Yeah, I think I read that one too. I think it was another of those pieces from the 50s. Might have been one of Lester del Rey's books in the series that started with "Step to the Stars"

And not disabled, but Hugh Walters(?) wrote a bunch of novels involving a space program running out of Woomera.

In the first one they used a teenager as the first man into space.

(yet another set of books from my youth that I'd like to have copies of. Not that they were that great, but they're now a sort of "period piece")