Special Collections
Deaf-Blind Special Collection
Description: A collection featuring biographies, fiction and non-fiction by and about members of the deaf-blind community. For books by and about members of the deaf community, visit: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/collection/249852 #disability
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Not Fade Away
by Rebecca Alexander and Sascha AlperEven a darkening world can be brilliantly lit from within.
Born with a rare genetic mutation called Usher Syndrome type III, Rebecca Alexander has been simultaneously losing both her sight and hearing since she was a child, and was told that she would likely be completely blind and deaf by age 30. Then, at 18, a fall from a window left her athletic body completely shattered.
None of us know what we would do in the face of such devastation. What Rebecca did was rise to every challenge she faced. She was losing her vision and hearing and her body was broken, but she refused to lose her drive, her zest for life and - maybe most importantly - her sense of humor. Now, at 35, with only a sliver of sight and significantly deteriorated hearing, she is a psychotherapist with two masters' degrees from Columbia University, and an athlete who teaches spin classes and regularly competes in extreme endurance races. She greets every day as if it were a gift, with boundless energy, innate curiosity, and a strength of spirit that have led her to places we can't imagine.
In Not Fade Away, Rebecca tells her extraordinary story, by turns harrowing, funny and inspiring. She meditates on what she's lost--from the sound of a whisper to seeing a sky full of stars, and what she's found in return--an exquisite sense of intimacy with those she is closest to, a love of silence, a profound gratitude for everything she still has, and a joy in simple pleasures that most of us forget to notice.
Not Fade Away is both a memoir of the senses and a unique look at the obstacles we all face--physical, psychological, and philosophical--exploring the extraordinary powers of memory, love, and perseverance. It is a gripping story, an offering of hope and motivation, and an exquisite reminder to live each day to its fullest.
Hand in Hand
by Elga Joffee and Jeanne Glidden Prickett and Kathleen Mary Huebner and Therese Rafalowski WelchAn in-service training guide that presents structured information and guidelines for using the Hand In Hand materials with various audiences. Focusing on the needs of the trainer, this manual provides sample blueprints for individual workshops, as well as an overview of training, assessment, and evaluation. Also includes sample forms for conducting a pre-training needs assessment and post training evaluation.
Remarkable Conversations
by Barbara Miles and Marianne Riggio and Carol Crook and Karen Olson and Cristina CastroThis book is a practical guide for teachers, family members and others who play a critical, direct role in the lives of children who are deafblind. The beginning chapters lay the foundation for the development of instructional programs for children who are congenitally deafblind or who have become deafblind early in life. Later chapters look more specifically and sequentially at the nuts and bolts of providing meaningful experiences for these learners. The final chapters address some of the underlying issues that are fundamental to providing personalized educational services for infants, children and young adults who are deafblind.
Crying Hands
by Horst Biesold and Williams SayersExposes the active collusion with the Nazis of various physicians, administrators, and teachers of the deaf who embraced the Third Reich's eugenics policies. Documents the collusion of deaf leaders, who tried to incorporate all independent deaf groups into one Nazi organization while expelling deaf Jews, and traces resistance against the Third Reich by deaf Germans. Includes personal accounts of some of the 1,215 deaf victims of enforced sterilization, demonstrating the lasting physical and emotional pain of Nazi violations. The author is a retired professor and teacher of deaf students.
The Miracle Worker
by William GibsonNO ONE COULD REACH HER Twelve-year-old Helen Keller lived in a prison of silence and darkness. Born deaf, blind, and mute, with no way to express herself or comprehend those around her, she flew into primal rages against anyone who tried to help her, fighting tooth and nail with a strength born of furious, unknowing desperation. Then Annie Sullivan came. Half-blind herself, but possessing an almost fanatical determination, she would begin a frightening and incredibly moving struggle to tame the wild girl no one could reach, and bring Helen into the world at last....
