Nyle DiMarco
Deaf actor, model and advocate · Born 1989
A Deaf performer and advocate, he champions sign language, accessible education and Deaf representation in entertainment.
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People shaping hearing health, disability rights and wellness — from performers and athletes to advocates and medical pioneers.
Hearing Loss
Haben Girma
Deafblind lawyer and disability rights advocate · Born 1988
The first Deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School, she advocates for accessible technology, education and equal opportunity.
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Lauren Ridloff
Deaf actor · Born 1978
Known for The Walking Dead and Eternals, she brings Deaf representation to stage and screen. Her father is Mexican-American and her mother is African-American.
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Millicent Simmonds
Deaf actor and advocate · Born 2003
Her performances in Wonderstruck and A Quiet Place brought Deaf characters and American Sign Language to wider audiences.
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Helen Keller
Author, activist, and advocate · 1880–1968
Deaf and blind from early childhood, she became a world-famous author and campaigned for people with disabilities, women’s suffrage, and workers’ rights.
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Ronald Reagan
40th U.S. President · 1911–2004
In 1983 he began wearing a hearing aid in office, helping many Americans feel comfortable seeking hearing help.
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Bill Clinton
42nd U.S. President · Born 1946
In 1997 he was fitted with hearing aids for high-frequency hearing loss, which his doctors linked partly to years of loud noise.
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Laurent Clerc
Deaf educator · 1785–1869
A Deaf teacher from France, he co-founded the first permanent school for the deaf in the U.S. in 1817 and helped shape American Sign Language.
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Andrew Foster
Educator and missionary · 1925–1987
The first Black graduate of Gallaudet, he founded dozens of schools for deaf children across Africa.
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Composer · 1770–1827
He kept composing as he lost his hearing, writing his Ninth Symphony when he was almost completely deaf.
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Thomas Edison
Inventor · 1847–1931
Hard of hearing from childhood, he said his deafness helped him concentrate — even as he invented the phonograph.
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Juliette Gordon Low
Founder of the Girl Scouts · 1860–1927
Mostly deaf after ear injuries, she founded the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912.
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Francisco Goya
Painter · 1746–1828
The Spanish master became deaf after an illness in 1793 and went on to create some of his most powerful work.
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Heather Whitestone
Miss America 1995 · Born 1973
She became the first deaf Miss America and used her platform to encourage young people with disabilities.
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Marlee Matlin
Actor and advocate · Born 1965
She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1987, the first Deaf performer to do so, and has long advocated for captioning.
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Troy Kotsur
Actor · Born 1968
For CODA, he became the first Deaf man to win an Academy Award for acting, in 2022.
Read more in TimecyclopediaDisabilities
Judith Heumann
Disability rights leader · 1947–2023
A lifelong advocate for disability rights, she helped lead the 1977 Section 504 sit-in and worked to make education, employment and public life more accessible.
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Ed Roberts
Independent living pioneer · 1939–1995
A wheelchair user after contracting polio, he helped build the independent living movement and championed disabled people's right to direct their own lives.
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Tammy Duckworth
U.S. senator and military veteran · Born 1968
After losing both legs in combat in Iraq, she continued in public service and advocates for veterans and people with disabilities.
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Tatyana McFadden
Paralympic wheelchair racer · Born 1989
Born with spina bifida, she has won 22 Paralympic medals and advocates for equal access to sports for athletes with disabilities.
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Ali Stroker
Actor, singer and accessibility advocate · Born 1987
In 2019 she became the first wheelchair user to win a Tony Award for acting, helping expand disability representation on Broadway.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd U.S. President · 1882–1945
Paralyzed from the waist down after a 1921 illness diagnosed as polio, he led the nation through the Depression and World War II and founded the March of Dimes.
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Stephen Hawking
Physicist · 1942–2018
Living with ALS for more than five decades, he spoke through a computer voice and transformed our understanding of black holes.
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Frida Kahlo
Painter · 1907–1954
Childhood polio and a devastating bus accident left her in lifelong pain; she painted much of her celebrated work from bed.
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Harriet Tubman
Abolitionist · c. 1822–1913
A severe head injury in her youth left her with seizures and spells for life, yet she guided dozens of people to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
Read more in TimecyclopediaLouis Braille
Inventor and teacher · 1809–1852
Blinded in a childhood accident, he invented the raised-dot reading system that still carries his name.
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Ray Charles
Musician · 1930–2004
Blind from age seven, he blended gospel, blues and jazz into soul music and earned 17 Grammy Awards.
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Wilma Rudolph
Olympic sprinter · 1940–1994
Told as a child with polio she might never walk normally, she won three gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
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Christopher Reeve
Actor and advocate · 1952–2004
After a 1995 riding accident left him paralyzed, he became a leading voice for spinal cord injury research.
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Henrietta Lacks
Woman whose cells transformed medical research · 1920–1951
Cells taken during her cancer treatment without her knowledge became the HeLa cell line. Her legacy connects medical breakthroughs with questions of consent, equity and respect for patients.
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Susan La Flesche Picotte
Omaha physician and public health advocate · 1865–1915
In 1889 she became the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S. She cared for her community and promoted sanitation and preventive health.
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Antonia Novello
Physician and former U.S. surgeon general · Born 1944
The first woman and first Hispanic person to serve as U.S. surgeon general, she championed children's health, prevention and access to care.
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Regina Benjamin
Physician and former U.S. surgeon general · Born 1956
A family physician who served a rural Alabama community, she made prevention, healthier living and access to care central to her public health work.
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David Satcher
Physician and former U.S. surgeon general · Born 1941
A former CDC director and U.S. surgeon general, he has championed mental health, disease prevention and the reduction of health disparities.
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Florence Nightingale
Founder of modern nursing · 1820–1910
Her insistence on clean wards and careful record-keeping during the Crimean War cut deaths and reshaped hospital care.
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Clara Barton
Founder of the American Red Cross · 1821–1912
A Civil War nurse known as the “Angel of the Battlefield,” she founded the American Red Cross in 1881.
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Jonas Salk
Medical researcher · 1914–1995
His polio vaccine, announced safe and effective in 1955, helped nearly eliminate a disease that had disabled thousands of children each year.
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Dorothea Dix
Mental health reformer · 1802–1887
She campaigned for humane treatment of people with mental illness and helped found dozens of public hospitals.
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Elizabeth Blackwell
Physician · 1821–1910
The first woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S., in 1849, she later opened an infirmary for women and children.
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Charles Drew
Surgeon and researcher · 1904–1950
A pioneering Black surgeon, he developed large-scale blood banking methods that saved countless lives in World War II.
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Edward Jenner
Physician · 1749–1823
His 1796 smallpox vaccine experiments laid the foundation for vaccines and, eventually, the eradication of smallpox.
Read more in TimecyclopediaLouis Pasteur
Scientist · 1822–1895
His germ theory work, pasteurization and early vaccines changed how the world prevents disease.
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