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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No Barriers
by Erik Weihenmayer and Buddy LevyErik Weihenmayer is the first and only blind person to summit Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Descending carefully, he and his team picked their way across deep crevasses and through the deadly Khumbu Icefall; when the mountain was finally behind him, Erik knew he was going to live. His expedition leader slapped him on the back and said something that would affect the course of Erik’s life: “Don’t make Everest the greatest thing you ever do.”
No Barriers is Erik’s response to that challenge. It is the moving story of his journey since descending Mount Everest: from leading expeditions around the world with blind Tibetan teenagers to helping injured soldiers climb their way home from war, from adopting a son from Nepal to facing the most terrifying reach of his life: to solo kayak the thunderous whitewater of the Grand Canyon.Along the course of Erik’s journey, he meets other trailblazers—adventurers, scientists, artists, and activists—who, despite trauma, hardship, and loss, have broken through barriers of their own. These pioneers show Erik surprising ways forward that surpass logic and defy traditional thinking.
Like the rapids of the Grand Canyon, created by inexorable forces far beneath the surface, No Barriers is a dive into the heart and mind at the core of the turbulent human experience. It is an exploration of the light that burns in all of us, the obstacles that threaten to extinguish that light, and the treacherous ascent towards growth and rebirth.
Two Ends of a Leash
by Grace D. NapierTwo Ends of a Leash: Unshackled is the life story of author Grace D. Napier.
Born blind, Grace came from a humble home in New Jersey. She began school when there were no special education programs for children who were blind. The teachers and principal regarded Grace as not only blind, but also mentally retarded. Because they misunderstood her disability, they ignored her, letting her sit idle at her desk every day. Nevertheless, Grace had a hunger to learn.
When her parents heard about a special education program in the next city, Grace met Miss Katharine Taylor, her new special education teacher. Grace's life was forever changed, thanks to the influence of this gifted teacher. Now eighty-five, Grace resides in Colorado after a long career of teaching children and graduate students at three universities.
Grace began using Seeing Eye dog guides when she was seventeen years old. She is now working with her ninth dog, Esma (shown on the front cover). Read her fascinating and inspiring story.
Breaking Barriers
by Peter AltschulFor some unknown reason, Peter Altschul was born totally blind. He grew up in a working-class town where, with the help of his persistent mother, he broke through barrier after barrier, determined to live a full life.
After attending a private school that initially turned him away--simply because he was blind--Peter details how he discovered his gift for music, eventually playing percussion in the orchestra, marching band, and jazz ensemble at Princeton University.
But it was only after Peter graduated from college that it became evident he would need a guide dog. Heidi, a Weimaraner with a large repertoire of barks, howls, and grunts, would assist Peter for the next eight years through the halls of New England Conservatory, where he eventually obtained a master's degree in music composition.
Peter relays how he blazed a unique professional trail while simultaneously overcoming obstacles; managed his uneasy relationship with music; and embraced his unexpected entrance into an unfamiliar and romantic world.
He also provides an unforgettable glimpse into the wonderful ways his five guide dogs supported him on his journey from urban bachelorhood to the light of love.
Breaking Barriers shares a compelling account of one man's journey through life as he and each of his specially trained dogs learned to trust each other, ultimately melding into a smooth working team that tackled the world-together.
Eclipse
by Hugues De Montalembert and David NoakesUp until 1978, the author, a French count by birth, was a painter. He travelled extensively working on documentary films such as I A Dancer about Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. He took a deep interest in the culture of the countries he visited: the harlem voodoo in West Africa and Indonesian music in Bali. On May 25th 1978, when returning to his apartment in New York from a Greenwich Village coffee-house, he was met by two intruders who threw caustic solution in his face. At the age of thirty-five he was blinded for life. Hugues de Montalembert is currently based in Rome although he continues to travel between Europe, America and South East Asia. The French edition of ECLIPSE became a bestseller when it was published in 1982 and the author is currently working on his second book.
Facing the Wind
by Julie SalamonRobert and Mary Rowe’s second child, Christopher, was born with severe neurological and visual impairments. For many years, the Rowes’ courageous response to adversity set an example for a group of Brooklyn mothers who met to discuss the challenges of raising children with birth defects. Then Bob Rowe’s pressures — professional and personal — took their toll, and he fell into depression and, ultimately delusion. And one day he took a baseball bat and killed his three children and his wife. InFacing the Wind,Julie Salamon not only tells the Rowes’ tragic story but also explores the lives of others drawn into it: the mothers, a social worker with problems of her own, an ocularist — that is, a man who makes prosthetic eyes — a young woman who enters the novitiate out of shame over her childhood sexual activities, and a judge of unusual wisdom. Facing the Windis a work of redemptive compassion and understanding. It addresses the questions of how human beings cope with the burdens that chance inflicts upon them and what constitutes moral and legal guilt and innocence.
