Jim Abbott -
Only player to play major league baseball born with one hand.
Michelle
Banks -
Member of the National Black Deaf Advocates and founder of Onyx
Theater, Inc.,
this actress has appeared on several
television programs including Soul
Food and Strong
Medicine,
and has also been in films including Malcolm X
Ludwig
Von Beethoven –
German musical genius considered to one of Europe’s greatest composers,
who lost his hearing at the age of 52
David
Blunkett –
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in Great Britain who was
blind at birth
Linda
Bove –
Actress who plays the part of Linda on the children's television
program Sesame Street. Both Lindas are deaf.
Bernard Bragg -
Accomplished actor, director, playwright and lecturer, and co-founder
of the National Theater of the Deaf who was born deaf,
as were his parent
Louis
Braille –
Inventor who was blinded at age 3, and developed a system of writing
given his name, that uses raised dots in specific patterns to spell
our words
Deanne Bray -
Star of “Sue Thomas:
F.B.EYE,” this actress who was born deaf portrays a deaf woman who
works undercover for the FBI.
Trix
Bruce -
Creative storyteller who is deaf, and brings folktales, poetry
and stories to life with audience interaction, hand shapes, and
3-D representations.
Ann Marie (Jade)
Bryan –
This “Deaf woman of color” is the founder of Jade Films (an independent
film production company engaged in the development and production
of multi-media technology, video, broadcasting, television and film.)
Tom Cruise –
Hollywood actor who is severely dyslexic
Francisco
de Goya – One of the most famous 19th century
Spanish painters, he became deaf after a serious illness at the
age of 46
Albert
Einstein –
Mathematician and physicist who had a learning disability, did not
speak until he was three years old, had difficulty doing math and
expressing himself through writing in school
Thomas Edison – American
inventor genius who was unable to read until he was 12 years old.
Lou Ferrigno - Bodybuilder and
actor with hearing loss.
Andrew
Foster -
The first African American to graduate from Gallaudet College
(for the Deaf) in Washington, D.C.
Stephen
Hawking – Physicist and mathematician
who is confined to a wheelchair because of Lou Gehrig’s disease. He
uses a computer to speak.
Frank
Hochman -
The first American born Deaf to earn a medical degree and become
a physician
William
Ellsworth “Dummy”
Hoy -
First Major League baseball player who was Deaf.
Dr.
Linda Medleau Jacobs -
one of the 70,000 Americans who are both blind and profoundly
Deaf, Dr. Jacobs is an award winning veterinarian who specializes
in small animal dermatology, and is nationally recognized as
an outstanding teacher in her field.
I. King
Jordan -
First Deaf president of Gallaudet University
Marlee
Matlin -
Oscar-winning actress who lost her hearing at 18months old
due to childhood illness.
Heather
Whitestone McCallum -
First Miss America who was Deaf.
Steve
McQueen –
Known as one of the “coolest” actors in the 1960s and 1970s, this
famous film actor experienced partial hearing loss in his left ear
due to an ear infection at the age of 6.
John
Milton –
English poet who became blind at 43 years of age, after which he
wrote his most famous epic Paradise Lost.
Claude
Monet –
French Impressionist painter whose vision began to fail in his later
years
Horatio
Nelson –
Most famous British admiral, he accomplished some of his greatest
naval victories after losing sight in his right eye and having an
arm amputated due to wartime injuries
Curtis
Pride –
Contemporary Major League Baseball player who was identified as Deaf
at 17 months old, has played for the Expos, Tigers, royals, Yankees
and Atlanta.
James
Ryun –
after experiencing partial hearing loss due to childhood measles,
he went on to be a 3 time Olympic runner who won a silver medal in
the 1968 Olympics. He was elected to serve in Congress in 2002
(R-Kansas).
Franklin Roosevelt –victim
of polio who was elected governor of New York and to 4 terms as President
of the United States
Christy
Smith - Deaf contestant on
"Survivor"
Robin Williams –
Hollywood actor who was diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD) as a child
Stevie
Wonder -
American singer and composer who has been blind since infancy