Author(s): Gaynor Spriggs

Tasmanian

My Normal Life: Bound is a collection of thirty stories from people with disabilities talking about disability. These thoroughly engaging stories - told by people who are not victims nor heroes succeeding against all odds - will challenge your perception of disability and what it is to have a normal life. As a teacher of some twenty odd years, Gaynor Spriggs felt that she had a reasonably good understanding of disability, having in that time encountered a range of students with special needs. However, while interviewing people for My Normal Life: Bound, she made the startling discovery that her understanding was at best superficial. The everyday people in this book each have their own particular set of challenges that we would traditionally label as 'disabled'. What becomes very clear is that each person is more than the sum of their challenges and that their attitude to life can have everything - or nothing - to do with their disability. Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly. - Mortisha Addams