My fiancé and I have finally set a date for our wedding Saturday, May 18! We got engaged back in August of 2017 and simply cannot wait to be married to one other. Growing up in Cat Island, a small out island in the Bahamas, I had this idealized vision of how I wanted to get married for the last several decades of my life. I grew up jumping off cliffs into the water, free diving and spearfishing for my dinner in the crystal clear waters, kayaking, frolicking about in nothing m

On September 10, 2012 James Sparhawk had a complete freak accident . He was too close to the edge on a roof of a 2 story house porch he was working on and fell. Due to his injuries , James became a complete T-10 paraplegic. For a whole year , James stayed depressed. He decided to snap out of it and put himself through school . I’m 2013-2014 , James enrolled in Sampson Community College. James began school studying to be a math teacher . Now he had changed his major to be Bus

Joshua Geddis served in the Navy from August 2005 - November 2017. Josh was a Seabee doing construction all over the world. He built thing from Colleges to clean water station in countries that desperately needed it. In January 2017 on the last of his five deployments he was crushed while upgrading security for the small out station. Josh had a L1 burst fracture, broken femur, among a handful of other bones. After many surgeries in multiply countries he started 12 weeks of re

My name is Alyson Duncan. I am a daughter, a sister, an aunt and a Spina Bifida warrior. I was born with Spina Bifida Myelomeningocele. Life hasn't always been easy, but I try to make the best of the days i'm given. Imagine being married to the love of your life and expecting your first baby. Everything seems perfect until the child is born, only then do you realize things are about to get more challenging than you ever dreamed. This happened to my parents. My mother had a

You don’t know when, you don’t know how…but, you know it will. Each day goes by, turning into a week, a month…a year. Moments of happiness, moments of sadness and…moments in between. Regardless thereof…the aching pain inside your head reminds you of your own reality. People come and people go, “each to their own”, as the saying goes. We live, we learn, we sleep, we wake…we all will surely cease to exist. Life’s one guarantee… Your normal isn’t my normal and my n

I have thought about the question, “Where do I belong? The sighted world or the world of the visually impaired?” I have asked this question several times during my life ever since I received my first large print book, and then again after I got my first low vision magnifier. I was born with Nystagmus, an eye condition, where my eyes move continuously in a pattern of a circle and side to side. Up until the age of 11 I struggled to see my school work. My mother used to constant

When I said before that there’s never a dull moment with this condition, I should have added that “There’s always something new to learn about, that you haven’t heard of before”. My family and I have recently moved to Brisbane, Australia. A new job, family and the hope of “better” healthcare are just a few of the reasons why we’re here. What I didn’t plan on, was connecting with my fellow Hydro Brothers, Sisters and even their family. Meeting Joshua Gourlay (photo insert), hi

Jonathan Schultz , founder of “ From The Sources” was born with Myelomeningocele Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. At first it was difficult for Jonathan . He was very angry that his family was not disabled like him . He wanted everyone to be like him. One day he realized he had to change . He had to change and accept the way he was . When he did that , his whole world changed for the better . Jonathan loves music so he goes to concerts. Jonathan loves Evanescence. Not only d

There's a lot of talk about words in the disabled community. There are labels, qualifiers, politically correct terms, and personal preferences, not to mention pronoun wars. I refer to myself and to others who are bipedally challenged as gimp. That word has had strong negative associations. Overlooking these better-known definitions, I may point out that it also refers to a "cord of various colors/texture/materials bound together for strength and beauty." Look it up; I'll wait

I have been a mom to a son who is on the autism spectrum for over twenty years now, and I have pretty much dedicated my life to working with people with intellectual disabilities. I recently saw someone post on Twitter a comment about how hard it is for her as a mom to see her daughter with autism struggle, so I thought I would share some of my pointers for making it through the stressful holiday season. Tip #1: Your kiddo is yours. You know what is best for your child with