Special Collections
Blindness and Visual Impairment Special Collection
Description: A collection featuring biographies, memoirs, fiction and non-fiction by and about members of the blind community. #disability
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Organizing the Blind
by Roberto GarvíaThis book is a case study which narrates the history of the National Organization of the Spanish Blind (ONCE), established in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. Contrary to other affluent countries where most blind people live on welfare benefits, the Spanish blind enjoy full employment. Furthermore, the average income of the Spanish blind is higher than that of the sighted. Why is this so? Why the blind, and not the deaf mute, or any other group of disabled people? This book shows that ONCE answers these questions.
The book explains ONCE'S origins, the shifting strategies that the organization has pursued to adapt to an ever-changing environment, its original goals and the way they have mutated and been interpreted, its conflicting relationship with an authoritarian regime, its struggle to find its place in a democratic regime, and its relations with other groups of disabled people. A historical narrative, the book lies at the intersection between disability and organization studies, history and sociology.
It will be of interest to all scholars of disability studies, the sociology of work, the history of medicine and contemporary Spanish history.
The Book of Memory
by Petina GappahThe story that you have asked me to tell you does not begin with the pitiful ugliness of Lloyd’s death. It begins on a long-ago day in August when the sun seared my blistered face and I was nine years old and my father and mother sold me to a strange man.Memory, the narrator of Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, after being sentenced for murder. As part of her appeal, her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. The death penalty is a mandatory sentence for murder, and Memory is, both literally and metaphorically, writing for her life. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried and convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death? And did everything happen exactly as she remembers?Moving between the townships of the poor and the suburbs of the rich, and between past and present, the 2009 Guardian First Book Award–winning writer Petina Gappah weaves a compelling tale of love, obsession, the relentlessness of fate, and the treachery of memory.
From Homer to Helen Keller
by Richard Slayton FrenchFrom Homer to Helen Keller, Homer stands for the greatest achievement of the blind in the times antecedent to their systematic education. He stands for all those bards, many of them blind or blinded, creators of literature and makers of our language, who through ballads, always of great vigor and sometimes of surpassing beauty, have handed down to us the glorious traditions of far-off heroic times.
Miss Keller stands for the supreme achievement of education. The blind claim her, but the deaf can claim her, too, and modern education can claim her more than either--and all humanity claims her with the best claim of all. For she is the epitome of all that is best in humanity, all that is most spiritual; and all this through conscious aim and directed effort, through education in its best sense.
Lights Out
by Travis FreemanWhen the lights go out - play harder. Travis Freeman plunged into a world of darkness at 12 years old. A rare occurrence of a routine illness stole his sight, leaving the small-town Kentucky boy's dreams of football and fun languishing on the sidelines. Having given his heart to Jesus merely a year before the illness, Travis knew one thing: God was still the light for his life. That life story is now the inspiration for a major motion picture, ""23 BLAST"" that hits theatres in October 2014.
Thunder Dog
by Michael Hingson and Larry King and Susy FloryFaith. Trust. Triumph.
"I trust Roselle with my life, every day. She trusts me to direct her. And today is no different, except the stakes are higher." ?Michael Hingson
First came the boom?the loud, deep, unapologetic bellow that seemed to erupt from the very core of the earth. Eerily, the majestic high-rise slowly leaned to the south. On the seventy-eighth floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, no alarms sounded, and no one had information about what had happened at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001?what should have been a normal workday for thousands of people. All that was known to the people inside was what they could see out the windows: smoke and fire and millions of pieces of burning paper and other debris falling through the air.
Blind since birth, Michael couldn't see a thing, but he could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding around him and his guide dog, Roselle. However, Roselle sat calmly beside him. In that moment, Michael chose to trust Roselle's judgment and not to panic. They are a team. Thunder Dog allows you entry into the isolated, fume-filled chamber of stairwell B to experience survival through the eyes of a blind man and his beloved guide dog. Live each moment from the second a Boeing 767 hits the north tower, to the harrowing stairwell escape, to dodging death a second time as both towers fold into the earth.
It's the 9/11 story that will forever change your spirit and your perspective. Thunder Dog illumiates Hingson's lifelong determination to achieve parity in a sighted world, and how the rare trust between a man and his guide dog can inspire an unshakable faith in each one of us.
