List of blind people

The following is a list of notable blind people.

Activists and organizers of the blind

• Tilly Aston – Founder of the Victorian Association of Braille Writers.^[1]
• Louis Braille – Known for Braille.^[2]
• Francis Joseph Campbell – Anti-slavery campaigner and co-founder of the Royal National College for the Blind^[3]
• Haben Girma – Disability rights advocate, first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School
• Kenneth Jernigan – Long-time leader of the National Federation of the Blind.^[4]
• Helen Keller – American deaf-blind writer, lecturer, and activist.^[5]
• Tiffany Brar-Social activist,who founded Jyothirgamaya Foundation which empowers the blind in all spheres of life
• Juan Carlos González Leiva – Cuban lawyer, who founded the Fraternity of the Independent Blind of Cuba and the Cuban Foundation of Human Rights.^[6] He has been harassed, imprisoned and tortured by the communist regime.
• Sabriye Tenberken – Braille Without Borders co-founder.^[7]

Adventurers

• Miles Hilton-Barber – British traveler and climber.^[8]
• James Holman – British man known as the "Blind Traveler."^[9]
• Tofiri Kibuuka – Ugandan-Norwegian athlete. One of the first three blind people to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro (along with John Opio and Lawrence Sserwambala). First African competitor at the Winter Paralympic Games.^[10][11][12]
• Takeichi Nishi – Colonel in the Imperial Japanese Army During World War II. Commander of the 26th Tank Regiment in the Battle of Iwo Jima. He was blinded during battle.
• Erik Weihenmayer – First blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.^[13]

Artists

Acting and performing

• Jack Birkett – also known as "Orlando" and "The Incredible Orlando"; camp actor, dancer, mime. Best known for his roles as Borgia Ginz in the Derek Jarman film Jubilee, and as Caliban in Jarman's version of The Tempest. Though his best-known and most prominent roles have been with Jarman, he has had roles in other films, including 1984's The Bride^[14] and in televised productions of Shakespeare^[15]
• Dana Elcar – Played Peter Thornton (MacGyver). He lost his vision during this time and it was written into the character's story.^[16]
• S. Robert Morgan – A small role in The Wire.^[17]
• Callan Mulvey (an actor seen in various series as Rush and in movies like Batman Vs Superman), has lost the sight by one eye during an accident.

Music

• Tsutomu Aragaki, Japanese tenor, blind from just after birth.^[18]
• The Blind Boys of Alabama – Gospel group.^[19]
• Andrea Bocelli – Operatic pop singer.^[20]
• Rudolf Braun – composer and organist
• Henry Caldera – Sri Lankan singer/songwriter, blind since age 14.^[21]
• Ray Charles – pianist and singer inducted to varied halls of fame.^[22]
• Fanny Crosby – Christian hymn writer.^[23]
• Reverend Gary Davis – gospel blues guitarist.^[24]
• José Feliciano – Grammy Award-winner.^[25]
• Five Blind Boys of Mississippi – The original line-up of this gospel group was blind, some later members were not.^[26]
• Blind Boy Fuller – Blues guitarist and vocalist.^[27]
• Terri Gibbs – country music singer and musician.
• Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu – indigenous Australian singer-songwriter.
• Terry Kelly – Canadian singer
• Diana Gurtskaya, pop singer from the ex-Soviet country of Georgia
• Ed Haley – Appalachian old-time fiddler.^[28]
• Jeff Healey – Blues-rock guitarist and vocalist.^[29]
• Al Hibbler – Jazz pop vocalist.^[30]
• Patrick Henry Hughes- multi instrumental musician, recipient of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
• Heather Hutchison – pop singer^[31]
• Blind Lemon Jefferson – "Father of the Texas Blues"
• Blind Willie Johnson – Slide guitarist who's been termed "influential" and "the apogee" for the instrument.^[32]
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Jazz multi-instrumentalist.^[33]
• Lachi – Visually impaired Nigerian American singer-songwriter, pianist and composer out of New York City^[34]
• Francesco Landini – 14th century Italian composer and organist.^[35]
• Blind Willie McTell – Blues guitarist.^[36]
• Raul Midón – Singer-songwriter.^[37]
• Ronnie Milsap – Country and pop singer.^[38]
• Moondog – Outsider musician born "Louis Thomas Hardin."^[39]
• Turlough O'Carolan – harper and composer blinded by smallpox.^[40]
• Paul Pena, American blues musician and throat singer.
• Joaquín Rodrigo – Spanish composer and pianist.^[41]
• Diane Schuur – Grammy winning jazz singer.^[42]
• Charlotta Seuerling
• George Shearing – British jazz pianist.^[43]
• Tom Sullivan – American musician, author and motivational speaker. The 1982 film If You Could See What I Hear is based on his autobiography.^[44]
• Bertha Tammelin
• Art Tatum – Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame, partial sight in one eye.^[45]
• Lennie Tristano – Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame, critics choice.^[46]
• Ostap Veresai – Noted kobzar.^[47]
• Helmut Walcha – German organist, who recorded the complete organ works of Bach.
• Doc Watson – guitarist in several genres.^[48]
• Stevie Wonder – singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee.^[49]
• Ravindra Jain – Indian poet and musician, composed several superhit Hindi film songs in 1970s and 80s.

