Biographies about People with Disabilities

"In this unique and engaging memoir, journalist and popular blogger Zoë Kessler shares her own story of being diagnosed with ADHD in her late 40s. Throughout the book she offers readers key coping skills based on her experience; skills that can help readers focus their energy, become more organized, and boost their self-esteem while tapping into creativity and humor"-- Publisher.

Blake Taylor's mother first suspected he had ADHD when he, at only three years of age, tried to push his infant sister in her carrier off the kitchen table. As time went by, Blake developed a reputation for being hyperactive and impulsive. He launched rockets (accidentally) into neighbor's swimming pools and set off alarms in museums. Blake was diagnosed formally with ADHD when he was five years old. In ADHD and Me, he tells about the next twelve years as he learns to live with both the good and bad sides of life with ADHD.

Blue Genes portrays the lives of two brothers who alternately locked horns and found solace in each other. Written with heartrending candor, it captures the devastation of this family legacy of depression, but it is also surprisingly uplifting, as it details the strength and hope that can provide a way of escaping its grasp.

"In this book Laura Marshak skilfully weaves together extensive interviews and survey results of solo mothers and fathers (and grandparents, too) with reliable coping strategies gleaned from 25 years as a practicing psychologist and specialist in disability adjustment. The book's insightful personal narratives and the author's deconstruction of these to offer universal lessons -- from the basic (eg: practice mindfulness to de-stress) to the profound (eg: cultivate gratitude as the antidote to resentment) -- can help readers assess and transform their own lives for the better." -publisher

"Green Vanilla Tea is a true story of love and courage in the face of a deadly and little understood illness. With literary finesse, compassion, and a powerful gift of storytelling, Marie Williams writes poignantly of her husband Dominic’s struggles with early onset dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 40, and how their family found hope amidst the wreckage of a mysterious neurological condition." -publisher

Despite winning the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2008, Philip Schultz could never shake the feeling of being exiled to the "dummy class" in school, where he was largely ignored by his teachers and peers and not expected to succeed. Not until many years later, when his oldest son was diagnosed with dyslexia, did Schultz realize that he suffered from the same condition.

Schultz traces his difficult childhood and his new understanding of his early years. In doing so, he shows how a boy who did not learn to read until he was eleven went on to become a prize-winning poet by sheer force of determination.

It's like planning a trip to Italy, only to get off the plane and discover you're actually in Holland. You need a new road map, and fast...

When Jennifer Groneberg and her husband learned they'd be having twin boys, their main concern was whether they'd need an addition on their house. Then, five days after Avery and Bennett were born, Avery was diagnosed with Down syndrome.

The summer before entering sixth grade, Sammy, a bright and charming boy, suddenly began to exhibit disturbing behaviors. His mother, Beth, already overwhelmed by the responsibility of raising three sons alone, watched helplessly as her middle child descended into madness. Sammy was soon diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and later with Tourette syndrome. Unwilling to accept the prognosis of lifelong mental illness and repeated hospitalizations, Beth fought to uncover the cause.

When Schuyler Rummel-Hudson was eighteen months old, a question about her lack of speech by her pediatrician set in motion a journey that continues today. When she was diagnosed with bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria (an extremely rare neurological disorder), her parents were given a name for the monster that had been stalking them from doctor to doctor, and from despair to hope, and back again.

Once they knew why Schuyler couldn’t speak, they needed to determine how to help her learn. They took on educators and society to give their beautiful daughter a voice, and in the process learned a thing or two about fearlessness, tenacity, and joy

Labeled "dyslexic and profoundly learning disabled with attention and behavior problems," Jonathan Mooney was a short bus rider--a derogatory term used for kids in special education and a distinction that told the world he wasn't "normal." Along with other kids with special challenges, he grew up hearing himself denigrated daily. Ultimately, Mooney surprised skeptics by graduating with honors from Brown University. But he could never escape his past, so he hit the road. To free himself and to learn how others had moved beyond labels, he bought his own short bus and set out cross-country, looking for kids who had dreamed up magical, beautiful ways to overcome the obstacles that separated them from the so-called normal world.

"When Meryl Comer’s husband Harvey Gralnick was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease in 1996, she watched as the man who headed hematology and oncology research at the National Institutes of Health started to misplace important documents and forget clinical details that had once been cataloged encyclopedically in his mind. With harrowing honesty, she brings readers face to face with this devastating condition and its effects on its victims and those who care for them." -publisher

In the seventh grade, Todd Rose was suspended--not for the first time--for throwing stink bombs at the blackboard. At eighteen, he was a high school dropout, stocking shelves at a department store. Today, Rose is a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His book illuminates the struggles of millions of bright young children--and their frustrated parents and teachers--who are stuck in a one-size-fits-all school system that fails to approach the student as an individual. -Publisher

When Irene was born, her parents were advised to institutionalize her. They refused and instead became trailblazers in advocating for the rights of people with mental disabilities.

Carl Bentson is a good neighbor who never says a negative word about anyone or anything. His favorite word is "yeah". He lives a good life in spite of the difficulties associated with having De Lange's syndrome. Like the spokes of a wheel on his legendary bicycle, Carl is at the center of a network of support which makes the world go around. In fact, looked at in one way, this documentary shows how a community creates good citizens.

"Using a combination of home movies and interviews with Chris and other family members, this program, filmed by Chris's brother, is a multilayered tale of three generations coping with bipolar disorder and autism. Chris has gone on to become an acclaimed artist, his creative expression triggered by the death of his father--whom he imagines to be playing cards with Nixon in the hereafter"--Container.

Traces the life of Adam Terrill--a loud, charismatic, flag-twirling redhead with a complex mix of creative talents and developmental disabilities (including autism, ADHD and retardation) ... Gork! zeroes in on Adam's close relationship with his sister Autumn, whose childhood experiences inspire her to develop a creative approach to helping autistic children communicate."--Container.

"For a person with an intellectual disability, social communications and interactions can sometimes be limited or difficult. 'We don't always know how to get the feelings out,' says Alyssa Ruzzin, whose life is the focus of this film. Coping with the challenges of an intellectual disability compounded by epilepsy, she is an inspiring speaker and a forthright advocate for the rights of people with special needs."--Container label.

Praying with Lior asks whether someone with Down syndrome can be a "spiritual genius." Many believe Lior is close to God -- at least that's what his family and community believe -- though he's also a burden, a best friend, an inspiration and an embarrassment, depending on who is asked and when. As this documentary moves to its climax, Lior must pass through the gateway to manhood - his Bar Mitzvah.

"The first documentary filmed in an Alzheimer's unit told from the perspective of an Alzheimer's patient. In Danville, California, Lee Gorewitz wanders on a personal odyssey through her Alzheimer's & Dementia care unit. From the moment she wakes up, Lee is on a quest-- for reminders of her past, and her identity. A total immersion into the fragmented day-to-day experience of mental illness, 'You're looking at me like I live here and I don't' is filled with charismatic vitality and penetrating ruminations that challenge our preconceptions of illness and aging. Here is one extraordinary woman who will not let us forget her, even as she struggles to remember herself."--Container.