Best of
Disability

2008

All Dogs Have ADHD


Kathy Hoopmann - 2008
    This absorbing and enjoyable book takes a refreshing approach to understanding ADHD.

Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter


Robert Rummel-Hudson - 2008
    Once they knew why she couldn’t speak, they needed to determine how to help her learn. They didn’t know that Schuyler was going to teach them a thing or two about fearlessness, tenacity, and joy.Schuyler’s Monster is more than the memoir of a parent dealing with a child’s disability. It is the story of the relationship between a unique and ethereal little girl floating through the world without words, and her earthbound father who struggles with whether or not he is the right dad for the job. It is the story of a family seeking answers to a child’s dilemma, but it is also a chronicle of their unique relationships, formed without traditional language against the expectations of a doubting world. It is a story that has equal measure of laughter and tears. Ultimately, it is the tale of a little girl who silently teaches a man filled with self-doubt how to be the father she needs. Schuyler can now communicate through assistive technology, and continues to be the source of her father's inspiration, literary and otherwise.

Henry and Jim


J.M. Snyder - 2008
    These two men who have spent a life in love, from the very first date arranged by Henry’s sister, through the rocky times they worked to make ends meet, and into their twilight years.NOTE: This story appears in the following anthologies — Best Gay Romance 2008 (Cleis Press) and Best Gay Stories 2009 (Lethe Press).

Babies with Down Syndrome: A New Parents' Guide


Susan Skallerup - 2008
    Covering the best practices for raising and caring for children with Down syndrome through age five, this book is invaluable to new parents who have welcomed a baby with Down syndrome into their lives. This new edition incorporates the latest scientific, medical, educational research, and practical information available, as well as parents' suggestions and feedback. Existing chapters have been revised, some completely rewritten by new authors, and in keeping with its parent-friendly reputation, most of the book's contributors are parents of children with Down syndrome Chapters cover: - What Is Down Syndrome?: A primer on the causes, characteristics, and diagnosis, including the latest information on genetics and prenatal testing;- Adjusting to Your Baby: Advice from an experienced mother on coping with common emotions and announcing the news to friends and family;- Medical Concerns & Treatments: An overview of possible health issues including celiac disease, sleep apnea, diabetes, reflux, and skin problems, with an emphasis on detecting signs early for needed treatment;- Daily Care: The gamut of care from feeding to bathing, with expanded information about toilet training;- Family Life: The impact on siblings and couples, discipline issues, and new material to help everyone understand that a child's behavior is a form of communication;- Development & Learning: Expectations about development plus new material on variability in development, learning styles, using reading todevelop language, memory strengths and weaknesses, and using play to encourage learning;- Early Intervention: An overview of services and therapies for babies & toddlers with new information on the transdisciplinary approach, providing services in the natural environment, transitioning preschool, and common questions & answers;- Legal Rights & Financial Issues: Explains your child's educational and legal rights, and financial information, including the latest on federal education and civil rights laws, sources of financial assistance, health insurance, trusts, and guardianship.Full of new photos, parent statements, updated and expanded resources and reading lists, this build everything parents need to build a bright and healthy future for their child with Down syndrome.

The Way I See It


Nicole Dryburgh - 2008
    Blind and mainly confined to a wheelchair, Nicole is wholehearted and positive, whether she is studying, fund-raising or hanging out with her friends. Nicole's diary of the last four years is the triumphant story of a refusal to give up hope.

Disability Theory


Tobin Anthony Siebers - 2008
    Clear, cogent, compelling analyses of the tension between the 'social model' of disability and the material details of impairment; of identity politics and unstable identities; of capability rights and human interdependence; of disability and law, disability as masquerade, disability and sexuality, disability and democracy---they're all here, in beautifully crafted and intellectually startling essays. Disability Theory is a field-defining book: and if you're curious about what 'disability' has to do with 'theory,' it's just the book you've been waiting for, too."---Michael Bérubé, Pennsylvania State University "Disability Theory is magisterially written, thoroughly researched, and polemically powerful. It will be controversial in a number of areas and will probably ruffle feathers both in disability studies as well as in realms of cultural theory. And that's all to the good."---Michael Davidson, University of California, San Diego"Not only is Disability Theory a groundbreaking contribution to disability studies, it is also a bold, ambitious and much needed revision to a number of adjacent and overlapping fields including cultural studies, literary theory, queer theory, and critical race studies. Siebers has written a powerful manifesto that calls theory to account and forces readers to think beyond our comfort zones."---Helen Deutsch, University of California, Los AngelesIntelligent, provocative, and challenging, Disability Theory revolutionizes the terrain of theory by providing indisputable evidence of the value and utility that a disability studies perspective can bring to key critical and cultural questions. Tobin Siebers persuasively argues that disability studies transfigures basic assumptions about identity, ideology, language, politics, social oppression, and the body. At the same time, he advances the emerging field of disability studies by putting its core issues into contact with signal thinkers in cultural studies, literary theory, queer theory, gender studies, and critical race theory.

