Where can I learn about experiences of individuals with disabilities in their own words?

There are many ways to learn about the experiences of people with disabilities, even if you do not interact with them directly. Many books and articles offer stories about people with disabilities, but many people with disabilities have also shared their own experiences through books, articles, videos, blog posts, and other sources.

You can locate autobiographies written by people who have disabilities in collections like 8 Memoirs Written by People Living with a Disability and In Their Own Words: Memoirs About Living With Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses, or by searching at an online bookstore for "autobiographies of people with disabilities." 

To find first-person stories that are freely available on the internet you can use general terms like "disability" or more specific ones like "autism" to search in large video collections (e.g., YouTube, TED, TEDx) to locate videos where individuals with disabilities speak for themselves. 

You can also find first-person testimonials of people with disabilities in video and written formats in specialized collections, including the following: