"Why walk when you can soar..."

These are the opening words on Tracy Todd’s website and they are a powerful affirmation of the person Tracy is today – a sought-after inspirational speaker whose uplifting presentations have inspired and given hope to many people. But it is difficult to imagine what she has overcome in a tough and often lonely journey.

At the age of twenty-eight her life was turned upside down when a horrific road accident left her a quadriplegic, paralysed from the neck down. Her life as an athletic, marathon-running young mother and teacher was abruptly shattered. Despite months of rehabilitation, Tracy often found herself wondering if her life was worth living. Everything she had taken for granted was now beyond her reach and frustration at her helplessness threatened to overwhelm her. Against the odds, Tracy chose to live.

Her strength of character and determination prevailed and, sustained by the support of her son, family and friends, her care assistants, and an unbelievably caring community, she set about gaining the independence to rebuild her life and reclaim her identity – which she has done, with dignity and grace. Brave Lotus Flower Rides The Dragon is an honest, inspiring and engaging memoir in which Tracy’s natural warmth and humour are tangible and, most importantly, she embodies what the human spirit can achieve.

Teaching Music to Students with Autism provides a comprehensive study of the education of students with autism within the music classroom. The book is designed for music educators, music teacher educators, and all those who have an interest in the education of students with autism. The authors focus on the diagnosis of autism, advocating for students and music programs, and creating and maintaining a team approach when working with colleagues. A significant portion of the book is focused on understanding the communication, cognition, behavior, sensory, and socialization challenges inherent in working with students with autism. The authors suggest ways to structure classroom experiences and learning opportunities for all students. Vignettes and classroom snapshots from experienced teachers provide additional opportunities to transfer theory to real-life application.

A first in Midwifery publishing! No other book advises midwives on the special needs of mothers with disabilities. Although an increasing number of women with disabilities are having children, the needs of this minority group are not always being effectively met. Disability in Pregnancy and Childbirth provides essential practical information to healthcare professionals working with this group. The first book on maternity care for women with additional or alternative needs A practical resource for all working with pregnant women and mothers Reflects the lived experiences of women with disabilities Written by experts in the field Holistic content Looks at professional attitudes as well as the woman's needs

Deaf around the World is a compendium of work by scholars and activists on the creation, context, and form of sign languages, and on the social issues and civil rights of Deaf communities. Renowned contributors such as James Woodward, Yerker Andersson, and Paddy Ladd offer new histories and overviews of major topics. Each chapter is followed by a response from a pre-eminent thinker in the field. The volume includes studies of sign languages and Deaf communities in Australia, Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Myanmar, Nicaragua, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States.

Beyond Bias offers the first scholarly study of contemporary right-wing documentary film and video. Drawing from contemporary work in political theory and psychoanalytic theory, the book identifies what author Scott Krzych describes as the hysterical discourse prolific in conservative documentary in particular, and right-wing media more generally. In its hysterical mode, conservative media emphasizes form over content, relies on the spectacle of debate to avoid substantive dialogue, mimics the aesthetic devices of its opponents, reduces complex political issues to moral dichotomies, and relies on excessive displays of opinion to produce so much mediated "noise" as to drown out alternative perspectives or viewpoints. Though often derided for its reliance on nonsense or hyperbole, conservative media marshals incoherence as its prized aesthetic and rhetorical weapon, a means to bolster the political status quo precisely by confusing those audiences who come into its orbit. As a work of documentary studies, Beyond Bias also places conservative non-fiction films in conversation with their more conventional counterparts, drawing insight from the manner by which conservative media hystericizes such issues as the archive, observational methods, directorial participation, and the often moral imperatives by which documentary filmmakers attempt to offer insight into their subjects.

Some people have called epilepsy the disability towards which Christianity has been most antagonistic, partly because of the Church's tendency to attribute demon possession to the condition. Drawing on the very latest thinking in this area, Roy McCloughry, who is committed to supporting the increasing participation of people with disabilities in Christian communities and in society at large, reveals how people's lives are still being blighted by such attitudes, though there is much to celebrate too. This engaging book aims to encourage people to become involved with people with disabilities, as friendship is one of keys to breaking down the barriers which lead to stereotypes and fear.

This Level 2 unit is a mandatory unit for the new learning disability award, certificate and pathway of the diploma in health and social care. It has 4 credits (35 learning hours) and is a knowledge unit. This learner workbook includes: * A section on each learning outcome of the unit * Learning activities, including preparation for assessment in the workplace (where relevant) * Set of assessment questions based on the assessment criteria of the unit * Key references * Evidence log and certificate of completion

In a tradition extending from the medieval era to the early twentieth century, visually disabled Japanese women known as goze toured the Japanese countryside as professional singers and contributed to the vitality of rural musical culture. The goze sang unique narratives (many requiring several hours to perform) as well as a huge repertory of popular ballads and short songs, typically accompanied by a three-stringed lute known as the shamisen. During the Edo period (1600-1868) goze formed guild-like occupational associations and created an iconic musical repertory. They were remarkably successful in fighting discrimination accorded to women, people with physical disabilities, the poor, and itinerants, using their specialized art to connect directly to the commoner public. The best documented goze lived in Echigo province in the Japanese northwest. Although their activities peaked in the nineteenth century, some women continued to tour until the middle of the twentieth. The last active goze survived until 2005. In Goze: Blind Women and Musical Performance in Traditional Japan, author Gerald Groemer argues that goze activism was primarily a matter of the agency of performance itself. Groemer shows that the solidarity goze achieved with the rural public through narrative and music was based on the convergence of the goze's desire to achieve social autonomy and the wish of lower-class to mitigate the cultural deprivation to which they were otherwise so often subject. It was this correlation of emancipatory interests that allowed goze to flourish and attain a degree of social autonomy. Far from being pitied as helpless victims, goze were recognized as masterful artisans who had succeeded in transforming their disability into a powerful social tool and who could act as agents of widespread cultural development. As the first full-length scholarly work on goze in English, this book is sure to prove an invaluable resource to scholars and students of Japanese culture, Japanese music, ethnomusicology, and disability studies worldwide.

This user friendly and accessible resource emphasises the importance of respecting people using services, their families and carers. It aims to support those working in services, to empower service users and to improve the quality of care. The authors developed this material with every effort to adhere to the Charter that has been developed by the Challenging Behaviour - National Strategy Group. The approach is based on positive behavioural support, offering person-centred support, individualised interventions that are clearly based on a functional assessment, understanding the person's needs and the environment in which they live. Key to this training resource has been the inclusion of the perspectives from families and people with learning disabilities.

This brand new book addresses disability issues, including inclusive education, advocacy and empowerment. Aimed specifically at students studying in South Africa, this book attempts to plug the gap between policy, services and rights for disabled people in South Africa, whilst also helping readers to find a new world view. This book is suitable for both first year undergraduates in inclusive education and senior students and also academics looking to advance theory and lay good foundations for comprehensive, evidence-based practice.

Sexy Like Us: Disability, Humor, and Sexuality takes a humorous, intimate approach to disability through the stories, jokes, performances, and other creative expressions of people with disabilities. Author Teresa Milbrodt explores why individuals can laugh at their leglessness, find stoma bags sexual, discover intimacy in scars, and flaunt their fragility in ways both hilarious and serious. Their creative and comic acts crash, collide, and collaborate with perceptions of disability in literature and dominant culture, allowing people with disabilities to shape political disability identity and disability pride, call attention to social inequalities, and poke back at ableist cultural norms. This book also discusses how the ambivalent nature of comedy has led to debates within disability communities about when it is acceptable to joke, who has permission to joke, and which jokes should be used inside and outside a community's inner circle. Joking may be difficult when considering aspects of disability that involve physical or emotional pain and struggles to adapt to new forms of embodiment. At the same time, people with disabilities can use humor to expand the definitions of disability and sexuality. They can help others with disabilities assert themselves as sexy and sexual. And they can question social norms and stigmas around bodies in ways that open up journeys of being, not just for individuals who consider themselves disabled, but for all people.