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Famous People With Disabilities

Everyone has hardships they encounter in their lives, but when someone with a disability is able to overcome all of the additional things a disability brings to not only survive, but to find major success, that is an amazing thing to accomplish. It takes a lot of strength and a complete no-fear attitude to go as far as these highly successful people with disabilities have. From inventors and CEOs to performers and artists, here are of some of the biggest overcoming-disability-to-succeed in fame stories.

Stephen Hawking

In 1963, Hawking contracted motor neurone disease and was given two years to live. Yet he went on to Cambridge to become a brilliant researcher and Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. From 1979 to 2009 he held the post of Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, the chair held by Isaac Newton in 1663. Professor Hawking has over a dozen honorary degrees and was awarded the CBE in 1982. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Science. Stephen Hawking is regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein. Today he is an icon to many.

Stevie Wonder

One of the most beloved singers alive today, Stevie Wonder is a musician, singer and songwriter who was born blind. He was born six weeks early. The blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not yet reached the front and aborted their growth, hence his blindness.
Steve Wonder made his recording debut at age 12. He recorded his first hit single in 1963. Over the next decade, Wonder recorded several hit songs, including "Living in the City," "Boogie on a Reggae Woman" and "Isn't She Lovely."

Helen Keller

An American author, political activist and lecturer who is on the Alabama state quarter, Helen Keller was the first deaf and blind person to earn a college degree. Her story was famously portrayed in the play and film, The Miracle Worker, which documented how her teacher Anne Sullivan was finally able to develop a language that Helen could understand. Helen wrote a total of 12 published books, including her spiritual autobiography, My Religion, and was also a member of the Socialist Party in America, and campaigned heavily for women’s rights and other labor rig. During her lifetime, she received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments.

Ralph Braun

Ralph was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a young boy in 1947. Doctors told his parents he’d never be independent, but both Ralph and his parents were determined to prove them wrong. In the next few years, Ralph lost his ability to walk. At a young age, he set his mind to engineering the first battery-powered scooter. From there he designed the world’s first wheelchair lift, installed in an old postal jeep and complete with hand controls. Necessity is the mother of invention, and Ralph’s physical limitations only served to fuel his determination to live independently and prove to society that people with physical disabilities can participate fully and actively in life.

What started as a personal drive to keep independent evolved into BraunAbility, the leading manufacturer of mobility products across the globe. Ralph passed away in 2013 at the age of 72, but not before he launched the mobility movement.
His vision has brought mobility via four wheels to millions of people around the world, and despite passing away, his legacy will never be forgotten.