Fascinating Presentation created by our great intern Esther

2. Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder was born in Michigan in 1950 to parents Lula
Mae Hardaway and Calvin Judkins. He was born blind due to
an eye disorder called retinopathy of prematurity.
His family moved to Detroit when he was four and there he
found his talent for singing with the church choir. By the age of
ten he had taught himself to play the harmonica, piano and
drums along with singing.
Wonder was noticed by Ronnie White in 1961. He wa signed
to a record deal with Motown and in the next few years
produced an instrumental album followed by an album
recorded live, its single reaching the top of the pop and r&b
charts. He continued to produce music and became more and
more popular as the years went on. In the 60’s he signed
another deal with Motown which gave him complete control of
his own music. In the 1980’s he produced some of his
greatest hits such as ‘I called to say I love you’ which reached
the top if the pop charts. Apart from a few hits such as ‘I called
to say I love you’ his music production became sporadic and
less popular. Despite this, he was awarded 6 grammys and
other awards in the years following.

3. Isaiah Isaacs
At six weeks old his mother noticed something was
not quite right when Isaiah did not laugh at her silly
faces but laughed at her silly noises. Doctors found
that he was indeed blind. As he grew up his vision
improved but at 18 years old he is still impaired with
nystagmus, a convergent squint, no peripheral vision
and no depth perception.
Despite his impairment, he has gone on to study
Electronic Music Production at Djing as a teenager
and is now going to university to study the BA course
for this department.
He has produced some of his own music which can
be accessed on the website Soundcloud.
Isaiah’s Soundcloud profile:
https://soundcloud.com/Kidsonic_official

4. Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller, born in 1880, suffered from an unknown
illness at the age of 19 months, leaving her both deaf and blind.
She learnt to communicate with signs to the people around her
and at the age if seven had 60 home signs. Her mother sent
Helen and her father to seek advice from a physician specialised
in the ear, mouth, nose and throat. He recommended them to
contact the Perkins Institute for the blind who asked former
student Anne Sullivan to become Helen’s instructor. She taught
Helen words by spelling them out on her hand, frustrating Keller
as she did not understand that each object had a specific word
attached to it. She gradually learnt and went on to study braille
and sign language, hearing people’s words by putting her hand
to their mouth to understand what they were saying. Following
her education at the Institute, she went on to a college for young
ladies and to Harvard where she received a Bachelor Arts
degree.
Keller became a lecturer, speaking about her experiences and
spreading a message of happiness and optimism.

5. Erik Weihenmayer
Erik Weihenmayer was born sighted but at 15 months was diagnosed
with a condition which meant that he would gradually go blind as he grew
up. He attended school like any other child and refused to learn braille or
use a cane as he was still at least partly sighted and wanted to hang onto
his life, but at the age of 16 started using a guide dog. He continued to
live an active life despite his impairment, learning rock climbing and
becoming a middle school teacher. He found he had a talent for rock
climbing and in 1995 climbed his first big mountain, Denali. In 2004, with
six blind tibetan teenagers and two guides he climbed the north side of
Mount Everest up to 21500 feet. He stood higher than any other blind
person had ever stood. As the ‘Times’ said he had pushed the
boundaries of what man is capable to do. Weihenmayer did not stop
there, continuing to climb high peaks all around the world, kayaking and
completing a bike race.

6. Chris Holmes
Chris Holmes was a former paralympic swimmer now
politician. He was born sighted and became blind as a
teenager due to a genetic eye disorder. He studied social
and political sciences at Cambridge where he received a
BA and later a Master of Arts. Beside his education, he had
a talent for swimming. He had learnt before he turned blind
as a teenager and continued after. In 1988 he qualified for
the Paralympic Olympics as a member of the Britain
Swimming Team (member between 1985-2002). He was re-
qualified for the games in 1992 where he won six gold
medals and a silver . After this achievement, he continued
to participate in the Paralympics till 2000, his last games. In
his swimming career he had broken a total of 29 records.
He became an ambassador for Paralympic sport following
his participation in the games and worked to support
disabled people’s rights. He is now part of the Chamber of
Lords, supporting many causes including technology
mobility and innovation and human rights. His work
promotes support and diversity.