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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Haben
by Haben GirmaThe incredible life story of Haben Girma, the first Deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School, and her amazing journey from isolation to the world stage.
Haben grew up spending summers with her family in the enchanting Eritrean city of Asmara. There, she discovered courage as she faced off against a bull she couldn't see, and found in herself an abiding strength as she absorbed her parents' harrowing experiences during Eritrea's thirty-year war with Ethiopia. Their refugee story inspired her to embark on a quest for knowledge, traveling the world in search of the secret to belonging. She explored numerous fascinating places, including Mali, where she helped build a school under the scorching Saharan sun. Her many adventures over the years range from the hair-raising to the hilarious.
Haben defines disability as an opportunity for innovation. She learned non-visual techniques for everything from dancing salsa to handling an electric saw. She developed a text-to-braille communication system that created an exciting new way to connect with people. Haben pioneered her way through obstacles, graduated from Harvard Law, and now uses her talents to advocate for people with disabilities.
HABEN takes readers through a thrilling game of blind hide-and-seek in Louisiana, a treacherous climb up an iceberg in Alaska, and a magical moment with President Obama at The White House. Warm, funny, thoughtful, and uplifting, this captivating memoir is a testament to one woman's determination to find the keys to connection.
Suddenly Slow
by John Lee ClarkThis collection of poems opens with a stumble: 'It was not there / until I tripped over it.' But this is fitting because John Lee Clark bounces back, as he always does, artfully and unexpectedly, to make an astonishing statement. Snowballs, his long white cane, pears, Braille, bedsheets, sign language, and even morning light come alive in this deaf-blind poet's hands like they have never before. Thanks to his sparkling language, his intellectual playfulness, and his capacity for wonder, together with his unique perceptions of life, his poems add a much-needed new wrinkle to the lexicon of imagination. What he reflects on, others cannot see in the same way again, and that includes the poet himself: We understand that he is like the rest of humankind in all the most important ways.
Blind Rage
by Georgina KleegeAs a young blind girl, Georgina Kleege repeatedly heard the refrain, “Why can’t you be more like Helen Keller?” Kleege’s resentment culminates in her book Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller, an ingenious examination of the life of this renowned international figure using 21st-century sensibilities.
Kleege’s absorption with Keller originated as an angry response to the ideal of a secular saint, which no real blind or deaf person could ever emulate. However, her investigation into the genuine person revealed that a much more complex set of characters and circumstances shaped Keller’s life.
Blind Rage employs an adroit form of creative nonfiction to review the critical junctures in Keller’s life. The simple facts about Helen Keller are well-known: how Anne Sullivan taught her deaf-blind pupil to communicate and learn; her impressive career as a Radcliffe graduate and author; her countless public appearances in various venues, from cinema to vaudeville, to campaigns for the American Foundation for the Blind. But Kleege delves below the surface to question the perfection of this image.
Through the device of her letters, she challenges Keller to reveal her actual emotions, the real nature of her long relationship with Sullivan, with Sullivan’s husband, and her brief engagement to Peter Fagan.
Kleege’s imaginative dramatization, distinguished by her depiction of Keller’s command of abstract sensations, gradually shifts in perspective from anger to admiration.
Blind Rage criticizes the Helen Keller myth for prolonging an unrealistic model for blind people, yet it appreciates the individual who found a practical way to live despite the restrictions of her myth.
A Dog Called Homeless
by Sarah LeanMy name is Cally Louise Fisher and I haven't spoken for thirty-one days. Talking doesn't always make things happen, however much you want them to. When Cally Fisher sees her dead mother, real as anything, no one believes her. So Cally stops talking - what's the point if no one is listening? The only other living soul who sees Cally's mum is a mysterious wolfhound who always seems to be there when her mum appears. But without a voice, how will Cally convince anyone that her mum is still with them, and how will she ever persuade her Dad that the huge silver-grey dog is their last link with her? An outstandingly assured debut novel from a sparkling new talent.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Can You Feel the Thunder? (First Edition)
by Lynn E. McelfreshThirteen-year-old Mic Parsons struggles with mixed feelings about his deaf and blind sister while at the same time he makes his way through the turmoils of junior high.
