List of physically disabled politicians
The following is a list of politicians who hold or held office while having a significant physical disability.
Afghanistan
Australia
Brazil
Cambodia
Canada
- Lucien Bouchard, former Ambassador to France, leader of the Bloc Québécois and Premier of Quebec (amputee due to necrotizing fasciitis).
- Stephanie Cadieux, Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (paraplegic).
- Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development (visually impaired due to Graves' disease).
- Steven Fletcher, Member of Parliament for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia (first quadriplegic MP).
- Pierre Sévigny, former Member of Parliament and Associate Minister of National Defence (amputee).[1]
- Sam Sullivan, former Mayor of Vancouver (quadriplegic with limited use of his extremities).
- Marlene Jennings, Member of Parliament for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, partially blind due to detached retinas and cataracts.
- Manon Perreault, Member of Parliament for Montcalm (paraplegic).
Czech Republic
- Jan Žižka, Czech general and Hussite leader, follower of Jan Hus. He took part in the civil wars in Bohemia in the reign of Wenceslaus IV. Legal records from 1378 mention Jan Žižka z Trocnova, hinting that if the nickname žižka meant one-eye, early chronologer Aeneus Sylvius Piccolomini, Pius II was correct in stating the loss of the eye was the result of a childhood fight.
Dominican Republic
France
Germany
Israel
Malaysia
- Karpal Singh, member of parliament for Bukit Gelugor (a car accident has since left him a full-time wheelchair user with neurological problems in his right arm).
Mexico
Norway
Poland
Russia
- Vasily II, the Grand Prince of Moscow, was blinded by his captors in 1446, yet regained power and reigned until his death in 1462.
San Marino
United Kingdom
- Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister, is blind in one eye.
- David Blunkett, former Home Secretary, is blind since birth.
- Jane Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton, disabled rights activist and member of the House of Lords, was born with Spinal muscular atrophy.
- Susan Cunliffe-Lister, Countess of Swinton and Baroness Masham of Ilton, politician, had several parts of her body paralized following a car accident.
- Davina Ingrams, 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth, member of the House of Lords, paralyzed from neck down following a car accident.
- Tanni Grey-Thompson, Baroness Grey-Thompson, disabled athlet and Member of the house of Lords, was born with Spina bifida.
- Nick Griffin, Chairman of the BNP, is blind in one eye, following an accident in 1990 involving a shotgun cartridge.
- David Maclean, Baron Blencathra, MP (1983-2010) currently sitting to the house of Lords, since 1996 has Multiple sclerosis.
United States
- Nicholas Carbone, [(City Councilor, Fitchburg, Massachusetts)], suffer from rare disorder, Friendreich's Ataxia.
- Greg Abbott, Texas state Attorney General, paraplegic due to a vehicular accident.
- Max Cleland, U.S. Senator from Georgia, triple amputee (both legs and one arm) due to a grenade blast in the Vietnam War.
- Bob Dole, U.S. Senator from Kansas and 1996 presidential candidate, has had a paralyzed right arm since a World War II injury.
- John Porter East, U.S. Senator from North Carolina, (paraplegic due to polio).
- Thomas Gore, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, blind.
- Daniel Inouye, U.S. Senator from Hawaii, lost his right arm due to grenade shrapnel in World War II.
- Bob Kerrey, Governor of Nebraska and U.S. Senator from Nebraska, lost one leg below the knee due to combat injury in the Vietnam War.
- John McCain, U.S. Senator from Arizona, limited use of arms due to torture during the Vietnam War
- David Paterson, Governor of New York (legally blind).
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States (paraplegic due to polio).[3]
- George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, paraplegic due to a bullet wound sustained in a 1972 assassination attempt.
- Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, partially paralyzed due to a stroke.
References