20/02/2016

You are not alone – Famous with disabilities

Have a disability or medical condition? You are not alone.

Many people with disabilities have contributed to society. These include actors, actresses, celebrities, singers, world leaders, and many other famous people.

“We all live with the objective of being happy,
our lives are all different and yet the same”
(Anna Frank)

There are also millions of people worldwide who may not be famous in the sense society deems famous, but still live with, battle, and overcome their disabilities every single day of their lives.

Albert Einstein
The mathematician, physicist who had a learning disability.

Christopher Reeve
Never has a person with a disability commanded so much media attention in recent history. Christopher Reeve, crippled after a horse-riding injury, wants to be up on his feet & wants to help others stand confident too. His life is now dedicated to the power of medical research to get up & ride again.

Thomas Edison
Edison is the great inventor who had over 1,000 patents and his inventions are in various fields used in our daily life. In his early life he was thought to have a learning disability.

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

Francsico de Goya
Spanish painter (1746-1828): At age 46, an illness left him deaf. He went on to create the most famous Spanish art of the 19th century.

Helen Keller
(Devoted Life to Persons with Disabilities) She was Blind, Deaf, and English Author/poet (1608-1674): He became blind at age 43. He went on to create his most famous epic, Paradise Lost.

Lord Byron
"Mad, bad and dangerous to know", Britain’s great romantic was also born with talipes, a club foot. It is said that he "walked with difficulty but wandered at will". He toured Europe extensively and captured the popular imagination through his poetry and his personality. From gloomy egoism through to satiric realism he was renowned for his writings, his sexual ambivalences and his championing of Greek independence from the Turks. Disability activist Tom Shakespeare summed him up in the following way:

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.

Marla Runyan
One of the women representing the Unites States in the 1500 metre track event at the 2000 Olympics was Marla Runyan. The American runner finished seventh in her preliminary heat and rose to sixth in the semi finals to qualify for the finals.

Sarah Bernhardt
French actress (1844-1923) Disabled by a knee injury, her leg amputated in 1914, she continued starring on stage until just before her death. She is regarded as France’s greatest actress — “The Divine Sarah”.

Stephen Hawkings
World famous Physicist/mathematician and author of A Short History of the Universe. Though he is now nearly paralyzed, he is teaching through a computer supported a machine by which his words are compiled. His physical illness could not make him stop form his research. His famous book is “A Brief History of Time”.

Tom Cruise
(Hollywood Star): is severely dyslexic

Walt Disney
Had a learning disability

Woodrow Wilson
U.S. President from 1913-1921. Had a learning disability – he was severely dyslexic.

Hajdana Simović, Montenegro

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