FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH

DISABILITIES

Helen Keller
Helen Keller was born able
to see and hear just fine
and continued to be able to
do so until she was about
one and a half years old. At
that time, she became sick
with some type of illness.
What that particular illness
was isnt entirely known.
However, it is thought that it
might have been scarlet
fever or meningitis, with the
symptoms being described
as an acute congestion of
the stomach and brain.

Whatever the case, after she recovered her health,

unfortunately, she was diagnosed deafblind. She
had no way of communicating with her family until
her teacher arrived around her seventh birthday. In
fact, she had a very limited communication method
involving about 60 home signs that she used. But
inspite of her disabilities Helen Adams Keller was
an American author, political activist, and lecturer
and was the first deafblind person to earn a
bachelor of arts degree.

Stevie Wonder
Due to being born six
weeks premature, Stevie Wonder
was born with a condition called
retinopathy of prematurity, which
made him blind. Stevie Wonder,
even with this disability, made his
landmark to be a pioneer.
The reason why Stevie
Wonder had gotten that stage name
was because many people were
astounded by his ability to play
numerous instruments and his
ability to sing doing both at the
same time, and people called Stevie
A Little Wonder.

Nick Vujicic
Nicholas James "Nick"
Vujicic born 4 December 1982 is
an Australian Christian
evangelist and motivational
speaker born with tetra-amelia
syndrome, a rare disorder
characterised by the absence of
all four limbs. As a child, he
struggled mentally and
emotionally as well as
physically, but eventually came
to terms with his disability and,
at the age of seventeen, started
his own non-profit organisation,
Life Without Limbs.

Vujicic
presents
motivational
speeches
worldwide which focus on life with a disability,
hope and finding meaning in life. He also
speaks about his belief that God can use any
willing heart to do his work and that God is big
enough to overcome any disability.
Vujicic has written that he keeps a pair of
shoes in his closet due to his belief in
miracles.

Apolinario Mabini
He is often referred to as
"The Sublime Paralytic"
(Tagalog:"Dakilang Lumpo"). He was
a Filipino revolutionary
leader,educator,lawyer,
and statesman who served as the
first Prime Minister of the
Philippines, serving first under
the Revolutionary Government, and
then under the First Philippine
Republic.
Mabini was struck by polio in 1895,
and
the
disease
gradually
incapacitated him until January 1896,
when he finally lost the use of both
his lower limbs.

Albert Einstein
He is a famous scientist that is
known to be good in every experiment that
he was proposing. He was also known to be
one of the most famous in introducing
theories as well as scientific principles that
helps the students to get wide array of
knowledge regarding scientific concepts. But
people are not aware that he was able to
acquire dysgraphia during his school days
where he actually failed some of his exams
since he cannot understand and recognized
words. With the help of a neurologist, little
by little he was able to gain back his creative
thinking ability though he recognizing and
organizing skills are not the same as his
previous one.

Thomas Edison
He is a famous scientist that
really gives an impact in the world of
science. He was able to able to proposed
scientific theories and principles that
provides wide array of understanding to
all the people regarding the different types
of scientific concepts that they are going
to encounter in school. But, he also
acquired dysgraphia during his childhood
years wherein his ability in writing and
reading was not evident. He was not seen
to be as intelligent as other students since
even writing just a simple word is a hard
task for him. But he was able to deal with
it, when he showed how determined and
he was in acquiring and developing his
writing and reading skills.

Justin Timberlake
Born Justin Randall Timberlake on
January 31, 1981, Justin is an American pop
singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer and
actor. Justin Timberlake came to fame as one of
the lead singers of pop boy band 'N Sync. In 2002,
he released his debut solo album, Justified.
Timberlake's
second
solo
release,
FutureSex/LoveSounds, was released in 2006 with
the U.S. number-one hit singles "SexyBack", "My
Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around".
In an interview with Collider.com the 27year-old singer/actor is quoted as saying, I have
OCD mixed with ADD, you try living with that.
Although he struggles with OCD (Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder) Timberlake says he still
loves to perform and OCD doesn't stop him from
living.

Bill Gates
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
and the richest man in the world, is said to
suffer from ADHD. As a child Bill used to ask
a lot of questions and always disturbed the
whole class and had a habit of reading ahead
of his class. Bill Gates was poor in studies,
and his condition was in fact so bad that he
had to drop out of Harvard University due to
his bad performance in school.
Bill had great dreams and he always
dreamt of going big with his ideas at some
point in his life and he proved it in style.
Talking about his big dreams, he said: I
really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid,
and I think a great deal of that grew out of the
fact that I had a chance to read a lot.

Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne burst onto the music
scene when she was just 17. Raised in the
small town of Napanee, Ontario, her debut
album Let Go, released in 2002, went
platinum four times. Its most popular song,
"Complicated," became a number-one single
worldwide, as have four other singles
released since then.
Lavigne was diagnosed with ADHD as a child
and took Ritalin for a few years, but stop
when she was 12 because she hated needing
a medication to act normally. She was known
as the wild girl Avie for disturbing classes,
fighting and being kicked out of school three
times at 15 she decided to go back on her
medication.

Marlee Matlin
An Academy Award winning
actress for her leading role in Children
of a Lesser God (1986), Marlee Matlin is
one of the most successful actresses
whos deaf. She has been deaf since
she was 18 months old due to a
genetically malformed cochlea. She
also received a Golden Globe Award
for her role in Children of a Lesser.
Since receiving her Oscar, Marlee has
been a character on many TV shows
including The L Word and Law & Order:
SVU, and has appeared on reality
shows such as The Apprentice and
Dancing with the Stars.

CHER

DYSLEXIA

George Washington
Had a learning
disability. He could
barely write and had
very poor grammar
skills.

Franklin Roosevelt
Roosevelt had Polio,
was governor of New
York State then
elected President of
the United States for
4 terms.

Ludwig van Beethoven

(famous musician) Beethoven is the
greatest German composer and musician
who was deaf at the later part of his life.
In his early life he was famous as a
pianist. He got the primary knowledge of
music from his father, who was a
musician. He has some mysterious
power which led him to create famous
compositions one after another. He went
to Vienna and learned from some of
prominent musicians. After the age of 28,
he started becoming deaf and his
personal life was not so peaceful. He
composed many piano sonatas such as
Waldstein, Appassionata, etc.

The Individuals
with Disabilities
Education Act