Visual artists

• Esref Armagan – Turkish painter, born blind.^[50]
• John Bramblitt – American painter & writer, lost sight in 2001, paints realistically through touch techniques^[51] with intense color.^[52]
• Keith Salmon – English painter & sculptor, blind through diabetes retinopathy.^[53]
• Sergej Popolsin - is a Russian painter who - after he had studied at the College of Arts in Irkutsk, Russia - lost in 1990 his eyesight to the full extent as a cause of serious head injury. The artist is now living and working in Vienna, Austria, is showing his paintings at successful exhibitions in a various of European countries and has a website.^[54]

Writers

• Homer – Ancient Greek orator of the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey. According to legend, he was blind either at birth or due to disease or injury.
• Jorge Luis Borges – Argentine writer blind in later part of his career.^[55]
• Didymus the Blind – Ecclesiastical writer of Alexandria.^[56]
• Belo Cipriani – Latino writer, blind at the age of 26.
• Susanne Krahe – German writer and theologian ^[57]
• Ed Lucas – Sports writer.^[58]
• John Milton – Poet who was blind for the last 22 years of life.^[59]
• Helen Keller – American writer who was both blind and deaf
• Ved Mehta – an Indian/American writer who was born in Lahore (now a Pakistani city) to a Hindu family.
• Nikolai Ostrovsky – a Soviet socialist realist writer.^[60]
• Aldous Huxley – British philosophical writer, partially blind.
• Taha Hussein – Egyptian writer and intellectual who became blind at the age of three.
• Jack Holbrook Vance – highly prolific American master of phantasy.

Athletes and sportspersons

• Lisa Banta – Goalball player.^[61]
• Anthony Clarke (athlete) – World class Judoka.^[62]
• Chris Holmes (swimmer) – He has won multiple Paralympic gold medals for swimming.^[63]
• Cedric Jones – American football player, blind in one eye.^[64]
• Eoin O'Sullivan – Blind basketball player, American football player/coach.^[65]
• Marla Runyan – Legally blind Olympic and Paralympic runner.^[66]
• Zohar Sharon – Blind golfer.^[67]
• Henry Wanyoike – Long-distance runner with 95% vision loss.^[68]
• Trischa Zorn – Swimmer who's the most successful athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games.^[69][70]
• Suranga Sampath – Blind cricketer^[71]
• Shekhar Naik – Blind cricketer^[72]
• Muhammad Akram – Blind cricketer,holds the record for highest individual score in a Blind T20I^[73]
• Masood Jan – Blind cricketer,holds the record for highest individual score in a Blind ODI^[74]
• Zeeshan Abbasi – Blind cricketer

Engineers

• John Metcalf
• T. V. Raman

Mathematicians and scientists

• Jacob Bolotin (January 3, 1888 – April 1, 1924), the world's first totally blind physician fully licensed to practice medicine.
• Gustaf Dalén – Swedish inventor and Nobel Prize winner, who continued to make inventions and lead his company despite being blinded in an accident.
• Leonhard Euler – Swiss mathematician and physicist who went almost totally blind at fifty-nine, but his productivity on mathematics did not decrease throughout his life.
• Bernard Morin – topologist from France.^[75]
• Abraham Nemeth – Developed Nemeth Braille for blind students in science and math.^[76]
• Joseph Plateau – Physicist who went blind at forty-two when he gazed too long at the sun. After his blindness his scientific work diminished, but did not entirely end.^[77]
• Lev Pontryagin – Soviet mathematician who went blind at fourteen. He continued mathematical study with the help of his mother Tatyana Andreevna, and made major discoveries in a number of fields of mathematics.
• Nicholas Saunderson – English mathematician who went blind at the age of twelve months, held in high esteem by Isaac Newton.^[78]
• Claes Wollheim – Swiss scientist of Swedish origin renowned for his work on diabetes.

