Disability Memoir

When Jade unexpectedly suffered from a rare condition which left her paralysed and in a wheelchair at the age of twelve, she never imagined that she'd one day meet her husband John and that together they would take to social media to dispel the stigma surrounding disability, one story at a time. From questions about suffering and sex to family and faith, Jade and John speak honestly and humorously about life as an inter-able couple.

When PhD candidate Sarah Vallance is thrown from a horse and suffers a jarring blow to the head, she believes she walks away unscathed. The next morning, things take a sharp turn as she’s quickly led from work to the emergency room. By the end of the week, a neurologist delivers a devastating prognosis: Sarah suffered a traumatic brain injury that has caused her IQ to plummet, with no hope of recovery. Her brain has irrevocably changed.

Jeremy Schreiber was on top of the world—athletic, newly married, successful. And then something went terribly wrong. In this moving memoir, he shares his journey after he received a terrifying diagnosis: ALS. As the devastating disease robbed him of movement and speech, he was abandoned by his wife and betrayed by a society that shuns people with disabilities. But it’s not all doom and gloom. He found love, support, and a powerful purpose. While fighting for his independence and then for his life, Jeremy gave his all to the ALS and disability communities.

In 1992, Count Phillippe Pozzo di Borgo, on the heels of his wife's diagnosis with a terminal illness, suffered a paragliding accident that left him a quadriplegic. Forty-two years old, trapped inside his luxurious Paris town house, he was an outcast for the first time in his life. Abdel, an unemployed Algerian immigrant who had been an outcast for his entire existence, would become Phillipe's unlikely caretaker. Quick-thinking, unsentimental, and more than a little wild, Abdel surprises both himself and his employer.

At 30 years old Bryan Bishop’s life was right on track: as the sidekick on The Adam Carolla Show, his career was taking off and, newly engaged, his personal life was soaring to new heights. Then he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Suddenly Bryan’s promising future was looking at a troubling schedule of radiation and chemotherapy. But having found refuge in comedy, "Bald Bryan" recounts his alternately heartbreaking and hysterical experience of cancer treatment and recovery.

From being a little girl in a village in China with polio to a tech executive at Apple, Libo Cao Meyers has had quite a journey in life—a journey steeped in rich family legacy and powered by determination, growth, and love. Over the years and the miles, she’s embraced her differences and has allowed no one—including herself—to set limitations on what she’s able to accomplish. But just because she’s been successful doesn’t mean it’s been easy. Not by a long shot.

Thirty-four-year-old Rebecca Alexander is a psychotherapist, a spin instructor, a volunteer, and an athlete. She is also almost completely blind, with significantly deteriorated hearing. Not Fade Away is a deeply moving exploration of the obstacles we all face-physical, psychological, and philosophical. Rebecca's story is an exquisite reminder to live each day to its fullest.

Clem Bastow grew up feeling like she’d missed a key memo on human behaviour. She found the unspoken rules of social engagement confusing, arbitrary and often stressful. Friendships were hard, relationships harder and the office was a fluorescent-lit nightmare of anxiety. It wasn’t until Clem was diagnosed as autistic, at age 36, that things clicked into focus. Clem reflects as an autistic adult on her formative experiences as an undiagnosed young person, from the asphalt playground of St Joseph's Primary School in Melbourne to working as an entertainment journalist in Hollywood.

In The Maniac with No Knees, Tyler Kania takes listeners on a raw, unfiltered ride through his journey with undiagnosed Bipolar I Disorder. From rugby fields to the edge of the Grand Canyon, from building a cryptocurrency start-up to coaching a women’s rugby team to victory, Tyler’s manic adventures push every boundary. Along the way, he uncovers a major tech scandal, survives run-ins with the Boston Mafia, and even attempts the unthinkable—before landing in a mental hospital, where he finally begins to heal.

Growing up in Mineral Wells, Texas during the 1950s and 60s was anything but idyllic for Walter Ashby. Due to a misdiagnosis and medical error, his sister Janie went from being a lively young girl to a shell of a person who required their parents’ attention 24 hours a day, every day. To add insult to injury, his parents received another blow: before Walter was six-years-old, he lost 98 percent of his vision, leaving him legally blind.

At age 16, James Tate Hill was diagnosed with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, a condition that left him legally blind. After high school friends stopped calling and a disability counselor advised him to aim for C's in his classes, he used his remaining blurry peripheral vision to pretend he could still see. Feigning eye contact, memorizing common routes, filling shelves with paperbacks he read via tape cassettes, he organized his life around passing for sighted.

A young man once called unteachable journeys across America to investigate the lives of those, like himself, who are forced to create new ways of living in order to survive.

Bonner Paddock grew up just wanting to be ordinary. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age eleven, he guarded the truth about his health, building a normal life and keeping his secret from everyone—most of all himself—for the next eighteen years. But the sudden death of a friend’s young son due to cerebral palsy forced Bonner to reevaluate who he was and spurred him to pursue one breathtaking experience after another.

Inspirational, humorous, and thought provoking, Noah Galloway's Living with No Excuses sheds light on his upbringing in rural Alabama, his military experience, and the battle he faced to overcome losing two limbs during Operation Iraqi Freedom. From reliving the early days of life to his acceptance of his "new normal" after losing his arm and leg in combat, Noah reveals his ambition to succeed against all odds.

Henry Markram is the Elon Musk of neuroscience, the man behind the billion-dollar Blue Brain Project to build a supercomputer model of the brain. He has set the goal of decoding all disturbances of the mind within a generation. This quest is personal for him. The driving force behind his grand ambition has been his son Kai, who has autism. Raising Kai made Henry Markram question all that he thought he knew about neuroscience, and then inspired his groundbreaking research that would upend the conventional wisdom about autism, expressed in his now-famous theory of Intense World Syndrome.

In Imperfect, Jim Abbot retraces his remarkable journey. Born without a right hand, Jim Abbott as a boy dreamed of being a great athlete. Raised in Flint, Michigan, by parents who saw in his condition not a disability but an extraordinary opportunity, Jim became a two-sport standout in high school, then an ace pitcher for the University of Michigan. But his journey was only beginning. By 21, he’d won the gold medal game at the 1988 Olympics and cracked the starting rotation of the California Angels....

At the age of 27, Whitney Dafoe was forced to give up his life as a photographer who traveled the world. Bit by bit a mysterious illness stole away the pieces of his life: First, it took the strength of his legs, then his voice, and his ability to eat. The Puzzle Solver follows several years in which he desperately sought answers. Whitney's father, Ron Davis, PhD, a world-class geneticist at Stanford University whose legendary research helped crack the code of DNA, suddenly changed the course of his career in a race against time to cure his son's debilitating condition.

Families who have supported a child with special needs will connect with this memoir about Sarah, a feisty girl with autism and a unique genetic blueprint. Her mom, Jenny, is equally feisty and determined, which leads her to make a commitment that dramatically changes her and Sarah’s lives—as well as those of many others.

Weeks after giving birth, Holly Frances went from being a healthy 26-year-old new mom to paralyzed and on life support—in less than 72 hours. Diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Holly was trapped in her body, unable to move, speak, or hold her newborn daughter. Life Support tells the story of how Holly struggled to overcome the despair, hopelessness and physical pain, to regain her health and get back to being a mother to her daughter.

Lucy Edwards is a UK-based blind broadcaster, content creator, Pantene Ambassador and disability activist. At only 17 her world went to black. In an instant Lucy lost her eyesight due to a rare condition called Incontinentia Pigmenti. She had to learn how to navigate her life all over again, the beginning of an extraordinary journey to find self-acceptance and happiness. Lucy took to the internet and started to upload her experiences. Through sharing her day-to-day routine in her viral 'How does a blind girl?' video series, Lucy's story gripped the nation.