Special Collections
Disability Collection
Description: Bookshare is pleased to offer a collection focused on the topic of disability and accessibility. #disability
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Blind Man Running
by Michael McintireAutobiography of a blind man's journey through life as a traveling musician
What I Learned in America
by Jalil MortazaviAMERICA, THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY EVEN FOR A BLIND JOURNALIST FROM IRAN Throughout the world, millions of people believe if you are blind that this prevents you from traveling too far from home. Others, of course, may have these same beliefs but have just kept them to themselves. Thus begins Jalil Mortazavi's engaging and baffling experience as he tries to overcome such odd thinking. In his book, he tries to cover much of what he has learned in the hope that it will inspire, delight, and amuse his audience. Mortazavi is an Iranian-American journalist who lives in Brookline, Massachusetts. He works for the Persian-American Media Watch. He has also been associated with Persian Voice of Boston, 24-Hour Persian Radio based in California, and 24-Hour Persian TV [NI TV]. He has appeared on Imus in the Morning, and he has done some news commentary on National Public Radio's All Things Considered and on Talk of the Nation. In addition, Jalil enjoyed being a guest on a number of different television and radio talk shows WCV TV, American Radio Network in Baltimore, and radio stations WBZ, WHDH, WRKO, WROR, and WTTP. Mortazavi has also written for such publications as The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, and The Brockton Enterprise.
Arts, Culture, and Blindness
by Simon HayhoeThis book explores one of the most powerful myths in modern society: the myth that blind people are incapable of understanding and creating visual arts.
A Brush With Darkness
by Lisa FittipaldiWhen Lisa Fittipaldi went blind at the age of forty-seven, she descended into a freefall of anger and denial that lasted for two years. In this moving memoir, she paints a vivid picture of the perceptual and emotional darkness that accompanied her vision loss, and her arduous journey back into the sighted world through mastery of the principles of art and color.
Seeing Beyond Sight
by Tony DeifellFor five years Tony Deifell taught teenagers to take photographs. His students were blind. Unusual as the idea may seem at first, putting cameras in the hands of visually impaired children proved to be extremely fruitful both for the photographers, who found an astonishing new means of self-expression, and for the viewers of their images, for whom this is an entirely new kind of dreamlike and intuitive creation. Even before you know that these pictures were taken by blind teenagers, they are striking in their use of light and composition, and haunting in their chiaroscuro intensity. To learn more, visit http://www.seeingbeyondsight.org/
Moving over the Edge
by Pamela K. WalkerA book about the author's coming of age alongside disability activists and artists with disabilities, reflecting the sociological evolution from disability rights to disability culture. It features many of the artists and groups that emerged in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1980s, including Axis Dance Company, Bruce Curtis, CJ Jones, David Roche, Cheryl Marie Wade and Wry Crips Disabled Women's Theater.
Another Eyesight
by Julia Ionides and Peter HowellThis book provides an overview and some in-depth information about the many ways of creating multi-sensory access for blind and partially sighted people to art, nature and historical sites.
Living with Vision Problems
by Jill Sardegna and Susan Shelly and Allan Rutzen and Scott M. SteidlMillions of Americans have a significant level of vision impairment. This revised edition of Living with Vision Problems is designed to provide students with helpful information such as: how to cope, causes and types of vision impairments, preventions, treatments and even LASIK procedures. It is an extensive sourcebook for all topics, including medical, concerning blindness.
Time For Art
by Gail Cawley ShowalterThis simple manual gives some helpful suggestions for people who want to teach art to children who are blind or visually impaired. It also gives some suggestions on projects that the students can do. It is not intended as the "all around authority" on the topic but serves as a spring board into other projects and ideas. Topics and projects include, fake fossils, aluminum repousse, papier mache bowls, wire sculptures, and raised line drawings. Good book for anyone interested in ways to adapt lessons in art for learners with special needs. Also includes art projects which relate to science.
Why I Burned My Book And Other Essays On Disability
by Paul K. LongmoreThis wide-ranging book shows why Paul Longmore is one of the most respected figures in disability studies today. Understanding disability as a major variety of human experience, he urges us to establish it as a category of social, political, and historical analysis in much the same way that race, gender, and class already have been. The essays here search for the often hidden pattern of systemic prejudice and probe into the institutionalized discrimination that affects the one in five Americans with disabilities.
Whether writing about the social critic Randolph Bourne, contemporary political activists, or media representations of people with disabilities, Longmore demonstrates that the search for heroes is a key part of the continuing struggle of disabled people to gain a voice and to shape their destinies. His essays on bioethics and public policy examine the conflict of agendas between disability rights activists and non-disabled policy makers, healthcare professionals, euthanasia advocates, and corporate medical bureaucracies.