Sugar Pop Moon
by John FlorioJersey Leo is the quintessential outsider--an albino of mixed race. Known as "Snowball" on the street, he makes a living as the bartender at a mob-run speakeasy in Prohibition-era Hell's Kitchen. Being neither black nor white, he has no group to call his own. His own mother abandoned him as a baby. And his father-a former boxing champ with his own secrets-disapproves of Jersey's work at a dive owned by one of New York's most notorious gangsters. So when he inadvertently purchases counterfeit moonshine ("sugar pop moon") with his boss's money-a potentially fatal mistake-he must go undercover to track down the bootlegger who took him in. The clues lead to Philadelphia, where he runs into a cleaver-swinging madman out for his femurs and a cold-blooded gangster holed up on a Christmas-tree farm. Now with a price on his head in two cities, Jersey seeks help from the only man he can trust, his father. As the two delve into the origins of the mysterious sugar pop moon, stunning secrets about Jersey's past come to light. To ensure his future, Jersey must face his past, even if it means that life will never return to normal.
Blind Moon Alley
by John FlorioIt's Prohibition. It's Philadelphia. And Jersey Leo doesn't fit in. Jersey is an albino of mixed race. Known as "Snowball" on the street, he tends bar at a speakeasy the locals call the Ink Well. There, he's considered a hero for having saved the life of a young boy. But when his old grade school buddy, Aaron Garvey, calls from death row and asks for one last favor, all hell breaks loose.Jersey finds himself running from a band of crooked cops, hiding an escaped convict in the Ink Well, and reuniting with his grammar school crush--the now sultry Myra Banks, who has shed a club foot and become a speakeasy siren. Through it all, Jersey tries to safeguard the Ink Well with no help other than his ragtag group of friends: his ex-boxing-champion father, Ernie Leo; the street-savvy Johalis; a dim-witted dockworker named Homer; and the dubious palm reader Madame Curio. With them, Jersey digs for the truth about his friend Aaron Garvey--and winds up discovering a few things about himself.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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.
Character Driven
by Derek FisherThe Three Time NBA Champion and starting point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers shares his Christian faith and inspirational values for success and happiness.Since his inaugural season with the NBA in 1996, Derek Fisher has had a dramatic impact on the great success of the Lakers. Playing alongside legendary players like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and Lamar Odom, Fisher has held his position at point guard, participating in some of the most dramatic post-season games and moments in recent memory.In 2007 Derek Fisher and his wife Candace’s lives were upturned by news that their eleven-month-old daughter, Tatum, had been diagnosed with a degenerative and rare form of eye cancer called retinoblastoma. Although his team, the Utah Jazz, was in the midst of a heated playoff series, Fisher immediately put his family first to be with his daughter at the time of her required emergency surgery and chemotherapy. Nominated the best moment in the 2007 ESPY Awards, Derek was able to make a dramatic late entrance and performance in the fourth quarter of game 2 to help the Jazz to an emotional victory. Following the season, Fisher asked the Jazz to release him of his contract so he could devote his energies to fighting his daughter’s retinoblastoma without knowing if he would ever play basketball again. Fisher officially rejoined the Lakers, resuming his role as point guard, and provided a veteran influence alongside Kobe Bryant to a relatively young Lakers squad. In his compelling new book, Fisher shares the Christian values that have guided him on the court and off. With anecdotes from his personal and professional life, Fisher offers lessons learned along the way. Drawing on the power of faith, he shows how anyone can play for a successful team: whether that team is family, community, or just happens to be one in the NBA.
Long Time, No See
by Beth FinkeLong Time, No See is certainly an inspiring story, but Beth Finke does not aim to inspire. Eschewing reassuring platitudes and sensational pleas for sympathy, she charts her struggles with juvenile diabetes, blindness, and a host of other hardships, sharing her feelings of despair and frustration as well as her hard-won triumphs. Rejecting the label "courageous," she prefers to describe herself using the phrase her mother invoked in times of difficulty: "She did what she had to do." With unflinching candor and acerbic wit, Finke chronicles the progress of the juvenile diabetes that left her blind at the age of twenty-six as well as the seemingly endless spiral of adversity that followed. First she was forced out of her professional job. Then she bore a multiply handicapped son. But she kept moving forward, confronting marital and financial problems and persevering through a rocky training period with a seeing-eye dog. Finke's life story and her commanding knowledge of her situation give readers a clear understanding of diabetes, blindness, and the issues faced by parents of children with significant disabilities. Because she has taken care to include accurate medical information as well as personal memoir, Long Time, No See serves as an excellent resource for others in similar situations and for professionals who deal with disabled adults or children.