Usher's Syndrome
by Earlene Duncan and Hugh T. Prickett and Dan Finkelstein and Mccay Vernon and Toni HollingsworthDescribes what Usher's syndrome is, how it impacts a person's life, and ways to cope with this dual disability.
Walk In My Shoes
by ed. Charlotte J. DewittUsher Syndrome is a rare genetic disease that causes deafblindness. This anthology includes 27 authors writing about their experiences.
The Visitors
by Rebecca MascullImagine if you couldn't seecouldn't hearcouldn't speak...Then one day somebody took your hand and opened up the world to you.Adeliza Golding is a deafblind girl, born in late Victorian England on her father's hop farm. Unable to interact with her loving family, she exists in a world of darkness and confusion; her only communication is with the ghosts she speaks to in her head, who she has christened the Visitors. One day she runs out into the fields and a young hop-picker, Lottie, grabs her hand and starts drawing shapes in it. Finally Liza can communicate.Her friendship with her teacher and with Lottie's beloved brother Caleb leads her from the hop gardens and oyster beds of Kent to the dusty veldt of South Africa and the Boer War, and ultimately to the truth about the Visitors.
Helen Keller
by Carol GhiglieriHelen Keller was deaf and blind, but went on to learn and teach and advocate. Correlate with Guided Reading Levels J. For use with Grades K-2.
Optimism, and Strike Against War
by Helen KellerAn essay on optimism by the famous author, activist, and lecturer, as well as a speech called Strike Against War that she gave at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 5, 1916 in opposition to World War I.
Helen Keller
by Johanna HurwitzWhen a childhood illness leaves her blind and deaf, Helen Keller's life seems hopeless indeed. But her indomitable will and the help of a devoted teacher empower Helen to triumph over incredible adversity. This amazing true story is finally brought to the beginner reader level.
The Song of the Stone Wall
by Helen KellerAn unrhymed poem, fashioned from traditional style, first published in 1910 in which a rough, enduring old stone wall, that winds over hill and meadow, becomes a symbol of New England history. Its importance lies in the meaning it held for Helen Keller, and the strength she gained from its existence.
Helen Keller
by Richard TamesThe life of Helen Keller told in this biography also contains brief historical highlights that help illuminate certain concepts discussed in the book.
The Cloak of Dreams
by Béla BalázsIntriguing fairy tales by the librettist of Béla Bartók’s opera Bluebeard’s CastleA man is changed into a flea and must bring his future parents together in order to become human again. A woman convinces a river god to cure her sick son, but the remedy has mixed consequences. A young man must choose whether to be close to his wife's soul or body. And two deaf mutes transcend their physical existence in the garden of dreams. Strange and fantastical, these fairy tales of Béla Balázs (1884-1949), Hungarian writer, film critic, and famous librettist of Bluebeard's Castle, reflect his profound interest in friendship, alienation, and Taoist philosophy. Translated and introduced by Jack Zipes, one of the world's leading authorities on fairy tales, The Cloak of Dreams brings together sixteen of Balázs's unique and haunting stories.Written in 1921, these fairy tales were originally published with twenty images drawn in the Chinese style by painter Mariette Lydis, and this new edition includes a selection of Lydis's brilliant illustrations. Together, the tales and pictures accentuate the motifs and themes that run throughout Balázs's work: wandering protagonists, mysterious woods and mountains, solitude, and magical transformation. His fairy tales express our deepest desires and the hope that, even in the midst of tragedy, we can transcend our difficulties and forge our own destinies.Unusual, wondrous fairy tales that examine the world's cruelties and twists of fate, The Cloak of Dreams will entertain, startle, and intrigue.
Independent Living Without Sight and Hearing
by Richard KinneyThis is a wonderful resource for blind-deaf individuals and those who interact with them. It covers such topics as communication methods, independence at home, telephones, travel hints and much more.
Invisible
by Ruth SilverRuth Silver's young life was challenged with vision and hearing loss. Inspired by her own experiences and challenges, she founded the Center for Deaf-Blind Persons in Milwaukee, a nonprofit agency dedicated to helping others living with the double disability of deaf-blindness. Ruth's story demonstrates how a resilient spirit can propel a profoundly disabled person forward toward a happy, productive life.
A Girl Named Helen Keller
by Margo LundellRead about the life of a blind and deaf girl who brought hope to other people in the world.
