”.

Pulling back the veil of disability, the family’s journey offers insights and understanding about the inherent complexities of daily life. With a son labelled "disabled", the family is committed to fostering a “good life” for Matthew. Standing against ingrained societal tendencies that patronize and marginalize people with disabilities, they reject segregated approaches.

Shot point-blank in the side of the neck, Michael Kiel was completely paralyzed from the neck down on April 16, 1993. As a 19-year-old sophomore at Penn State - Altoona campus, the world he knew vanished. It was turned upside down and inside out, and the next four months in the hospital and rehab center would test every fiber of his being. This memoir is about his perspective on life - his entire life - before, during, and after a life-altering spinal cord injury.

A displaced person (now called refugee or economic migrant), aged 19, escapes in 1950 from behind the Iron Curtain with his mother's and her friends' help. He maneuvers through minefields and swims across icy waters and past Russian patrols to reach Salzburg and then Switzerland, hoping to catch up with his brother (who by then had migrated to Australia). He makes it back again, falls in love, but then emigrates to Canada to start a new life, gets to University in Toronto, and is then joined by his mother after escaping in 1956 during the Hungarian uprising.

Life is hard. Add in a disability, and it can be even more challenging. Tait knows. In My Name Is Tait, Tait writes about his successes, challenges, and hard times as he faces a world that doesn’t always accept his disability. In this book, you’ll have a front seat as Tait shares his thoughts on disability, family, education, work experience, and much more.