Carry On
by Lisa Fenn“An incredible life-affirming story” about an unexpected, lifechanging relationship between an ESPN producer and two disabled, inner-city athletes (Family Circle). When award-winning ESPN producer Lisa Fenn returned to her hometown for a story about two wrestlers at one of Cleveland’s toughest public high schools, she had no idea that the trip would change her life. Both young men were disadvantaged students with significant physical disabilities. Dartanyon Crockett was legally blind as a result of Leber’s disease; Leroy Sutton lost both his legs at eleven, when he was run over by a train. Brought together by wrestling, they had developed a brother-like bond as they worked to overcome their disabilities.After forming a profound connection with Dartanyon and Leroy, Fenn realized she couldn't just walk away when filming ended; these boys had had to overcome the odds too many times. Instead, Fenn dedicated herself to ensuring their success long after the reporting was finished and the story aired—and an unlikely family of three was formed.The years ahead would be fraught with complex challenges, but Fenn stayed with the boys every step of the way—teaching them essential life skills, helping them heal old wounds and traumatic pasts, and providing the first steady and consistent support system they’d ever had.This powerful memoir is one of love, hope, faith, and strength—a story about an unusual family and the courage to carry on, even in the most extraordinary circumstances.“A poignant memoir.” —Sports Illustrated“A profoundly moving memoir about two boys who become men in the face of life’s toughest challenges:. We see the many ways in which one person can carry another, and we are inspired to do the same.” —Tim Howard, New York Times–bestselling author of The Keeper“‘An astonishingly beautiful tale . . . like The Blind Side or Same Kind of Different As Me, Lisa Fenn’s work forces us to reframe our definition of family.” —Kevin Salwen, author of The Power of Half“A heartfelt memoir that grips you from the first page and pulls at your soul until the end” —Steve Eubanks, New York Times–bestselling author of All American
Andrea Bocelli
by Antonia FelixThe author presents text and pictures from Andrea Bocelli's life. Information concerning how different conductors worked with Andrea as he made his entrance in the opera are included.
Going Blind
by Mara FaulknerMara Faulkner grew up in a family shaped by Irish ancestry, a close-to-the-bone existence in rural North Dakota, and the secret of her father's blindness--along with the silence and shame surrounding it. Dennis Faulkner had retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease that gradually blinded him and one that may blind many members of his family, including the author.
Moving and insightful, Going Blind explores blindness in its many Permutations-within the context of the author's family, more broadly, as a disability marked by misconceptions, and as a widely used cultural metaphor. Mara Faulkner delicately weaves her family's story into an analysis of the roots and ramifications of the various metaphorical meanings of blindness, touching of the Catholic Church of the 1940s, and 1950s, Japanese internment, the Germans from Russia who dominated her hometown, and the experiences of Native people in North Dakota.
Neither sentimental nor dispassionate, the author asks whether it's possible to find gifts when sight is lost.
Across Two Novembers
by David Faucheux
Friends and family. Restaurants and recipes. Hobbies and history. TV programs the author loved when he could still see and music he enjoys. The schools he attended and the two degrees he attained. The career that eluded him and the physical problems that challenge him. And books, books, books: over 230 of them quoted from or reviewed. All in all, an astonishing work of erudition and remembrance.
Diversity and Visual Impairment
by Madeline Milian and Jane N. ErinA scholarly collection of insightful essays which look at how visual impairment interacts with certain social characteristics to affect human personalities.
Veterans with a Vision
by Serge Marc DurflingerDurflinger (history, the University of Ottawa, Canada) chronicles advocacy by Canadian servicemen blinded in war, highlighting their efforts to help Canadian veterans and all blind citizens. The book begins with the establishment of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in 1918 by 200 Canadian servicemen blinded in WWI, then continues with the formation of the Sir Arthur Pearson Association of War Blinded, which advocated for government benefits, job retraining, and other social programs. Key figures are profiled, and issues such as physical and psychological rehabilitation are discussed. The book is based on archival material from both organizations.