Jean Vanier: Essential Writings


Jean Vanier - 2008
    In time this grew into an international network of communities in which people with intellectual disabilities and those who assist them share their lives together. Though Vanier's roots are Roman Catholic, the movement is deeply ecumenical and interfaith, and his message of compassion, community, and the dignity of the human person, has struck a universal chord. Pope John Paul II called him "a great spokesman for the culture of solidarity and the civilization of love.'" This collection, published to mark Vanter's 80th birthday, contains his essential writings.

My Travelin' Eye


Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw - 2008
    Her right eye looks in one direction, while her left eye sometimes wanders. Jenny Sue has a travelin’, lazy eye. Although it makes her different, it also helps her see the world in a special way.Here is a charming story about one very inspiring little girl who overcomes her disability and offers inspiration to others.My Travelin' Eye is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Window Boy


Andrea White - 2008
    But Sam’s different from the other boys: he has cerebral palsy. Confined to a wheelchair, Sam’s never touched a basketball. He’s never even been to school.It’s 1968, and only a few enlightened educators understand that a boy like Sam might have a brain that’s as good as anybody else’s. When the Stirling Junior High principal finally agrees to let Sam enter sixth grade, Sam gets his chance to move into the world beyond his window.All Sam knows about school, he’s learned from Miss Perkins, the English lady who cleans his apartment. Perkins spends hours reading to Sam about Winston Churchill. Sam knows so much about him that Winnie— as they call him—starts talking to Sam in his head. At first, Sam doesn't understand what a boy in a wheelchair has in common with one of the world’s greatest leaders, but Winnie says, Don't you see Sam? I was just a boy once, too. A boy nobody believed in.Junior High school can be difficult, not just for boys in wheelchairs. Sam learns that if he can't make it work at Stirling, there are places for boys like him. When the challenges seem overwhelming, Winnie reminds Sam, Our lives are what we choose to make of them. If Sam can only believe in Winnie, he‘ll finally be part of the team—a window boy no longer.

Melanie, Bird with a Broken Wing: A Mother's Story


Beth Harry - 2008
    Written with grace and candor by special education professional Beth Harry, the book chronicles the life of her daughter, Melanie, who was born with a rare form of cerebral palsy and died less than 6 years later.Captivating the reader from page one, Dr. Harry illuminates the full spectrum of her parenting experiences—from the day her "little bird" came into the world to the day she left. Readers will come away with a deep understanding ofthe complex emotions that parents experience as they adjust to life with a child who has special needsthe practical and emotional aspects of supporting a child with feeding difficulties, vision impairment, and limited motor skillsthe joy parents experience when their child begins to communicate and make personal connectionsthe lasting impact a professional's words can have on a parent, and the need to provide positive support that allows a child to reach her full potentialthe services, therapies, and interventions that improved Melanie's quality of life-and how they've changed since her story began in the 1970sIdeal for use as a supplemental text in courses for preservice early interventionists, early childhood special educators, special educators, and health professionals, this book gives readers an unforgettable inside look at what families experience when their child has a disability—and how to meet their needs as their child grows. And, a Reader's Guide is included! Perfect for use in the classroom or in book clubs, the thought-provoking discussion questions help professionals absorb the book's lessons and apply them to everyday practice with families.Eye-opening and inspiring, Melanie, Bird with a Broken Wing will leave a lasting impression and will, as Dr. Harry urges, prepare readers "to believe the messages of their hearts as they make professional decisions."

Pathogenesis


Peggy Munson - 2008
    Gay & Lesbian Studies. "Put whippets in your heart and let the rabbits breed. They will." Like still-wet lagomorphs crawling over each other in innate proximity, Peggy Munson's poems confine the reader "inside a lantern, buzzing at the headlights." Munson addresses illness, family, and the blood running through both with malleable tenacity. Noelle Kocot describes Munson's work as "free from a lot of the burden of contemporary poetry conventions, existing] like a small island in the fiery sun, alone, yet willing to be utterly beautiful, utterly strange and utterly itself." PATHOGENESIS was a finalist or semifinalist for numerous prizes, including the Dorset Prize, the Carnegie-Mellon Poetry Series, the Beatrice Hawley Award, the Verse Prize, and the University of Wisconsin Pollack Prize. Munson is the author of the novel, ORIGAMI STRIPTEASE, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards.

Vulnerable Communion: A Theology of Disability and Hospitality


Thomas E. Reynolds - 2008
    Reynolds and his wife know what it's like to be misunderstood by a church community. In Vulnerable Communion, Reynolds draws upon that personal experience and a diverse body of literature to empower churches and individuals to foster deeper hospitality toward persons with disabilities. Reynolds argues that the Christian story is one of strength coming from weakness, of wholeness emerging from brokenness, and of power in vulnerability. He offers valuable biblical, theological, and pastoral tools to understand and welcome those with disabilities. Vulnerable Communion will be a useful resource for any student, theologian, church leader, or lay person seeking to discover the power of God revealed through weakness.

