Disability Awareness: Books

Explains the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Advises early childhood programs on how to promote inclusion and ensure compliance with the law.

Covering the entirety of US history from pre-1492 to the present, A Disability History of the United States is the first book to place the experiences of people with disabilities at the center of the American narrative. This resource pulls from primary-source documents and social histories to retell American history through the eyes, words, and impressions of the people who lived it.

A history of the struggle for disability rights in the United States. Based on interviews with over one hundred activists, The Disability Rights Movement tells a complex and compelling story of an ongoing movement that seeks to create an equitable and diverse society, inclusive of people with disabilities.

For psychotherapist, painter, feminist, filmmaker, writer, and disability activist Harilyn Rousso, hearing well-intentioned people tell her, "You're so inspirational!" is patronizing, not complimentary. In this empowering and at times confrontational memoir, Rousso, who has cerebral palsy, describes overcoming the prejudice against disability--not overcoming disability. A collage of images about her life, rather than a formal portrait, Don't Call Me Inspirational celebrates Rousso's wise, witty, productive, outrageous life, disability and all.

Sensitive and practical, this book openly discusses the ways in which personal thoughts, feelings, and questions about disabilities can influence effective communication among people. It offers simple and effective ways to become more comfortable with the concept of disability, and it opens the door to better social and professional relationships.

In this book, Andrew Solomon relates stories of parents who not only learn to deal with their exceptional children but also find profound meaning in doing so. His proposition is that diversity is what unites us all. While each disability is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, as are the triumphs of love that are documented in every chapter.

This book explores the campaign by Alexander Graham Bell and other prominent Americans to suppress the use of sign language among deaf people. The ensuing debate invoked such fundamental questions as what distinguished Americans from non-Americans, civilized people from "savages," humans from animals, men from women, the natural from the unnatural, and the normal from the abnormal. An advocate of the return to sign language, Baynton found that although the grounds of the debate have shifted, educators still base decisions on many of the same metaphors and images that led to the misguided efforts to eradicate sign language.

After five years of marriage, Finch learns he has Asperger syndrome. The diagnosis explains his ever-growing list of quirks and compulsions. Determined to change, he sets out to understand Asperger syndrome and learn to be a better husband.

Shawn McDaniel, almost fifteen, cannot speak and has no control over his body due to severe cerebral palsy, but he forms a strong connection with his mother's cousin Debi, who has Down Syndrome, and her dog Rusty.

This collection of essays is written by and for Autistic people. Spanning from the dawn of the Neurodiversity movement to the blog posts of today, Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking catalogues the experiences and ethos of the Autistic community and preserves both diverse personal experiences and the community's foundational documents together side by side.

News correspondent John Hockenberry, who was left a paraplegic after a 1976 car accident, writes of living life from a wheelchair, including what it's like to report from such embattled outposts as Jerusalem, Baghdad, and New York City.

Lydia Huntley was born in 1791 in Norwich, CT. After teaching at her own school for several years in Norwich, Lydia moved to Hartford to head a class of 15 girls from the best families. Among her students was Alice Cogswell, a deaf girl soon to be famous as a student of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. Lydia's inspiration came from a deep commitment to the education of girls and also for African American, Indian, and deaf children. She left teaching to marry Charles Sigourney, then turned to writing to support her family, publishing 56 books, 2,000 magazine articles, and popular poetry. Her writing intertwines her mastery of the sentimentalism form popular in her day with her sharp insights on the best ways to educate deaf children.

....A groundbreaking book that upends conventional thinking about autism and suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and full participation in society for people who think differently. What is autism? A lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth, it is all of these things and more--and the future of our society depends on our understanding it. WIRED reporter Steve Silberman unearths the secret history of autism, long suppressed by the same clinicians who became famous for discovering it, and finds surprising answers to the crucial question of why the number of diagnoses has soared in recent years. Going back to the earliest days of autism research and chronicling the brave and lonely journey of autistic people and their families through the decades, Silberman provides long-sought solutions to the autism puzzle, while mapping out a path for our society toward a more humane world in which people with learning differences and those who love them have access to the resources they need to live happier, healthier, more secure, and more meaningful lives. Along the way, he reveals the untold story of Hans Asperger....

This 10th Anniversary edition of her best-selling book offers the ready-to-use stories that parents and educators have depended on for years, but now features over 25 additional Social Stories, groundbreaking new strategies for creating custom stories, and a modern design complete with full-color photos.

Carey draws on a broad range of historical and legal documents as well as the literature of citizenship studies to develop a "relational-practice" approach to the issues of intellectual disability and civil rights. She examines how and why parents, self-advocates, and professionals fought for different visions of rights for this population throughout the twentieth century and the changes that took place over that time.

Using original sources, this unique book focuses on the Deaf community during the nineteenth century. Largely through schools for the deaf, deaf people began to develop a common language and a sense of community. A Place of Their Own brings the perspective of history to bear on the reality of deafness and provides fresh and important insight into the lives of Deaf Americans.

The Irlen Method addresses perceptual processing difficulties and light sensitivity that can contribute to reading difficulties.

Labeled "dyslexic and profoundly learning disabled with attention and behavior problems," Jonathan Mooney was a short bus rider—a derogatory term used for kids in special education and a distinction that told the world he wasn't "normal." Along with other kids with special challenges, he grew up hearing himself denigrated daily. Ultimately, Mooney surprised skeptics by graduating with honors from Brown University. But he could never escape his past, so he hit the road. He bought his own short bus and set out cross-country, looking for kids who had dreamed up magical, beautiful ways to overcome the obstacles that separated them from the so-called normal world.

The author reveals what she experienced as the sister of a man with cerebral palsy and mental retardation—and shares what others have learned about being and having a special sibling.

Ferguson has created a rich and comprehensive picture of Hawking's life: his childhood; the heartbreaking ALS diagnosis; his long personal battle for survival in pursuit of a scientific understanding of the universe; and his rise to international fame.

This handy guide offers skills and advice to help you use your dyslexia constructively and become an effective student.

In this thoroughly researched and richly documented social history, Koestler examines the societal forces affecting blind people in the United States and the professions that evolved to provide services to people who are visually impaired.

Understanding disability as a major variety of human experience, Longmore 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.