Helen Keller (Rebel Lives)
by Helen Keller and John DavisA different portrayal of Keller, who is usually remembered for her work aiding blind and deaf-blind people.
Deaf and blind herself from the age of 19 months, Keller did indeed devote her adult life to helping those similarly afflicted - she was also a crusading Socialist, championing the poor and oppressed from all walks of life and leading a fight against the less obvious evil of social blindness.
John Davis has collected her political writing and speeches, including her arguments for women's suffrage, her opposition to the world wars and support for Eugene V. Debs.
Guidelines
by Theresa B. SmithHow does deaf-blindness affect communication? How does one guide a person who is deaf and blind? How does all of this affect the role of the interpreter etc.?
For Pete's Sake
by Linda VervilleChelsea can't figure out what is wrong with Pete the new pup. He runs into things, can't tell the difference between night and day, can't understand he is getting in trouble. Eventuallly the family discovers that Pete is blind and deaf, and then they realize he is special in spite of his disabilites. For young kids and old too.
Deaf-Blind Reality
by Scott M. StoffelMost stories about disabled people are written for the sake of being inspirational. These stories tend to focus on some achievement, such as sports or academics, but rarely do they give a true and complete view of the challenges individuals must deal with on a daily basis. For example: How does a deaf-blind person interact with hearing-sighted people at a family reunion? How does she shop for groceries? What goes through his mind when he enters a classroom full of non-handicapped peers? These aren't questions you are likely to find answers to while reading that incredible tale of success. They are, however, issues that a deaf-blind person wishes others understood. Deaf-Blind Reality: Living the Life explores what life is really like for persons with a combination of vision and hearing loss, and in a few cases, other disabilities as well. Editor Scott M. Stoffel presents extensive interviews with 12 deaf-blind individuals, including himself, who live around the world, from Missouri to New Zealand, Louisiana to South Africa, and Ohio to England. These contributors each describe their families' reactions and the support they received; their experiences in school and entering adulthood; and how they coped with degeneration, ineffective treatments, and rehabilitation. Each discusses their personal education related to careers, relationships, and communication, including those with cochlear implants. Deaf-Blind Reality offers genuine understanding of the unspectacular but altogether daunting challenges of daily life for deaf-blind people.
Child of the Silent Night
by Edith Fisher HunterThe story of Laura Bridgman, the first deaf and blind child to be taught to communicate with the outside world, some fifty years before Helen Keller. It covers her life before she learned to communicate with the Manual Alphabet and briefly tells about her life afterward.
Deliverance from Jericho
by Bruce AtchisonImagine being a disabled child, hastily sent to a boarding school hundreds of miles from home, and being kept there for months at a time. This was the fate of most physically and mentally impaired students half a century ago. Intellectuals and government officials once believed that the best way to educate “handicapped youngsters” was to segregate them from the able-bodied population, concentrating those pupils into large institutions.
Deliverance from Jericho: Six Years in a Blind School is the story of Bruce Atchison, one such child. Shuttled between a dysfunctional family and an uncaring asylum, his feelings and experiences are related here in a candid fashion. Through his partially-sighted eyes, readers are given a glimpse beyond the manicured lawns and impressive facades into the daily life of Jericho Hill School for the Deaf and Blind.
The author describes how he and his classmates learned Braille, used an abacus for arithmetic, and played sports, educational aspects which are not generally known to the public. Apart from those differences, school life was basically the same as in other institutes. Jericho had its bullies, its cliques, its out-of-touch administrators, and its deplorable food.
Listen for the Bus
by Patricia McmahonThe story follows David a boy who is both blind and deaf as he experiences the world around him at home and in kindergarten.
Helen Keller's Teacher
by Margaret DavidsonFor twenty- year- old Annie Sullivan, life had been one hardship after another. All alone and half blind, she grew up in a poorhouse with only her pride and determination to sustain her. Even though the odds were against her, she would never allow her handicaps to defeat her. That is until she meets Helen Keller. The world is a dark and silent prison for little Helen. She cannot see or hear or speak. To Annie falls the incredible task of teaching Helen how to read, to write - to live a full life. Is Annie up to this incredible challenge? Can she dare to dream of accomplishing a miracle? This is the true story of Annie's and Helen's courage and determination to succeed.