Medical Professionals

• Dr. Satish Amarnath, an Indian Medical Microbiologist who became totally blind after an acid attack.

Politicians

• Abdurrahman Wahid otherwise known as Gusdur – former president of Indonesia
• Richard H. Bernstein – Elected to Wayne State University Board of Governors in Michigan.
• David Blunkett – Labour Party (UK) politician, former cabinet minister, and Member of Parliament.^[79]
• Kristen Cox – Cabinet secretary in Utah and Maryland.^[80]
• Matthew A. Dunn – Member of the United States House of Representatives.^[81]
• Henry Fawcett – Member of Parliament and Postmaster General of the United Kingdom.^[82]
• Ian Fraser, Baron Fraser of Lonsdale – MP for St Pancras North for eleven non-consecutive years, blinded in World War I.^[83]
• Thomas Gore – US Senator.^[84]
• Cyrus Habib – 16th Lieutenant Governor of Washington
• Louis the Blind, 10th century European king, blinded after being captured.
• Colin Low, Baron Low of Dalston, Member of the British House of Lords.
• Floyd Morris, President of the Senate of Jamaica^[85][86]
• David Paterson – Governor of New York.^[87]
• Bob C. Riley – An acting governor of Arkansas.^[87]
• Thomas D. Schall – A US Senator from Minnesota, blinded by an electrical shock before his time in office.^[88]
• Vasily II of Russia, the 15th century Grand Prince of Moscow
• Béla the Blind, the 12th century King of Hungary^[89]
• Enrico Dandolo, 12th and 13th century 42nd Doge of Venice
• Mike Bucci, Council Member and Vice Mayor

Political activists

• Shelley Davis – American lawyer and labor advocate.
• Chen Guangcheng – Lawyer and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner was imprisoned in China on 22 April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest.[43].^[90]
• Jacques Lusseyran, French author and political activist during World War II.^[91]

Saints

• Lutgardis – Catholic saint, blind in the last 11 years of her life.
• Surdas – Hindu saint, devotional poet and singer who lived during reign of king Akbar (1542–1606).

Diplomats

• Mariyam Cementwala – political officer at the US embassy in New Delhi.
• Beno Zephine N L – Indian Foreign Service officer.

Others

• Mary Ingalls – sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author.
• Gary O'Donoghue – political correspondent for the BBC.
• Ed Walker – lifelong radio show host/humorist, Washington, DC
• Samantha Dehring, Michigan State University Student.
• Akbar Khan – Singer, Composer, Writer and a Banker honored with National Award in 1989, Rajasthan, India.^[92]
• Ashish Goyal – first blind trader in finance

Fictional

• Daredevil – Blind Marvel Comics superhero
• Geordi La Forge was blind since birth but uses a VISOR and later ocular implants that allow him to see the electromagnetic spectrum. The character was created by Gene Roddenberry as a positive role model for the disabled.
• Toph Bei Fong from the show Avatar: The Last Airbender was born blind, but uses her Earthbending abilities to sense vibrations and "see" things that are in contact with the earth. For this reason, she hates flying and sailing, as she lacks contact with the ground and is truly blind.
• Tommy, the titular character of an album by The Who. His blindness, along with his deafness and muteness, are actually psychosomatic.
• Phillip Enright – Main character of The Cay who becomes temporarily blind due to a concussion.
• Jerec was a Star Wars character who served Emperor Palpatine as an Inquisitor. A Miraluka, he was born without eyes.
• Tahl, a love interest of Qui-Gon Jinn, was rendered blind after being held captive. However, with the use of the Force, she was able to compensate for her blindness.
• Halcyon "Hal" Green, a character from the short story "The Diary of Luke Castellan" of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, was a blind seer who antagonist Luke Castellan befriended long before his fall from grace.

References