Many people are not fortunate enough to be born with the same kind of abilities that virtually all of their healthy brethren take for granted. However, that certainly does not mean that they are not able to live their lives the way they wanted to. The mere fact that there have been many Famous People with Disabilities throughout history who have not considered themselves to be ‘disabled’ but rather ‘differently abled’ bears mute testimony to the power of the human spirit.

Let us take a look at some of the more Famous People with Disabilities and see for ourselves how they have transformed not just their own lives, but the lives of generations of people who came after them, for the better.  

o The story of the iconic Helen Keller  “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”

Helen KellerWhen Helen Keller was born she had been a perfectly normal and healthy baby, with a capacity for near boundless curiosity. Due to the fact that she had actually beenborn with the gift of sight as well hearing, what happened to her afterward was an absolutely telling blow, chiefly because she still had fond memories of that wonderful time. However, illness robbed her of both hearings as well as the gift of sight.  But nevertheless, she refused to allow her crushing disabilities to break her down in any manner. On the contrary, she thought of them as her strengths rather than as infirmities holding her back. So much so that she becomes not disabled but “differently able.”

The fact that she could neither see nor hear did not stop her from becoming a pioneering women’s rights activist, a varsity level lecturer, and an ardent voice for the blind and the deaf. But her work did not stop there since she also dedicated her life to taking care of the poor and the downtrodden and the labor class.

As a matter of fact, she had been able to both leverage and use her extraordinarily unique position as the most famous deaf and blind person of her time, to in effect “open the eyes and ears” of the entire world. Indeed, so powerful had her voice been, even in her own lifetime, that it resonates to this day and she is now known the world over, as arguably the most famous deaf and blind person who had ever lived, since the dawn of time.  

In spite of the fact that she had practically lived her whole life in a world as silent as it was dark. Yet she adamantly refused to see her crippling handicaps as a burden, but on the contrary, considered them to be the stepping stones through which she became a beacon of inspirations and hope for the people around her. Despite the fact that she had been trapped in a bottomless well of silence She was able to make a clear and visible impact for all those people who had no voice of their own.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.

Helen Keller

o Louis Braille: The blind man who taught the blind to read

“Live without seeing, but be what you are”

Louis Braille

When he was but a mere three years of age, Louis Braille was happily playing in his father’s workshop when he inadvertently injured his eye with a sharp cobbler’s instrument. Soon the infection spread to his other eye and there was nothing that the doctors in those long-ago days could do save his eyesight in either eye.

Rather than accept this crushing handicap, and become depressed Braille decided to use the ‘darkness’ of his life to bring light to all those who had suffered a similar plight. He went on to invent ‘Braille, that to this day is the only language through which blind people can also read books and thereby get a chance to effectively ‘see’ the world, but through ‘the eyes of their hearts’ rather than the ones in their heads.

The Braille system proved to be a veritable godsend for the tens of millions of completely and irreversibly blind people who now finally had the opportunity to both read and write again and thereby attain a semblance of a normal life.

As a matter of fact, today several post-graduate degree holders and even Ph.D. scholars exist, who have managed to attain their higher education only, thanks to the towering spirit of Louis Braille. His system is now used in just about every country in the world and large volumes of the world greatest literary treasures have now been printed in Braille.

“Braille is knowledge, and knowledge is power”

Louis Braille

o Stephen Hawking: He explored the starts from a wheelchair  

“Life would be tragic if it weren't funny”

Stephen Hawking

There are few people in the world who have not heard of the “professor in the flying wheelchair.” In spite of being paralyzed almost completely, he wen ton to become the world’s most famous astrophysicist as well as a theoretical cosmologist. He went on to write multiple bestselling books and was regularly invited to speak at seminars and symposiums, in spite of the fact that he could not even speak in the conventional sense. His only means of communication was through a synthetic voice box and a bit of motion in his fingers. Later on, when even that was gone, he tried communicating and giving lectures only with his cheek movements.

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change”

     Stephen Hawking: The above are just a few examples of famous people with disabilities who rose over and above their circumstances. 

many people  people to send us their ideas and suggestions so that we can improve society at large. 

  We at Tommy’s Team work actively to make the community as well as the society around us to be a better place to live in, and we also encourage many people to send us their ideas and suggestions so that we can improve society at large, for everyone concerned. And yes, this also includes single mothers who are desirous of bettering their lot in life, through sheer hard work and high-quality education.  You can register with us at http://www.tommysteam.com