11/14 @ Northway Brewing Company, Queensbury
**This article originally appeared in our November 2026 issue**
Photos by Vanessa Lewis
“I wanted to give people, parents, and families a book about someone who’s going through a disability that tells them you can’t let your disability stop you.”
Most of his life, Andy O’Rourke has been told one simple, but punchy word: ‘no.’ It could have understandably given him an edge of flippancy toward challenges. Instead, he approaches his life’s obstacles with a certain nonchalance — ‘I can’t do this? I’ve heard that before.’
Glens Falls author O’Rourke chronicles his young life, from growing up with cerebral palsy to navigating successes, failures, and everything in between in his new memoir, My Disability Doesn’t Define Me: My Road Map. Telling stories seems to come naturally to him, with effusive wit and candor that was translated from voice memos to an autobiography that is tightly packed with personal anecdotes.
“Growing up in high school, elementary school — pretty much my whole life — I thought I was going to be a journalist,” he shares. “In my senior year of high school, the music department asked me to do a story for their social media. I went into rehearsal… I fell in love with it.”
O’Rourke studied radio and television broadcasting at SUNY Adirondack. The world of theater continued to speak to him, spurring the creation of All Abilities Productions Upstate New York, a company that operated in the region for performers with disabilities.
Combining his love of stage and writing, the mediums became a conduit to tell his story. Art is a lifeline when even words fail. “In March, when I got diagnosed with depression and bipolar, writing was the only thing that got me out,” he confesses about writing My Disability Doesn’t Define Me: My Road Map.
From theater to his autobiography, advocacy is at the center no matter what he’s working on. Few people tangibly understand the daily life of someone with a disability, and theater showed him the path to raising awareness that he is exploring with keen perceptiveness in his memoir.
“We have to fight for our doctors and our needs to be heard. They look at you like you have three heads,” O’Rourke says, with the dry sense of humor that comes from experience. “Then you have to deal with wheelchair companies and medical appointments. That’s only one aspect.
”I just wanted to tell my story, so I decided to write a memoir. I wanted to give people, parents, and families a book about someone who’s going through a disability that tells them you can’t let your disability stop you.”
When deciding what to share and what to keep private while editorializing his life, he refers to an expert in the careful balancing act. “I’m really inspired by Mel Robbins,” he says, regarding the bestselling author, podcast host, and lawyer.
Inspired by her ‘Let Them’ approach, he even has a tattoo of the expression. It serves as a reminder of how the Let Them mindset continually informs his life — every time he’s told he can’t, it doesn’t rattle his self-assuredness in his own capabilities.
In an Instagram comment, Robbins extensively praised O’Rourke, stating, “The fact that you’ve taken everything you’ve been through and turned it into a book that can give other people hope is incredible… The world needs to hear it, and I am cheering you on every step of the way.”
O’Rourke is following in Robbins’ entrepreneurial footsteps. As an author, digital content creator, and disability advocate, the options for his future feel more open than ever. “I keep coming up with ideas,” he enthuses. “I can’t wait to see where this brand takes me as a digital creator and motivational speaker.”
The public is invited to celebrate the book’s launch with O'Rourke on November 14 at Northway Brewing Company in Queensbury, NY, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., where he will take part in a moderated conversation with BookBaby Publishing Specialist Ramona Peña, and media personality from WTEN Upstate Living, Billy Floyd. A Q&A will allow the audience to get to know O’Rourke even better, learning about the creative process behind his memoir.
“I’m forever grateful for this community,” he says, adding. “The whole community is just so supportive.”
My Disability Doesn’t Define Me: My Road Map is a journey, a glimpse at a life with a big future planned — “Who knows what else?” teases O’Rourke when asked about a potential sequel. It’s one person’s story that millions of others can relate to: the fight to live freely, without anyone’s definitions enforced on them.
“I want to be defined so that you don’t see the wheelchair,” affirms O’Rourke. “You just see me as a person.”
To learn more about O’Rourke’s life, work, and upcoming events or to purchase your own copy of My Disability Doesn’t Define Me: My Road Map, visit https://andyorourke518.com.