Trust the Dog
by Gerri HirsheyA groundbreaking look at the special bond between guide dogs and those who thrive with their help. From a pioneering guide dog organization comes the first book to explore one of the most profound and inspiring relationships between humans and animals. In Trust the Dog, the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation introduces readers to a group of extraordinary people who, thanks to their guide dogs, flourish in a world that assumes the ability to see. Among them are a brother and sister who lost their sight at a very young age and whose dogs essentially helped them grow up, a Serbian girl who fled civil war to find new hope in America, and a newly blind single father determined to keep his family together against all odds. Through their experiences we discover the astonishing teamwork and devotion between people who are blind and their guide dogs, the intelligence and discipline that these animals unfailingly display, and the noble work of the nonprofit organization that for fifty years has been making it all possible. A heartwarming tribute to this unique relationship, Trust the Dog is sure to change how we think about man's best friend, and the possibilities of life without sight.
Adventures in Darkness
by Tom SullivanIn Adventures in Darkness, Tom Sullivan takes readers through the adventures of his monumental eleventh year. Blind since birth, Tom lived in a challenging world of isolation and special treatment. But he was driven to break out and live as sighted people do. This book is a hair-raising, heart-warming experience that culminates in Tom's reliance upon God to realize his dreams of a "normal" life.
Lullaby of Birdland
by George Shearing and Alyn ShiptonBritish pianist George Shearing emigrated to the United States in 1947, going on to achieve success in an American jazz world impressed with the accomplishments of the blind musician. In his autobiography he narrates his childhood, his beginnings in music, and his activities and encounters in the world of jazz. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Overbrook School for the Blind (The Campus History Series)
by Edith WilloughbySince 1832, Overbrook School for the Blind has been a leader in providing educational programs to children and young people who are blind and visually impaired. Julius Friedlander, the schools founder, and other early leaders worked hard to inform people about the educational needs of the children. Their efforts resulted in providing reading material for the blind and Overbrook's production of the first embossed book in America, the Gospel of Mark, and the publication of the first magazine for the blind, Lux en Tenebrae. Offering students access to all educational opportunities continues to be the schools main goal, and in the early 1990s, Overbrook pioneered the development of a school wide technology initiative that provided students with the ability to access the curriculum, communicate, and be successful in employment. Through rare photographs and documents, Overbrook School for the Blind offers a glimpse at the schools role in reaching out to people who are blind and it showcases how Overbrook has helped thousands of students to achieve independence, self-confidence, and the skills to experience active and fulfilling lives.
Cry Purple
by Christine McdonaldThis is the story of the author's journey from almost two decades of prostitution, crack addiction and prison to her present life of blindness, motherhood and happiness.
Shades of Darkness
by George E. BrummellThe last image I ever saw--the instant before my eyes were seared by a landmine explosion in the jungles of Vietnam--is always with me. Many times during the past forty years, I have thought of myself as unlucky. But a soldier I met recently left me wondering. The meeting happened on a visit with a friend and fellow Vietnam veteran to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., where some of America's wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan were being treated.
Ray Charles
by Michael LydonAn extremely detailed account of Ray Charles' personal life, from his childhood to his death and funeral, and of his musical life, including every concert, gig, recording etc.
Now I See You
by Nicole C. KearAt nineteen years old, Nicole C. Kear's biggest concern is choosing a major--until she walks into a doctor's office in midtown Manhattan and gets a life-changing diagnosis. She is going blind, courtesy of an eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa, and has only a decade or so before Lights Out. Instead of making preparations as the doctor suggests, Kear decides to carpe diem and make the most of the vision she has left. She joins circus school, tears through boyfriends, travels the world, and through all these hi-jinks, she keeps her vision loss a secret.
When Kear becomes a mother, just a few years shy of her vision's expiration date, she amends her carpe diem strategy, giving up recklessness in order to relish every moment with her kids. Her secret, though, is harder to surrender - and as her vision deteriorates, harder to keep hidden. As her world grows blurred, one thing becomes clear: no matter how hard she fights, she won't win the battle against blindness. But if she comes clean with her secret, and comes to terms with the loss, she can still win her happy ending.