Receiving the Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological Anthropology, and Ethics


Hans S. Reinders - 2008
    He acknowledges that, at first glance, this is not an unusual claim given the steps taken within the last few decades to bring the rights of those with disabilities into line with the rights of the mainstream. But, he argues, that cannot be the end of the matter, because the disabled are human beings before they are citizens. "To live a human life properly," he says, "they must not only be included in our institutions and have access to our public spaces; they must also be included in other people's lives, not just by natural necessity but by choice."Receiving the Gift of Friendship consists of three parts: (1) Profound Disability, (2) Theology, and (3) Ethics. Overturning the "commonsense" view of human beings, Reinders's argument for a paradigm shift in our relation to people with disabilities is founded on a groundbreaking philosophical-theological consideration of humanity and of our basic human commonality. Moreover, Reinders gives his study human vividness and warmth with stories of the profoundly disabled from his own life and from the work of Jean Vanier and Henri Nouwen in L'Arche communities.

James Castle: A Retrospective


Ann Percy - 2008
    This book offers the first critical exploration of the many creative genres of this self-taught artist, who first came to notice in the 1950s and 1960s but has only recently been recognized by major museums.Lavishly illustrated with more than 300 full-colour reproductions and packaged with an original documentary DVD illuminating fascinating aspects of his life and art, this book examines Castle's drawings, colour-wash works, idiosyncratic cardboard and paper constructions, and word, sign, and symbol pieces. As a child he developed his favourite medium and method of working, mixing stove soot with saliva and applying this "ink" with sharpened sticks and cotton wads to such found materials as product packaging and discarded paper. These everyday materials have given his works a singular, immediate, and appealing natural quality.This engaging volume considers Castle's remarkable art from a variety of perspectives, examining his life, modes of depiction, working methods and materials, and the "visual poetry" of his text works.

Reconstructing Motherhood and Disability in the Age of Perfect Babies


Gail Heidi Landsman - 2008
    Examining mothers of newly diagnosed disabled children within the context of new reproductive technologies and the discourse of choice, this book uses anthropology and disability studies to revise the concept of normal and to establish a social environment in which the expression of full lives will prevail.

She Touched the World: Laura Bridgman, Deaf-Blind Pioneer


Sally Hobart Alexander - 2008
    At the time, no one believed a child with such severe disabilities could be taught to communicate, much less lead a full and productive life. But then a progressive doctor, who had just opened the country’s first school for the blind in Boston, took her in. Laura learned to communicate, read, and write—and eventually even to teach. By the age of 12, she was world famous.Audiences flocked to see her, and she was loved and admired by children everywhere. This fascinating and moving biography shows how Laura Bridgman paved the way for future generations of children with disabilities, making possible important advances in the way they would be educated. As a blind person with some hearing loss, Sally Hobart Alexander lends a unique and intimate perspective to this inspiring account. At last, the story of Laura Bridgman can find its long-deserved place alongside those of Louis Braille and Helen Keller.

A Declaration of a Body of Love Poetry


Lateef H. McLeod - 2008
    This is my first published book that contains my most sacred thoughts in poetic form.

Just Give Him the Whale!: 20 Ways to Use Fascinations, Areas of Expertise, and Strengths to Support Students with Autism


Paula Kluth - 2008
    This concise, highly practical guidebook gives educators across grade levels a powerful new way to think about students' "obsessions": as positive teaching tools that calm, motivate, and improve learning.Written by top autism experts and nationally renowned speakers Paula Kluth and Patrick Schwarz, this guide is brimming with easy tips and strategies for folding students' special interests, strengths, and areas of expertise into classroom lessons and routines. Teachers will discover how making the most of fascinations can help their studentslearn standards-based academic contentboost literacy learning and mathematics skillsdevelop social connectionsexpand communication skillsminimize anxietyand much moreJust Give Him the Whale! is packed from start to finish with unforgettable stories based on the authors' experience, firsthand perspectives from people with autism themselves, research-based recommendations that are easy to use right away, and sample forms teachers can adapt for use in their own classrooms. An enjoyable read with an eye-opening message, this short book will have a long-lasting impact on teachers' understanding of autism—and on their students' social and academic success.

Concerto for the Left Hand: Disability and the Defamiliar Body


Michael Davidson - 2008
    Rather than simply focusing on the ways in which disabled persons are portrayed, Michael Davidson explores how the experience of disability shapes the work of artists and why disability serves as a vital lens through which to interpret modern culture. Covering an eclectic range of topics---from the phantom missing limb in film noir to the poetry of American Sign Language---this collection delivers a unique and engaging assessment of the interplay between disability and aesthetics.Written in a fluid, accessible style, Concerto for the Left Hand will appeal to both specialists and general audiences. With its interdisciplinary approach, this book should appeal not only to scholars of disability studies but to all those working in minority art, deaf studies, visual culture, and modernism.Michael Davidson is Professor of American Literature at the University of California, San Diego. His other books include Guys Like Us: Citing Masculinity in Cold War Poetics and Ghostlier Demarcations: Modern Poetry and the Material World.

Cripple Poetics


Petra Kuppers - 2008
    The dance of courtship is reflected in language that alternately snakes and darts, declares and obfuscates, reminisces and forges-finding freedom within its limitations. Cripple Poetics preserves and unfolds the artifacts of an original and timely love story that might otherwise have remained shrouded in a small, forgotten corner of cyberspace.