Karl Williams

Roland Johnson's autobiography is the triumphant story of a man who rose above an intellectual disability and devastating abuse to become a prominent leader in the self-advocacy movement.As a child, Roland was sent away to live at the infamous Pennhurst State School in Pennsylvania, where he was sexually assaulted and forced to do unpaid manual labor. When he finally got out, he discovered the "real world" had no place for people like him - people who weren't considered normal or valuable by societal standards.Through a hospital counseling program, Roland ultimately began to find his voice. He discovered an ability to speak his truth and to fight for other people with disabilities. He would become president of Speaking for Ourselves and bring wide-scale awareness to the struggles faced by people with disabilities, as well as the unique gifts those same people have to offer.Lost in a Desert World brings you into Roland's life through his own voice and both encourages and challenges you to connect to your own humanity as a means of connecting with the humanity present in all people. Roland Johnson was a man of great courage, vision, and determination. He had an alternate kind of intelligence - one not based on what we call intellect. In Roland Johnson's world, understanding - one person for another - is the way of the future, the only route to true freedom.CRITICAL PRAISE"Roland Johnson has an important story to tell. In writing this truth-telling autobiography, he becomes a powerful witness to the cost of segregation and the hope of community." - Joseph P. Shapiro, author of No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement"Roland Johnson was a friend and a hero of mine. He was a great pioneer of the frontier of human being. Read his book." - Justin Dart, father of the ADA, Americans With Disabilities Act, and Chairperson of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities under President Bush"Roland Johnson was a good and true man whose friendship I cherished. He was a teacher to many of us, and now this book will carry his voice across the country." - Gunnar Dybwad, internationally respected advocate and past president of the International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicaps"Roland is a man who accepted you for who you were. He was a friend to everyone and wanted to help people live their dreams and have control over their lives. It was an honor to have him as my friend." - Tia Nelis, Chair of the Board of Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE)"It is rare, even in fiction let alone autobiography, when an author's words leap off the page through the ear to awaken the reader's heart. I never knew Roland Johnson. But thanks to Karl Williams, I am able to know Roland's playful spirit, his soul full of knowing, the truth of his experience. Bravo to both." - Lucy Gwin, Mouth Magazine"... Intimate and vivid portrayal ... Roland Johnson's autobiography ... breaks new ground regarding the authenticity with which it projects his voice ... Karl Williams' preservation of Roland's words, and Roland's voice, his unique manner of speaking intact, shines new light on the meaning of 'speaking for ourselves.' ... (A) work of pioneering authenticity ..." - Melissa Probst, AAMR Journal"Lost In a Desert World is so good and Roland's talking is so much like him, it felt like I was in the same room with him again ... Loved every minute of it ... It made me want to reach out and hug him ..." - Robert Perske, Author

“… Insights from a time when a young person with autism grew up in a world where nobody understood them!” – Temple Grandin, author, Thinking in Pictures “An extraordinary look at autism from the inside – by turns heartbreaking, uplifting, illuminating, witty, and wise.” – Steve Silberman, author, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity Barbara Moran has never known how to be good. As a child, she made strange noises, fidgeted constantly, and licked her lips until they cracked. She had “upsets” that embarrassed and frustrated her family. Worse still, she developed friendships with inanimate objects—everything from roller skates to tables to an antique refrigerator—and became obsessed with images of cathedrals. She was institutionalized, analyzed, and marginalized, cast aside as not trying hard enough to fit in. But after almost forty years, Barbara was given an answer for her inability to be like, and to connect with, other people: autism. Hello, Stranger is the story of a misunderstood life that serves as an eye-opening call for compassion. Bracingly honest, Barbara describes the profound loneliness of being abandoned and judged while also expressing her deep yearning simply to be loved and to give love. Hello, Stranger is a challenge to every reader to see the beauty and the humanity present in every individual.

Karl Williams was on holiday in Dubai, living it large with two English friends, when they were accused of drug dealing, arrested, and tortured by police. They were innocent, but the authorities didn't care. And so began their year-long nightmare as they were locked up in Port Rashid where prisoners of all nationalities were crammed into stinking cells, violence could erupt in seconds, and control of the jail was in the hands of a few powerful inmates. Unless you knew the right people and could work the system, you were screwed.Karl was a survivor and managed to rise up the prison pecking order, making friends with local gangsters, Russian mafia and other assorted murderers, drug dealers, fraudsters and hapless innocents he encountered behind bars. But it was hard to stay positive when facing life or the death penalty . . . and then he was moved to the notorious Central prison, a terrifying place where HIV positive prisoners were used by gangsters to infect their enemies; and murders and rape were common. When Karl had lost all hope of finding justice, Reprieve, an organization of committed human rights defenders, took up his case . . .Raw, totally gripping, and at times brutally funny, Killing Time takes you behind the shiny desert paradise to the heart of the real Dubai.

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.GREAT 'DROIDS, INDEED!This unique guide to sophisticated robotics projects brings humanoid robot construction home to the hobbyist. Written by a well-known figure in the robotics community, Build Your Own Humanoid Robots provides step-by-step directions for 6 exciting projects, each costing less than $300. Together, they form the essential ingredients for making your own humanoid robot.Build Your Own Humanoid Robots & Amazing and Affordable ProjectsSerious enough to interest robot professionals, the plans inside offer serious fun to hobbyists. They give you the power to breathe life into a mechanical being with amazingly human qualities, and feature all the instructions you need for programming the inexpensive chips that give your humanoid brains and sensitivity.6 Astounding Projects:* Robotic Arm, Wrist, and Hand. Build a versatile robotic arm system to give your humanoid the ability to manipulate objects/ A PIC microcontroller provides motor control and feedback.* Personal Computer Interface. Learn how to interface the robot arm or any other robotics project to a personal computer for complete control and feedback.* Visual Basic Control Software. Develop flexible bidirectional communications software to control the robot arm or other projects from your personal computer.* Voice Recognition Control. Make your robotic arm and walking robot obey your spoken commands with this completely embedded control system that can also be used for many other applications.* Expressive, Speaking Face. Enable your robot to show happiness, surprise, excitement, anger, and more, as it speaks any words you transmit electronically.* Bipedal Walking Robot. It's your own amazing small scale, fully autonomous robot! Learn about sensors, analog-to-digital converters, DC motor control, microcontrollers, feedback, and control systems.Also included is the background information regarding construction materials, test equipment, printed circuit board fabrication, microcontrollers, and programming and design considerations needed to create the humanoid robot projects.

A step-by-step guide to building a robot with walking ability and artificial intelligence. It discusses mechanical construction, electronics, PIC programming, use of sensors and robot intelligence routines. There is a chapter on software and a section on how the robot could be developed further.