Disability Memoir

An approachable guide to being a thoughtful, informed ally to disabled people, with actionable steps for what to say and do (and what not to do) and how you can help make the world a more inclusive place ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, Booklist “A candid, accessible cheat sheet for...

For years, Emma Carey was a regular young adult who would wake up and go about their day on autopilot, someone who would look at a sunset and feel unaffected, someone who was living, but not really alive. That is, until something happened that enabled her to really see life for the gift it is. Emma was in a skydiving accident that made her a paraplegic. This book is not just about Emma's fall from the sky and how she learned to walk without ever regaining feeling in her legs but also about the beliefs and ideas that helped her survive.

An unlikely self-love story between a broken girl and her strange brain. Using a refreshing, unexpected, and clever combination of self-deprecation and profound insightfulness, Cindy Robinson shares the story of how her ADHD, OCD, and childhood trauma aided both in her downfall as well as her ultimate triumph. Her humorous and heartfelt vignettes invite you to walk alongside her as she attempts to prove she’s “normal” (and fails repeatedly). Determined not to give up on herself, she ultimately finds solace in a surprising place... her strangeness. Witness her artfully blossom from ...

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.

Tony-award winning actress Ali Stroker reads the story of Judy Heumann—one of the most influential disability rights activists in US history A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn’t built for all of us and of one woman’s activism—from the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco...

He was a correctional officer who upheld the law. Then he became a homeless addict in America's largest open-air drug market. Budd's life was built on a foundation of order and discipline, following his father's footsteps into a career in corrections. But beneath the uniform, a relentless addiction was tearing his world apart, brick by agonizing brick. In a harrowing descent, he lost everything: his job, his family's trust, and finally, his home. He ended up on the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia—a neighborhood ravaged by a new, flesh-eating drug called "tranq." His slow suicide was ...

Folk musician, Broadway composer, and disability advocate Gaelynn Lea's warm, funny, poignant memoir is a love letter to every kind of body, to music, and to making it work––inviting us to embrace all of life's experiences with heart and determination. Read by the author and featuring...

Diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) at 12, Kira believed she could never backpack away from everything that kept her stomach pain in check. But 13 years later, she hiked the entire 211-mile John Muir Trail — in the face of a debilitating flareup, a breakup, and a gut-wrenching parasite. Kira's (mis)adventures overcoming chronic pain among the breathtaking Sierra Nevada helped her rediscover everything her body was capable of. And in the highs and lows, the beauty and pain, the perseverance and regret, she came to understand true resilience. All to inspire you, the reader, to ...

Born without Legs, She Inspires Others to Overcome Jen Bricker was born without legs. Shocked and uncertain they could care for her, her biological parents gave her up for adoption. In her loving adoptive home, there was just one simple rule: "Never say 'can't.'" And pretty soon, there was nothing this small but mighty powerhouse set her sights on that she couldn't conquer: roller-skating, volleyball, power tumbling, and spinning from silk ribbons thirty feet in the air.

A powerful memoir by one of America’s most accomplished public servants and legal thinkers—who spent years denying and working around his blindness, before finally embracing it as an essential part of his identity. "Moving, thoughtful, and inspiring." —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy...

When Roger Rasmussen was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2019, he did what most patients do: listened carefully, weighed his options, and tried to make peace with the life-altering decisions ahead. Then he heard about Joe Tippens' story, which led him down a rabbit hole of research into something unexpected—a compound called fenbendazole with curious case reports and a growing collection of personal accounts.

Tess wasn’t searching for love—and she definitely wasn’t looking for a man with a power chair and a penchant for dad jokes. But when Corby’s clever and correctly punctuated dating profile caught her attention, one message turned into two, then twenty, and suddenly, her carefully predictable world was tilted on its axis. This story is more than a tale of love. It’s a wildly witty, refreshingly honest look at what happens when an intensely logical woman and a quadriplegic man collide online and discover something neither of them expected: a perfect match.

NARRATED BY THE AUTHOR! The star of the legendary HBO series The Sopranos and podcast co-host with Christina Applegate, Jamie Lynn Sigler opens up about the vicissitudes of life, from early stardom to heartache and love, motherhood, and illness, offering readers an unflinchingly vulnerable...

Close your eyes and get ready to see the world in a new and more positive way. As a child in Toronto, Molly Burke was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa and became completely sightless as a teenager. Now an award-winning YouTube star and global influencer, Molly shares what it’s like to be a purple-haired, pink-obsessed fashion and makeup lover in a seeing world. She speaks with authenticity and candor about how she tackles the preconceived notions we have around blindness; Molly has made it her mission to make us see her - and ourselves- in a wholly empowering way.

Hilarious and bawdy musings on disability, sex, family, and Hollywood, from Emmy-winning writer and creator of the Netflix series Special. This program is read by the author. "[Ryan] O’Connell’s high-spirited reading makes this one of the most entertaining audiobooks of the year." —Library...

A former Social Security Administration (SSA) attorney goes behind the scenes to show you why it’s so difficult to win a Social Security Disability case. Working as an attorney advisor for over 10 years, the author drafted and reviewed thousands of disability decisions. During this time, he learned why the system is stacked against the claimant throughout the process. After he left SSA, he wanted to make this knowledge available to everyone.

What do you do when the life you dreamed of for your child… never comes? In Delighting in Ben, Brandon Boyd shares a powerful Christian memoir about fatherhood, faith, and raising a child with special needs. When his son is diagnosed with developmental challenges, Brandon is forced to confront disappointment, unanswered prayers, and a faith that suddenly feels tested. Instead of easy answers, he discovers something deeper—God’s presence in the middle of pain.

Prison abolition and decarceration are increasingly debated, but it is often without taking into account the largest exodus of people from carceral facilities in the 20th century: the closure of disability institutions and psychiatric hospitals. Decarcerating Disability provides a much-needed corrective, combining a genealogy of deinstitutionalization with critiques of the current prison system.

Brian Reese was good at masking his PTSD, bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety. He even told himself he did not “deserve” benefits, which he later discovered was complete bullshit. As an air force officer deployed to Afghanistan, he embodied the motto of “service before self”. Unfortunately, like many veterans, his service came at his own expense, and abusing alcohol and drugs to cope with mental health issues nearly ended his life.

The Kindness of Strangers: Coast to Coast to Coast in 60 Days follows one man’s battle with Parkinson’s, and the unbelievable journey he took on his bike to fight it. From the rain-drenched coasts of the Maritimes to the frozen tundra of the Arctic, Lloyd recounts his adventure as part of the Spinning Wheels Relay to End Parkinson’s on their cross-Canada quest to inspire hope and raise awareness nationwide.