The title essay, which concludes the book, demonstrates the necessity of activism for any disabled person who wants access to the American dream.
Author note: Paul K. Longmore is Professor of History at San Francisco State University. He is the author of The Invention of George Washington and the co-editor (with Lauri Umansky) of The New Disability History: American Perspectives.
An Enemy of the People
by Henrik Ibsen and Arthur MillerWhen Dr. Stockmann discovers that the water in the small Norwegian town in which he is the resident physician has been contaminated, he does what any responsible citizen would do: reports it to the authorities.
But Stockmann's good deed has the potential to ruin the town's reputation as a popular spa destination, and instead of being hailed as a hero, Stockmann is labeled an enemy of the people.
Arthur Miller's adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic drama is a classic in itself, a penetrating exploration of what happens when the truth comes up against the will of the majority. This edition includes Arthur Miller's preface and an introduction by John Guare.
The Moth Girl
by Heather KaminsFlying doesn&’t always mean freedom. Anna is a regular teenaged girl. She runs track with her best friend, gets good grades, and sometimes drinks beer at parties. But one day at track practice, Anna falls unconscious . . . but instead of falling down, she falls up, defying gravity in the disturbing first symptom of a mysterious disease. This begins a series of trips to the hospital that soon become Anna&’s norm. She&’s diagnosed with lepidopsy: a rare illness that causes symptoms reminiscent of moths: floating, attraction to light, a craving for sugar, and for an unlucky few, more dangerous physical manifestations. Anna&’s world is turned upside down, and as she learns to cope with her illness, she finds herself drifting further and further away from her former life. Her friends don&’t seem to understand, running track is out of the question, and the other kids at the disease clinic she attends once a week are a cruel reminder that things will never be the same. From debut author Heather Kamins comes a beautiful and evocative story about one girl&’s journey of choosing who she wants to be--in a life she never planned for.
Fix
by J. Albert MannIn this gritty, heart-wrenching mystery, prose and verse mix to explores themes of disability, pain, belonging, loss, addiction, and friendship.Everything was fine before. When Eve and Lidia could hide their physical differences inside goofy Burger Hut costumes. When Lidia shook Eve up and Eve made Lidia laugh. When Lidia was there. Everything is different now. Cut open . . . rearranged . . . stapled shut, Eve is left alone to recover in a world of pain and a body she no longer recognizes. Her only companions being a bottle of Roxanol and an infuriating (but cute) neighbor, Eve strikes up a relationship—and makes a pact—with the devil. Sacrificing pieces of a place she doesn't know to return to a place she does. What will she discover when she unravels her past? And is having Lidia back worth the price? In verse and prose, Fix paints a riveting picture of a teen struggling to find herself and move forward with her life in a sea of opioids, regret, grief, and hope.
Ellen Outside the Lines
by A. J. SassWinner of a Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor! A heartfelt novel about a neurodivergent thirteen-year-old navigating changing friendships, a school trip, and expanding horizons for fans of Rain Reign and Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World. Thirteen-year-old Ellen Katz feels most comfortable when her life is well planned out and people fit neatly into her predefined categories. She attends temple with Abba and Mom every Friday and Saturday. Ellen only gets crushes on girls, never boys, and she knows she can always rely on her best-and-only friend, Laurel, to help navigate social situations at their private Georgia middle school. Laurel has always made Ellen feel like being autistic is no big deal. But lately, Laurel has started making more friends, and cancelling more weekend plans with Ellen than she keeps. A school trip to Barcelona seems like the perfect place for Ellen to get their friendship back on track. Except it doesn't. Toss in a new nonbinary classmate whose identity has Ellen questioning her very binary way of seeing the world, homesickness, a scavenger hunt-style team project that takes the students through Barcelona to learn about Spanish culture and this trip is anything but what Ellen planned. Making new friends and letting go of old ones is never easy, but Ellen might just find a comfortable new place for herself if she can learn to embrace the fact that life doesn't always stick to a planned itinerary.
Lakelore
by Anna-Marie McLemoreIn this young adult novel by award-winning author Anna-Marie McLemore, two non-binary teens are pulled into a magical world under a lake - but can they keep their worlds above water intact? Everyone who lives near the lake knows the stories about the world underneath it, an ethereal landscape rumored to be half-air, half-water. But Bastián Silvano and Lore Garcia are the only ones who’ve been there. Bastián grew up both above the lake and in the otherworldly space beneath it. Lore’s only seen the world under the lake once, but that one encounter changed their life and their fate.Then the lines between air and water begin to blur. The world under the lake drifts above the surface. If Bastián and Lore don’t want it bringing their secrets to the surface with it, they have to stop it, and to do that, they have to work together. There’s just one problem: Bastián and Lore haven’t spoken in seven years, and working together means trusting each other with the very things they’re trying to hide.
Breathe and Count Back from Ten
by Natalia SylvesterIn this gorgeously written and authentic novel, Verónica, a Peruvian-American teen with hip dysplasia, auditions to become a mermaid at a Central Florida theme park in the summer before her senior year, all while figuring out her first real boyfriend and how to feel safe in her own body.Verónica has had many surgeries to manage her disability. The best form of rehabilitation is swimming, so she spends hours in the pool, but not just to strengthen her body.Her Florida town is home to Mermaid Cove, a kitschy underwater attraction where professional mermaids perform in giant tanks . . . and Verónica wants to audition. But her conservative Peruvian parents would never go for it. And they definitely would never let her be with Alex, her cute new neighbor.She decides it’s time to seize control of her life, but her plans come crashing down when she learns her parents have been hiding the truth from her—the truth about her own body.
One for All
by Lillie Lainoff“There are no limits to the will—and the strength—of this unique female hero.” —Tamora Pierce, writer of the Song of the Lioness and the Protector of the Small quartetsOne for All is a gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl.” But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father—a former Musketeer and her greatest champion. Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for new Musketeers: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a sword fight.With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels that she has a purpose, that she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming—and might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to decide where her loyalties lie…or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.Lillie Lainoff's debut novel is a fierce, whirlwind adventure about the depth of found family, the strength that goes beyond the body, and the determination it takes to fight for what you love. Includes an author's note about her personal experience with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.
Special Needs Trusts
by Stephen EliasIf you care for a child or other loved one with a disability, you've no doubt thought about what will happen when you're no longer able to give that care. Fortunately, there's a simple solution to this dilemma -- create a "special needs trust." Special Needs Trusts shows you how to leave any amount of money to your disabled loved one, without jeopardizing government benefits. It provides plain-English information and forms that let you create a special needs trust by modifying your will or living trust document.
Unseen Childhoods
by Helen A. AvelingThe nine essays in this collection break the 20th century into three periods - early, middle, and late. They cover the themes of stereotypes, role models, and inclusion and segregation, tracing their evolution across nearly a hundred years. Among the essays are "Modeling Illness in the Early 20th Century" by Helen A. Aveling; "A Choice of Virtues," by Deborah Kent; and "My Sibling the Other," by Rebecca R. Butler.
Finding My Voice
by Joyce LibalSpeech impairment is a common challenge among youth. Unfortunately, it is a challenge that, despite its frequency, can cause severe emotional and social distress for those who experience it. Stigma and prejudice can present particularly difficult emotional trials and social roadblocks to youth with speech impairments. All too often, these young people are assumed to be less capable, immature, or even unintelligent because of their communication barriers.
Teaching Students with Special Needs
by Tom E. C. Smith and Edward A. Polloway and James R. Patton and Carol A. Dowdythe one thing that will remain constant is the commitment to provide all students, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, with an equal opportunity to receive an appropriate education.
I Have A Sister -- My Sister Is Deaf
by Jeanne Whitehouse PetersonA young deaf child who loves to run and jump and play is affectionately described by her older sister.
Helen Keller
by Katharine E. WilkieFocusing on her childhood years, this biography is about Helen Keller who overcame her handicaps with the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan.
A Different Way of Seeing
by Patricia SouderKyla passed the ball to her teammate, then raced up the court. Somehow, she lost track of the orange globe and didn't see it again until right before it smashed into her left cheek. Kyla's head snapped. At courtside, a paramedic asked her to close her left eye and see with her right. "How's everything look?" "Just fine." The paramedic instructed her to close her right eye and look with her left. "How about now?" "I see bright, flashing lights, some black specks, and a dark cloud right where you should be." "In that case, you win some eye shields and a trip to the emergency room." In A Different Way of Seeing: Youth with Visual Impairments and Blindness, you will learn about many different visual disorders, what can cause them, and resources to help deal with the challenges visual impairments can bring. As you follow Kyla's story, you will learn what it is like to be visually impaired. Along the way, you will also learn about the resources and adaptive devices - like white canes, guide dogs, Braille, blind camps, music programs, and sports opportunities - available to help youth with blindness or vision impairment. People with vision impairments have many stories to tell - stories of determination, hope, and accomplishment.
Freak the Mighty
by Rodman PhilbrickTwo boys - a slow learner stuck in the body of a teenage giant and a tiny Einstein in leg braces - forge a unique friendship when they pair up to create one formidable human force. (Made into the film, The Mighty. )