Told with humor and irreverence, Now I See You is an uplifting story about refusing to cower at life's curve balls, about the power of love to triumph over fear. But, at its core, it's a story about acceptance: facing the truths that just won't go away, and facing yourself, broken parts and all.
Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind
by Lindy BergmanOut of Sight, Not Out of Mind presents a personal account of living successfully with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), combined with powerful new information on effective service delivery. Ninety-three-year old Lindy Bergman illustrates the ways in which life with low vision can be lived with independence, dignity, and personal satisfaction. Also included are highly informative chapters, written by the world-renowned experts from The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who are Blind or Visually Impaired, encompassing the latest information about the causes and treatment of AMD; a concise, informative overviews of the effects of aging on vision, the emotional and psychological components of vision loss and the integration of the individual's psychological recovery into low vision service delivery; and a cutting-edge model of rehabilitation that meets the challenges of service provision today. Foreword by Jonathan Safran Foer, award-winning author of Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
A Most Noble Benefaction
by C. Michael MellorFrom the letter in 1908 that started it all, this book tells the story of the Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind, how it changed history, and has helped change many lives for the better.
C'mon Papa
by Ryan KnightonRyan Knighton's humorous and perceptive tales of fatherhood take us inside an unusual new family, one bound by its father's particular darkness and light.
C'mon Papa is Ryan Knighton's heartbreaking and hilarious voyage through the first year of fatherhood. Becoming a father is a stressful, daunting rite of passage to be sure, but for a blind father, the fears are unimaginably heightened. Ryan will have to find novel ways to adapt to nearly every aspect of parenting: the most basic skills are nearly impossible to contemplate, let alone master. And how will Ryan get to know this pre-verbal bundle of coos and burps when he can't see her smile, or look into her eyes for hints of the person to come? But this is no pity party, and Ryan has no time for sentimentality.
Tackling these hurdles with grace and humour, Ryan is determined to do his part -- and this is where the fun starts. From holding his daughter as she wails into the night to their first nerve-wracking walk to the cafe, no activity between father and daughter is without its pitfalls. In his struggle to "see" Tess, Ryan reimagines the relationship between father and child during that first chaotic year.
The World as I Have Found It
by Mary L. Day ArmsA graduate of the Maryland Institution for the Blind, Mary L. Day published a memoir in 1859 entitled Incidents in the Life of a Blind Girl. In this book, a sequel to her first, she recounts how she traveled throughout the country earning a living through the sale of her memoir. She also writes about meeting her future husband, visiting places of interest, and having numerous adventures on the road. The book closes with several essays on blindness and the education of the blind and with a collection of poems by blind authors.
Emma and I
by Sheila HockenA touching and unique story of love and courage. This is Sheila Hocken's own story. A story of a young blind girl who sets out to fight for the right to live fully and to see again. Sheila's account of the events and people that transformed her life is moving and inspiring. Sheila introduces Emma, her beautiful chocolate-brown labrador, whose devotion and intelligence as a guide dog are inspiring. We also meet Don, who brings romance into Sheila's life - through a radio program! And we meet Mr Shearing, the skilled surgeon who performs the miracle which gives Sheila a whole new world.
Blind Rage
by Georgina KleegeThe author writes letters to the late Helen Keller to explore different aspects of her life.
My Home Away from Home
by Robert T. BrancoFrom the ages of 12 to 19, the author attended a school for the blind. He tells about life in the "cottages," academics, sports, field trips, vocational training, and more. He had good and bad teachers, followed wise rules and absurd ones, met good friends and bullies, and welcomed administrative changes. Perkins educated him very well; this book will surely educate and entertain many others.