Signs of Resistance
by Susan Burch and Paul K. Longmore and Lauri UmanskyDuring the early nineteenth century, American schools for deaf education regarded sign language as the "natural language" of deaf people, using it as the principal mode of instruction and communication. These schools inadvertently became the seedbeds of an emerging Deaf community and culture. But by mid-century, an oralist movement developed that sought to suppress sign language, removing Deaf teachers and requiring deaf people to learn speech and lip reading. Historians have all assumed that in the early decades of the twentieth century oralism triumphed overwhelmingly.
Susan Burch shows us that everyone has it wrong; Deaf students, teachers, and staff consistently and creatively subverted oralist policies and goals within the schools. Ultimately, the efforts to assimilate Deaf people resulted in fortifying their ties to a separate Deaf cultural community.
In Signs of Resistance, Susan Burch persuasively reinterprets early twentieth century Deaf history. Using community sources such as Deaf newspapers, memoirs, films, and oral (sign language) interviews, Burch shows how the Deaf community mobilized to defend sign language, increased its political activism, and clarified its cultural values. In the process, a collective Deaf consciousness, identity, and political organization were formed.
In Shadows
by Chandler McgrewIn a small Maine valley, thirteen-year-old Pierce Morin, born blind and deaf, possesses a terrifying gift: he can hear evil whispering-and knows an elusive, deadly force is stalking the people he loves. . . .
Detective Jake Crowley has run far away from his Maine hometown. But a bizarre shootout in Galveston, Texas, finally draws him home: to a woman he can barely face, to the unsolved mystery of his mother's murder, to a family curse and a valley that's fallen under the spell of a serial killer. . . .
For Jake, redemption lies in unlocking Pierce's gifts and hoping the boy can show him the way to stop the terrors that plague him. But while young Pierce can begin the search, only Jake can finish it-by looking evil in the eye and claiming both their birthrights. . . .
My Religion
by Helen KellerHere is a mind kept singularly pure from childhood; here is a religious experience unhampered by the blindness of any sectarianism; here is a spiritual insight, a gift of perception, undulled by absorption in the things of sense life. Here is one in whom the Lord worked a miracle, and Helen Keller declares to us "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see."
Helen Keller
by Anne SchraffBiography of the young deaf-blind girl who became a famous writer. Guided by Time Magazine's list of 100 most influential people, this series biographies focuses on the leaders, scientists, and icons who shaped our world. Each biography includes a glossary, timeline, and illustrations.
Hand in Hand
by Elga Joffee and Jeanne Glidden Prickett and Therese Rafalowski Welch and Kathleen Mary HuebnerThis series was designed to develop resources for educators of children who are visually impaired, hearing impaired, and severely disabled. The Hand In Hand materials emphasize the communication and mobility skills crucial to independence, and provide important information to help service providers do their jobs effectively. Containing contributions from more than 30 nationally recognized experts in the field of deaf-blindness, this groundbreaking information consists of four components that can be used separately or together. A two-volume, self-study text that explains how deaf-blind students learn, focusing on essential communication and mobility skills. Designed to provide comprehensive information in an easy-to-read way, this invaluable resource includes identified key concepts, self-study questions and answers, and references. The user-friendly format includes concise "Help at a Glance" and "From Theory to Practice" sections throughout. Sidebars, figures, tables, graphs, and photos offer additional perspectives and information.
Helen Keller
by Margaret DavidsonThe bestselling biography of Helen Keller and how, with the commitment and lifelong friendship of Anne Sullivan, she learned to talk, read, and eventually graduate from college with honors.
Helen Keller
by Kathleen V. KudlinskiA biography detailing Helen Keller's adventurous life as she worked tirelessly to lead the way for handicapped people.
The Imprisoned Guest
by Elisabeth GitterDid you ever wonder what inspired Helen Keller's mother to have such high hopes for her daughter? The answer is Laura Bridgman, the original deaf-blind girl who inspired Charles Darwin to visit her and also write about her in American Notes.
Vintage Sacks
by Oliver SacksOliver Sacks' empathetic understanding and compelling storytelling ability have turned his accounts of his patients and his own life into literature, as evidenced in "Uncle Tungsten," "Stinks and Bangs," and "Cannery Row" from Uncle Tungsten; the Foreword and "Rose R." from Awakenings; "A Deaf World" from Seeing Voices; and excerpts from "Island Hopping" and "Pingelap" from The Island of the Colorblind.