Breaking the Bonds of Blindness
by Mark Jacoby and Bill DriverHad he stayed in public school, he would have been in ninth grade, but without sight, he had to go to the school for the blind, where he found himself in class with kindergarteners. He had to learn braille--harder for him since his arms were longer and the dot messages had longer paths to travel--and he couldn't get out of eighth grade until he got those reading skills. Always the optimist, Bill graduated and had a lot of fun along the way. Bill and his family encountered plenty of stumbling blocks, but with humor, love, and ingenuity, they persevered, enjoying life and each other. This book is humorous, inspiring,and real--a fascinating and enjoyable autobiography.
All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure&’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum&’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure&’s converge. Doerr&’s &“stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors&” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer &“whose sentences never fail to thrill&” (Los Angeles Times).
Candle in the Window
by Christina DoddLady Saura of Roget lives a lonely life of servitude-her fortune controlled by her cruel, unscrupulous stepfather. Yet it is she who has been called upon to brighten the days of Sir William of Miraval, a proud and noble knight who once swore to live or perish by the sword . . . until his world was engulfed in agonizing darkness. Summoned to Sir William's castle, the raven-haired innocent is soon overcome by desire and love for the magnificent, golden warrior who has quickly laid siege to her heart. But there is grave danger awaiting them both just beyond the castle walls . . . and a dear and deadly price to be paid for surrendering to a fiery, all-consuming love.
Some Kind of Genius
by Janice Deblois and Antonia FelixFor everyone whose heart was touched by the movie Rain Man, here is the inspiring true story of an exceptional autistic savant whose musical gifts thrill audiences the world over. Ever since he was born--blind and weighing less than two pounds--Tony DeBlois has been defying the odds and wildly surpassing others' expectations. Tony's story will hold special appeal for all who have seen him on the Today s how and Entertainment Tonight, etc.
Enticed
by Kathleen DanteSpecial ops agent Dillon Gavin is taking a break from his demanding schedule when his life takes an unexpected-and complicated-turn. Her name is Jordan Kane, a beautiful artist. Legally blind, she paints with her inner eye-which affords her an uncanny, and sometimes breathtaking, clairvoyance. What she sees in Dillon-comfortable in an unpredictable world of intrigue, espionage, and brute violence-is the kind of man that an artistic, gentle soul like Jordan never experienced before. Her sixth sense tells her that Dillon wants her. Her common sense says stay away. But from his first sensuous touch in the dark comes an irresistible urge that dares to take Jordan where's she's never gone before.
In The Land I Did Not Choose
by Ana L. CuevasPrejudice and discrimination against people with mental and physical disabilities still exist. Ana L. Cuevas, a blind woman, knows this all too well. But she also knows compassion, love, and courage. This book is a testament to her determination to reach her dreams no matter the obstacles. As a young girl, Ana moved to the United States from Mexico against her will. Her parents picked this country, and though it has its faults, Ana is forever grateful. This land is where she received the proper education and tools to lead a full life. However, while researching pregnancy and disabilities, Ana realizes she is considered different in the eyes of others. Many "able-bodied" people assume blindness affects intelligence, speech, and other capabilities. Knowing this changes the way Ana looks at the world. This is a problem that must be addressed by the public and the government to alleviate prejudices and help people with disabilities achieve the same success as their peers. This poignant memoir will have you cheering, crying, and standing up for love and acceptance of all people in this world. It is a must-read for counselors, social workers, psychologists, and teachers.
Never Be Discouraged
by Alice CrespoAlice Crespo was born in New York City, raised in Brooklyn, and grew up totally blind. She had to learn many things, and she realized that, with God's help, there was nothing that she couldn't do. The sky was the limit. Alice is now sixty years of age, and she wants to share her experiences and her life lessons with you. Here is her story. Contains image descriptions.
No Limits
by Harry C. Cordellos and Janet WellsImagine a blind person water-skiing, golfing, running a marathon, and even diving. Harry Cordello did not let his blindness limit his activity. Instead he asked himself "Why not"?
Mindsight
by Kenneth Ring and Sharon CooperRing and Cooper explore evidence that even those blind from birth can "see" during near-death experiences. Their evidence reveals a unique type of perception. More than just "seeing", it involves a deep awareness and profound ability to know that the authors have called "Mindsight".
This volume is a ground-breaking work in the field of near-death studies. It investigates the astonishing claim that blind persons, including those blind from birth, can actually "see" during near-death or out-of-body episodes. The authors present their findings in scrupulous detail, investigating case histories of blind persons who have actually reported visual experiences under these conditions.