Sitting Pretty
Sitting Pretty

Author: Rebekah Taussig

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2020-08-25

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 0062936816

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A memoir-in-essays from disability advocate and creator of the Instagram account @sitting_pretty Rebekah Taussig, processing a lifetime of memories to paint a beautiful, nuanced portrait of a body that looks and moves differently than most. Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling. Writing about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn’t fit, Rebekah reflects on everything from the complications of kindness and charity, living both independently and dependently, experiencing intimacy, and how the pervasiveness of ableism in our everyday media directly translates to everyday life. Disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one point or another. By exploring this truth in poignant and lyrical essays, Taussig illustrates the need for more stories and more voices to understand the diversity of humanity. Sitting Pretty challenges us as a society to be patient and vigilant, practical and imaginative, kind and relentless, as we set to work to write an entirely different story.

Moving Violations
Moving Violations

Author: John Hockenberry

Publisher: Hyperion

Published: 1996-06-27

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780786881628

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A journalist for National Public Radio and ABC News recounts the challenges he has faced as a paraplegic at home and abroad, from the dangers of war-torn Iraq and Jerusalem to discrimination at home. Reprint.

Wheels of Courage
Wheels of Courage

Author: David Davis

Publisher: Center Street

Published: 2020-08-25

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 1546084622

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Out of the carnage of World War II comes an unforgettable tale about defying the odds and finding hope in the most harrowing of circumstances. Wheels of Courage tells the stirring story of the soldiers, sailors, and marines who were paralyzed on the battlefield during World War II-at the Battle of the Bulge, on the island of Okinawa, inside Japanese POW camps-only to return to a world unused to dealing with their traumatic injuries. Doctors considered paraplegics to be "dead-enders" and "no-hopers," with the life expectancy of about a year. Societal stigma was so ingrained that playing sports was considered out-of-bounds for so-called "crippled bodies." But servicemen like Johnny Winterholler, a standout athlete from Wyoming before he was captured on Corregidor, and Stan Den Adel, shot in the back just days before the peace treaty ending the war was signed, refused to waste away in their hospital beds. Thanks to medical advances and the dedication of innovative physicians and rehabilitation coaches, they asserted their right to a life without limitations. The paralyzed veterans formed the first wheelchair basketball teams, and soon the Rolling Devils, the Flying Wheels, and the Gizz Kids were barnstorming the nation and filling arenas with cheering, incredulous fans. The wounded-warriors-turned-playmakers were joined by their British counterparts, led by the indomitable Dr. Ludwig Guttmann. Together, they triggered the birth of the Paralympic Games and opened the gymnasium doors to those with other disabilities, including survivors of the polio epidemic in the 1950s.Much as Jackie Robinson's breakthrough into the major leagues served as an opening salvo in the civil rights movement, these athletes helped jump-start a global movement about human adaptability. Their unlikely heroics on the court showed the world that it is ability, not disability, that matters most. Off the court, their push for equal rights led to dramatic changes in how civilized societies treat individuals with disabilities: from kneeling buses and curb cutouts to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Their saga is yet another lasting legacy of the Greatest Generation, one that has been long overlooked. Drawing on the veterans' own words, stories, and memories about this pioneering era, David Davis has crafted a narrative of survival, resilience, and triumph for sports fans and athletes, history buffs and military veterans, and people with and without disabilities.

Dancing in a Wheelchair
Dancing in a Wheelchair

Author: Fritz Mutti

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13:

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Dancing in a Wheelchair is the story of one family's journey with HIV/AIDS. The authors lost two of their three sons to AIDS. It is a human story, a spiritual story, and a story that puts faces on statistics and that shares events that reveal our humanity and our vulnerability. Each parent tells his or her story in alternating, first-person paragraphs. The authors hope that their openness will help others learn, grow, change, and care.

