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 ofthe 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 WonderDue to being born six

weeks premature, Stevie Wonderwas born with a condition calledretinopathy of prematurity, whichmade him blind. Stevie Wonder,even with this disability, made hislandmark to be a pioneer.

The reason why StevieWonder had gotten that stage namewas because many people wereastounded by his ability to playnumerous instruments and hisability to sing doing both at thesame time, and people called StevieA 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 MabiniHe 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 graduallyincapacitated him until January 1896,when he finally lost the use of bothhis 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 EdisonHe 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 27-

year-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 GatesBill 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: Ireally 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