Who Was Helen Keller?
by Gare ThompsonAt age two, Helen Keller became deaf and blind. She lived in a world of silence and darkness and she spent the rest of her life struggling to break through it. But with the help of teacher Annie Sullivan, Helen learned to read, write, and do many amazing things.
The Persistence of Vision
by John Varley
The Persistence of Vision
With an Introduction by Algis Budrys
These nine stories show the best work of the decade's most exciting new writer of science fiction. His Quantum novel The Ophiuchi Hotline established the "Eight Worlds" setting of many of these tales--a bizarre future in which genetic engineering, sex changes, and arcane pleasures and trades are commonplace.
The title story, nominated this year for a Nebula award by the Science Fiction Writers of America, is a haunting treatment of communication beyond our normal senses, an unusually enriching and absorbing work.
The last tale in the volume, the one the book is named after, is particularly memorable. It features a man who becomes part of a colony of deaf-mute-blind people, who have developed a highly spiritual means of communicating.
Take, for instance, the plight of the hero of "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank." All he wanted was a relaxed weekend as a lion; but a meddlesome kid switched a circuit, and his psyche was trapped inside a computer. . . . And what creative spirit wouldn't envy the artist in "The Phantom of Kansas" who composes storms?
Most of us feel pretty negatively about skyjackers, but "Air Raid" shows an unexpected rationale for it; "Retrograde Summer," "The Black Hole Passes," and "In the Bowl" are (among other strange things) unique and confusing love stories; "In the Hall of the Martian Kings" is a new and enthralling twist on the planetary castaways theme; and "Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance" shows what a Tin Pan Alley of the centuries to come might be like.
Miss Spitfire
by Sarah MillerAnnie Sullivan was little more than a half-blind orphan with a fiery tongue when she arrived at Ivy Green in 1887. Desperate for work, she’d taken on a seemingly impossible job—teaching a child who was deaf, blind, and as ferocious as any wild animal. But if anyone was a match for Helen Keller, it was the girl who’d been nicknamed Miss Spitfire. In her efforts to reach Helen’s mind, Annie lost teeth to the girl’s raging blows, but she never lost faith in her ability to triumph. Told in first person, Annie Sullivan’s past, her brazen determination, and her connection to the girl who would call her Teacher are vividly depicted in this powerful novel.
Words in My Hands
by Diane ChambersBert Riedel, an 86-year-old deaf-blind pianist, cut off from the world since age 45, discovers a new life through hand-over-hand sign, taught to him by the author.
My Maggie
by Richard KingMy Maggie is a rare and real love story. Rich and Maggie King were two people who never gave up on each other-a testament to a love few have the will to attain.
She was his childhood sweetheart and wife of thirty-two years. Diagnosed with hearing loss at the age of four, she wore cumbersome hearing aids and felt the humiliation of being "different." Slowly, an insidious disease robbed her of her vision. She fought three different cancers, changed careers in the middle of her life, and fought to realize her dreams. Yet, underneath these great challenges, there was an incredible love shared by two people. It was cemented by adversity and reached a near perfect spiritual connection. They lived a classic old- fashioned love story.
King shares one of the most powerful, complex, and memorable love stories ever written. It is an American story of great heroism, courage, and devotion. Maggie was a woman who understood how to lead a happy life and led it, in spite of the challenges placed in front of her. My Maggie is great drama, great passion, and great fun. It is a book written with a love so immense it almost defies description.
Beyond the Miracle Worker
by Kim E. NielsenAfter many years, historian and Helen Keller expert Kim Nielsen realized that she, along with other historians and biographers, had failed Anne Sullivan Macy. While Macy is remembered primarily as Helen Keller's teacher and mythologized as a straightforward educational superhero, the real story of this brilliant, complex, and misunderstood woman, who described herself as a "badly constructed human being," has never been completely told.