Infinite Vision
by Suchitra Shenoy and Pavithra MehtaThe Aravind Eye Care System reinvented the rules of business to restore sight to the blind. Based in India, it is the world's largest provider of eye care and delivers surgical outcomes that equal or surpass those of developed countries--at less than 1 percent of the cost. In thirty-five years it has treated over 32 million patients, the vast majority for free. Those who can pay choose what they pay, and there is no paperwork. Refusing to rely on donations, Aravind is self-sustaining and highly prof- itable. Its baffling model is the subject of a popular Harvard Business School case study and has won admiration from Peter Drucker, Bill Clinton, and Muhammud Yunus. Infinite Vision is the first book to probe Aravind's history and the distinctive philosophies, practices, and values that unleashed its phenomenal success. The authors share Aravind's improbable evolution from an eleven-bed eye clinic founded by Dr. G. Venkataswamy, a retired surgeon with crippled fingers, no money, and a magnificent dream. Drawing inspiration from his spirituality and, of all things, the low-cost, high-volume, standardized approach of fast-food franchises, Dr. V. and his team (which includes thirty-five ophthalmologists from his family) created an or- ganization that has treated everyone from penniless farmers to the president of India. How does Aravind flourish while flouting conventional logic at every turn? What can enterprises worldwide learn from it? Infinite Vision reveals the power of a model that integrates innovation with empathy, service with business principles, and inner change with outer transformation. It shows how choices that seem nai?ve or unworkable can, when executed with wisdom and integrity, yield powerful results--results that light the eyes of millions.
Let Freedom Ring
by National Federation of the BlindA collection of letters to President Obama about the experience of using braille.
Downcast Eyes
by Martin JayLong considered "the noblest of the senses," vision has increasingly come under critical scrutiny by a wide range of thinkers who question its dominance in Western culture. These critics of vision, especially prominent in twentieth-century France, have challenged its allegedly superior capacity to provide access to the world. They have also criticized its supposed complicity with political and social oppression through the promulgation of spectacle and surveillance. Martin Jay turns to this discourse surrounding vision and explores its often contradictory implications in the work of such influential figures as Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, Guy Debord, Luce Irigaray, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jacques Derrida. Jay begins with a discussion of the theory of vision from Plato to Descartes, then considers its role in the French Enlightenment before turning to its status in the culture of modernity. From consideration of French Impressionism to analysis of Georges Bataille and the Surrealists, Roland Barthes's writings on photography, and the film theory of Christian Metz, Jay provides lucid and fair-minded accounts of thinkers and ideas widely known for their difficulty. His book examines the myriad links between the interrogation of vision and the pervasive antihumanist, antimodernist, and counter-enlightenment tenor of much recent French thought. Refusing, however, to defend the dominant visual order, he calls instead for a plurality of "scopic regimes." Certain to generate controversy and discussion throughout the humanities and social sciences, Downcast Eyes will consolidate Jay's reputation as one of today's premier cultural and intellectual historians.
Second Suns
by David Oliver RelinFrom the co-author of Three Cups of Tea comes the inspiring story of two very different doctors--one from the United States, the other from Nepal--united in a common mission: to rid the world of preventable blindness.
In this transporting book, David Oliver Relin shines a light on the work of Geoffrey Tabin and Sanduk Ruit, gifted ophthalmologists who have dedicated their lives to restoring sight to some of the world's most isolated, impoverished people through the Himalayan Cataract Project, an organization they founded in 1995. Tabin was the high-achieving bad boy of Harvard Medical School, an accomplished mountain climber and adrenaline junkie as brilliant as he was unconventional. Ruit grew up in a remote Nepalese village, where he became intimately acquainted with the human costs of inadequate access to health care.
Together they found their life's calling: tending to the afflicted people of the Himalayas, a vast mountainous region with an alarmingly high incidence of cataract blindness.
Second Suns takes us from improvised plywood operating tables in villages without electricity or plumbing to state-of-the-art surgical centers at major American universities where these two driven men are restoring sight--and hope--to patients from around the world. With their revolutionary, inexpensive style of surgery, Tabin and Ruit have been able to cure tens of thousands--all for about twenty dollars per operation.
David Oliver Relin brings the doctors' work to vivid life through poignant portraits of patients helped by the surgery, from old men who cannot walk treacherous mountain trails unaided to cataract-stricken children who have not seen their mothers' faces for years. With the dexterity of a master storyteller, Relin shows the profound emotional and practical impact that these operations have had on patients' lives.
Second Suns is the moving, unforgettable story of how two men with a shared dream are changing the world, one pair of eyes at a time.
As The Twig Is Bent
by Kenneth Jernigan"Table of Contents To Park Or Not To Park What Lynden Has To Hear How Different It Might Have Been How Different It Is Do You Want To Go To The Store, Ted? Partially Sighted, Really Blind Advice From A Seven-Year-Old A Matter Of Attitude A Purchasing Alliance They Didn't Want Me To Go To School Ladies And Gentlemen Of The Jury Sight Unseen To Light A Candle With Mathematics Supremacy." Other books in this series are available from Bookshare.