She was born with a devastating disability no one could diagnose and labeled mentally retarded by an uncaring school system. She was sexually abused, nearly killed in a car accident, and stricken with cancer-all before the age of thirty.

Kathy Buckley not only survived, but went on to become a top female comic, award-winning author of a one-woman Off Broadway show, and a beloved motivational speaker throughout the country.

In If You Could Hear What I See, Buckley tells her remarkable life story, from her small-town childhood in Wickliffe, Ohio-where she was unable to form words until age seven-to her incredible career as "America's first hearing-impaired comedienne." In chapters such as "I Can Hear the Laughter," "Confessions of a Deaf Catholic," and "Table Manners with Anne Baxter," she shares the pain and pathos of growing up hearing-impaired, the hope that has sustained her through her darkest moments, and the humor that saved her sanity. She talks about the people and events that changed her life and encouraged her to dream. But most of all, If You Could Hear What I See is about a woman who made a choice: to overcome all the obstacles life could throw her way, and to meet those challenges with dignity, courage, and laughter.