Beyond the Miracle Worker, the first biography of Macy in nearly fifty years, complicates the typical Helen-Annie "feel good" narrative in surprising ways. By telling the life from Macy's perspective-not Keller's-the biography is the first to put Macy squarely at the center of the story. It presents a new and fascinating tale about a wounded but determined woman and her quest for a successful, meaningful life.
Born in 1866 to poverty-stricken Irish immigrants, the parentless and deserted Macy suffered part of her childhood in the Massachusetts State Almshouse at Tewksbury. Seeking escape, in love with literature, and profoundly stubborn, she successfully fought to gain an education at the Perkins School for the Blind. As an adult, Macy taught Keller, helping the girl realize her immense potential, and Macy's intimate friendship with Keller remained powerful throughout their lives.
Yet as Macy floundered with her own blindness, ill health, and depression, as well as a tumultuous and triangulated marriage, she came to lean on her former student, emotionally, physically, and economically. Based on privately held primary source material, including materials at both the American Foundation for the Blind and the Perkins School for the Blind, Beyond the Miracle Worker is revelatory and absorbing, unraveling one of the best known-and least understood-friendships of the twentieth century.
The Education Of Laura Bridgman
by Ernest FreebergIn the mid-nineteenth century, Laura Bridgman, a young child from New Hampshire, became one of the most famous women in the world. Philosophers, theologians, and educators hailed her as a miracle, and a vast public followed the intimate details of her life with rapt attention. This girl, all but forgotten today, was the first deaf and blind person ever to learn language. Laura's dark and silent life was transformed when she became the star pupil of the educational crusader Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe. Against the backdrop of an antebellum Boston seething with debates about human nature, programs of moral and educational reform, and battles between conservative and liberal Christians, Freeberg tells this extraordinary tale of mentor and student, scientist and experiment. Under Howe's constant tutelage, Laura voraciously absorbed the world around her, learning to communicate through finger language, as well as to write with confidence. Her remarkable breakthroughs vindicated Howe's faith in the power of education to overcome the most terrible of disabilities. In Howe's hands, Laura's education became an experiment that he hoped would prove his own controversial ideas about the body, mind, and soul. Poignant and hopeful, The Education of Laura Bridgman is both a success story of how a sightless and soundless girl gained contact with an ever-widening world, and also a cautionary tale about the way moral crusades and scientific progress can compromise each other. Anticipating the life of Helen Keller a half-century later, Laura's is a pioneering story of the journey from isolation to accomplishment, as well as a window onto what it means to be human under the most trying conditions.
Hearing-Ear Dogs (Working Dogs)
by Howard Schroeder and Phyllis Raybin EmertDid you know a dog can be trained to "alert" deaf people to the sound of alarm clocks, doorbells, and other noises? Learn how these amazing canines are trained. For grades 2 - 4.
The Story of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller's Teacher
by George SeldenA biography of the woman who taught a deaf-blind girl how to communicate with others.
Helen Keller, Rebellious Spirit
by Laurie LawlorRecounting her mischievous nature, her little known romance, and her trials with her teacher and the public, this biography sheds new light on this extraordinary woman.
Charmed Destinies
by Mercedes Lackey and Rachel Lee and Catherine AsaroThree classic stories of timeless love and tantalizing fantasy. . .
Counting Crows by New York Times bestselling author Mercedes Lackey In Lady Gwynnhwyfar's dark, lonely court, her only ally was noble Sir Atremus, a warrior willing to fight for her honor. But would her powerful spell capture his heart-- or tumble the kingdom into chaos?
Drusilla's Dream by USA TODAY bestselling author Rachel Lee Every night Drusilla Morgan dreamed of courageous and handsome Miles Kennedy. Their quest: to battle evil and find true love. Yet when the sun rose, would Drusilla's fantasy man become a reality?
Moonglow by Nebula Award-winning author Catherine Asaro In a world where kings married for magic, Iris Larkspur was required to wed the prince--despite the spell that kept him deaf, mute and blind. Healing her bridegroom would take a power greater than any she'd ever known--one only two bonded hearts could provide!