Seven Wheelchairs
Seven Wheelchairs

Author: Gary Presley

Publisher: University of Iowa Press

Published: 2008-04

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1587297523

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In 1959, seventeen-year-old Gary Presley was standing in line, wearing his favorite cowboy boots and waiting for his final inoculation of Salk vaccine. Seven days later, a bad headache caused him to skip basketball practice, tell his dad that he was too ill to feed the calves, and walk from barn to bed with shaky, dizzying steps. He never walked again. By the next day, burning with the fever of polio, he was fastened into the claustrophobic cocoon of the iron lung that would be his home for the next three months. Set among the hardscrabble world of the Missouri Ozarks, sizzling with sarcasm and acerbic wit, his memoir tells the story of his journey from the iron lung to life in a wheelchair. Presley is no wheelchair hero, no inspiring figure preaching patience and gratitude. An army brat turned farm kid, newly arrived in a conservative rural community, he was immobilized before he could take the next step toward adulthood. Prevented, literally, from taking that next step, he became cranky and crabby, anxious and alienated, a rolling responsibility crippled not just by polio but by anger and depression, “a crip all over, starting with the brain.” Slowly, however, despite the limitations of navigating in a world before the Americans with Disabilities Act, he builds an independent life. Now, almost fifty years later, having worn out wheelchair after wheelchair, survived post-polio syndrome, and married the woman of his dreams, Gary has redefined himself as Gimp, more ready to act out than to speak up, ironic, perceptive, still cranky and intolerant but more accepting, more able to find joy in his family and his newfound religion. Despite the fact that he detests pity, can spot condescension from miles away, and refuses to play the role of noble victim, he writes in a way that elicits sympathy and understanding and laughter. By giving his readers the unromantic truth about life in a wheelchair, he escapes stereotypes about people with disabilities and moves toward a place where every individual is irreplaceable.

Jessica's Box
Jessica's Box

Author: Peter Carnavas

Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Publishers

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781610673471

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Originally published in Australia by New Frontier Publishing in 2008.

A Very Special Critter
A Very Special Critter

Author: Mercer Mayer

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Published: 2022-09-27

Total Pages: 27

ISBN-13: 1984830759

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Little Critter befriends a new student who uses a wheelchair in this classic full-color storybook! Children ages three to seven will enjoy this sweet story about friendship and acceptance, first published in 1992, with game cards, stickers, and a poster! Little Critter meets a student named Alex who uses a wheelchair. Before long, Little Critter learns Alex is just like everyone else, and they become the best of friends!

On My Feet Again
On My Feet Again

Author: Jennifer French

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9780988234208

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On My Feet Again is the heartwarming and intellectually stimulating story of how a determined and resourceful young woman overcame many of the obstacles that came her way after being paralyzed in a snowboarding accident. Although told she would never get out of a wheelchair, Jennifer French refused to accept that fate and sought out experimental new technologies for people with spinal cord injuries. She became a participant in a clinical trial of an implanted neuroprosthetic system that enables her to stand up out of her wheelchair and move around on her own two feet.

More Than Medals
More Than Medals

Author: Dennis J. Frost

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2021-01-15

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 150175310X

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How does a small provincial city in southern Japan become the site of a world-famous wheelchair marathon that has been attracting the best international athletes since 1981? In More Than Medals, Dennis J. Frost answers this question and addresses the histories of individuals, institutions, and events—the 1964 Paralympics, the FESPIC Games, the Ōita International Wheelchair Marathon, the Nagano Winter Paralympics, and the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games that played important roles in the development of disability sports in Japan. Sporting events in the postwar era, Frost shows, have repeatedly served as forums for addressing the concerns of individuals with disabilities. More Than Medals provides new insights on the cultural and historical nature of disability and demonstrates how sporting events have challenged some stigmas associated with disability, while reinforcing or generating others. Frost analyzes institutional materials and uses close readings of media, biographical sources, and interviews with Japanese athletes to highlight the profound—though often ambiguous—ways in which sports have shaped how postwar Japan has perceived and addressed disability. His novel approach highlights the importance of the Paralympics and the impact that disability sports have had on Japanese society. Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

No, It Is Not In My Head
No, It Is Not In My Head

Author: Nicole Hemmenway

Publisher: Morgan James Publishing

Published: 2010-04-06

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1614480052

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“A story of triumph and courage . . . Nicole Hemmenway demonstrates hope, guts and faith for any chronic pain sufferer or caregiver” (Betsy Turner Nunley, author of Preemie to Woman in Sixty Short Years). At seventeen, Nicole Hemmenway believed her life was just beginning. She was a senior in high school looking forward to college and living on her own. However, all her dreams vanished the moment she became injured. Diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), she soon learned that mainstream medicine viewed her pain and symptoms as being untreatable and incurable. She was living a nightmare. With no use of her right hand and minimal use of her arm, she depended on massive amounts of narcotics to survive each day. Yet even that could not control her agony. The crippling pain was so paralyzing that she faced periods where she was bedridden or wheelchair bound. All she had to hold on to was hope. Hope that her miracle would someday arrive . . . No, It Is Not in My Head is a courageous memoir that presents answers and allows others to believe in the unimaginable. “A must-read for anyone suffering from chronic pain or anyone who knows someone battling it . . . No, It Is Not in My Head is not a cure for pain, but more a cure for hopelessness. . . . Beautifully written, incredibly inspirational and highly recommended!” —Robin Cain, author of The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept “A riveting and uplifting tale, not to be missed.” —Midwest Book Review