After Disability: a Guide to Getting on with Life. Lisa Bendall, $19.95

More than 3.6 million Canadians are living with some sort of disability, with mobility-related issues affecting nearly one in ten people. After Disability is the practical Canadian resource guide for living fully with a sudden disability. It is geared to the rising number of adults who have experienced injury, stroke, disease, arthritis or the effects of aging. In a positive and reader-friendly tone, author Lisa Bendall offers valuable information, strategies, suggestions, resources and stories from men and women who have experience with disability-related issues. Topics covered include:

• Assistive devices and technology
• Accessible housing
• Financial concerns
• Health and health care
• Self-advocacy and the law
• Education and employment
• Sexuality, family life and parenting
• Sports, recreation and the arts
• Transportation
• Travel

Informative, accessible and empowering, After Disability is the first book of its kind and is an essential and valuable resource for Canadians learning to live with a disability.

The Black Book of Colors. Menena Cottin, illustrated by Rosana Faria, $17.95

It is difficult for a sighted person to imagine what it is like to be blind. This groundbreaking, award-winning book endeavors to convey the experience of a person who can only see through his or her sense of touch, taste, smell or hearing.

Raised black line drawings on black paper, which can be deciphered by touch, complement a beautifully written text describing colors through imagery. Braille letters accompany the text so that the sighted reader can begin to imagine what it is like to use Braille to read. A full Braille alphabet at the end of the book can be used to learn more.

C’mon Papa: Dispatches from a Dad in the Dark. Ryan Knighton, $22.00

Becoming a father is a stressful, daunting rite of passage to be sure, but for a blind father, the fears are unimaginably heightened. But this is no pity party, and author Ryan Knighton has no time for sentimentality. Tackling these hurdles with grace and humour, Ryan is determined to do his part - and this is where the fun starts. From holding his daughter as she wails into the night to their first nerve-wracking walk to the cafe, no activity between father and daughter is without its pitfalls. In his struggle to "see" Tess, Ryan re-imagines the relationship between father and child during that first chaotic year.

Davey is blind and he is perfectly capable of doing everything on his own. His well-meaning classmates stop offering help when they see how able Davey is. They respect his self-reliance—until he tries to play kickball. After several missed kicks and a trampled base keeper, no one wants Davey on his team. Working together, the children figure out a way to offer help that respects Davey's unique abilities and his desire for freedom.

Looking Good provides lessons and activities designed to teach young people with low vision and blindness how to improve their appearance and personal presentation.

Adolescents and young adults don’t always realize that their appearance affects the impression they make on peers, employers, and others they encounter. Looking Good provides a framework for young people to enhance their attributes and to present themselves in the most favorable light and addresses issues of appearance in a sensitive manner while taking into account the strengths and capabilities of students with low vision and blindness.

This is the real-life story of Frank Morris, who lost his sight at 16, and Buddy — the first Seeing Eye dog in America — and the legacy they created together.

Seeing Beyond Sight: Photographs by Blind Teenagers. Tony Deifell, Foreword by Robert Coles, $27.95

With its ambitious, seemingly paradoxical premise, Seeing Beyond Sight is a book of photographs taken by teenagers with limited or no sight. Seeing Beyond Sight documents how educator Tony Deifell taught his blind students to take pictures as an innovative, multi-sensory means of self-expression. Their intuitive images are surprising and often beautiful. Complementing the photographs are the students' own words explaining what the process and images mean to them. Seeing Beyond Sight is a rare book of visual art and an educational resource that speaks with inspirational power, not only to the visually impaired community, but to anyone who has ever considered what it means to see.

Text and photographs describe children who are blind, their challenges and adaptations, and their similarities with others.

In this breathtaking, evocative book, a young blind girl travels from one subway station to another while her imagination takes her to impossibly wonderful places. She swims with the dolphins and sunbathes on a whale's back; flies through the air with the birds and travels to the station at the end of the world. Poetic text and haunting watercolor paintings in this unique book explore themes of overcoming a disability and the power of the imagination. The Sound of Colors is a magical book that will take readers on a journey unlike anything they've ever experienced before.