This document profiles 10 blind or deaf people who changed the world through their accomplishments and innovations. It describes Galileo Galilei's astronomical discoveries despite losing his sight later in life. It also discusses Thomas Edison's inventions like the phonograph despite becoming deaf from illnesses as a child. Additionally, it mentions Laurent Clerc co-founding the first school for the deaf in America and Franklin D. Roosevelt being one of the most popular US presidents despite vision impairments.

1. 10 BLIND/DEAF PEOPLE WHO CHANGED THE WORLD
Galileo Galilei - (15 February 1564 - 8 January 1642) Galileo Galilei was a Tuscan (Italian)
astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and philosopher being greatly responsible for the
scientific revolution. Some of his accomplishments include improvements to the
telescope, accelerated motion and astronomical observations. Galileo was the first to
discover the four largestsatellites of Jupiter which were named the Galilean moons
in his honor. Galileo had also improved compass design and eventually opposed
the geocentric view. His sight started to deteriorate at the age of 68 years old
and eventually leaded to complete blindness.
Thomas Edison - Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 - October 18, 1931) was an American
inventor of Dutch origin and businessman who developed many devices thatgreatly influenced
life around the world, including the phonograph and a long lasting light bulb. In school, the
young Edison's mind often wandered. He was noted to be terrible at mathematics, unable
to focus, and had difficulty with words and speech. This ended Edison's three months of
official schooling. The cause ofEdison's deafness has been attributed to a boutofscarlet
fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle ear infections.
Laurent Clerc- (26 December 1785 - 18 July 1869) Laurant Clerc was called "The Apostle
ofthe deafin America"and "The Father ofthe Deaf" by generations ofAmericandeafpeople.
With Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet,he co-founded the first schoolforthe deafin North America,
the Hartford Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb on April 15,
1817 in the old Bennet's City Hotel,Hartford, Connecticut. Clerc's name signwould become
the best known and most recognizable name sign in American deaf history and Clerc
became the most renowned deaf person in American history.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - (January 30, 1882 -April 12, 1945) Franklin Delano
Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States of America. Roosevelt had
several disabilities including vision impairment. He made his mark in American
Politics and was the 32nd President of the United States of America. He was
one of the most popular presidents in history. He earned a degree from the
Harvard College and was a corporate lawyer after earning a degree from
the Columbia Law School.

2. William Elsworth - Dummy Hoy - (May 23, 1862 - December 15, 1961) was an
American center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for several teams from
1888 to 1902, most notably the Cincinnati Reds and two Washington, D.C. franchises.
He is noted for being the mostaccomplished deafplayer in major league history, and is
credited by somesourceswithcausing the establishmentofsignals for safe and out calls.
Hoy became deaf after suffering from meningitis at age three, and went on to graduate
from the Ohio State Schoolfor the Deaf in Columbus as class valedictorian.Hoy became
the third deaf player in the major leagues, after pitcher Ed Dundon and catcher Tom
Lynch. Hoy also worked as an executive with Goodyear after supervising hundreds of
deaf workers during World War I. In 1951 he was the first deaf athlete elected to
membership in the American Athletic Association of the Deaf Hall of Fame.
Marla Runyan - (Born January 4, 1969) Marla Runyan is a marathon runner who is legally
blind. She is the three-time national champion in the women's 5.000 meter run. Runyan
was the first legally blind athlete to compete in the Olympics Games. She placed eighth in
the 1,500-meter in the 2000 Sydney Olympics making itthe highestfinish by an American
woman in that event. In 2002 she finished as the top American at the 2002 New York City
Marathon to post the second-fastest debut time ever by an American woman.
Heather Whitestone McCallum- (born February 24, 1973) Heather is a beauty queen who
was the first deaf Miss America title holder, having lost her hearing at the age of eighteen
months. Whitestone represented Alabama at the 1995 Miss America pageant held in
Atlantic City, New Jersey. Despite being profoundly deaf, she performed balleten pointe
to the song "Via Dolorosa"as her talent, winning the preliminary talent competition, as
well as the preliminary swimsuit competition.
Linda Bove - (born November 30, 1945) is a deafAmerican actress who played the part
of Linda the Librarian on the children's television program Sesame Streetfrom 1971 to
2003. Bove has introduced thousands of children to sign language and issues
surrounding the Deaf Community. Her role as Linda on Sesame Street is currently the
longestrecurring role in television history for a deaf person. Bove attended Gallaudet
University. She has been married to Ed Waterstreet since 1970. Like Bove, Waterstreet
is also deaf. He also performed with the National Theater of the Deaf.

3. Gertrude Ederle- (October 23, 1906 - November 30, 2003) Gertrude was an American
competitive swimmer. In 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English
Channel. She trained at the Women's Swimming Association, which produced such
competitors as Eleanor Holm and Esther Williams. She joined the club when she was
only fifteen. From this time Gertrude began to break and establish more amateur
records than any other woman in the world. Ederle had poor hearing since
childhood due to measles, and by the 1940s she was completely deaf. She spent
the rest of her life teaching swimming to deaf children.
Sabriye Tenberken - (born 1970) is a German socialworker and
co-founder of the organisation Braille Without Borders. Sabriye
became gradually visually impaired and completely blind by the age
ofthirteen due to retinal disease. She studied Central Asian Studies at
Bonn University. In addition to Mongolian and modern Chinese, she
studied modern and classical Tibetan in combination with Sociology and
Philosophy. As no blind studenthad ever before ventured to enroll in this
kind of studies, she could not fall back on the experience ofprevious students,so she developed her own
methods of studying her course of studying. It was thus that a Tibetan Braille script for the blind was
developed in 1992, which became the official scriptfor the blind in Tibet. In 1997, Sabriye travelled to Tibet
alone in order to assess the situation of the blind there. Returning in 1998, she founded the Centre for the
Blind in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, to educate blind people. Before, the blind had not been able to attend
school.
SOURCE: http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/famous-deaf.shtml