Notables with disabilities

Definition from the WHO: Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. Impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations.

People with disabilities are not a group sharing the same things. The only thing they share is that they all have disabilities. But in the word 'disability' is included the word 'ability'. The different profiles of these notables will show the different achievements and performance.

As this project progresses we might be able to define different groups of notables, for example:

• Art & Culture
• Heroes & Heroines
• Politics & Government
• Science & Education
• Sports & Skills

Note about language

The disabled community is not monolithic in how it defines itself or how it self-describes. This is best illustrated by the distinction between person-first language and identity-first language.

• Person-first language emphasizes the individual as being separate from their disabilities and stresses that they are not defined by them
  • Examples: "person with a disability", "person with autism"
• Identity-first language emphasizes that someone's disability or disabilities are an integral part of their experience of theirself and the world, and they do not want to be separated from them
  • Examples: "disabled people", "autistic person"

Both of these approaches are acceptable and are up to the individual person and community. Some communities/conditions tend to prefer one approach more than the other, but it is always best to ask the individual.

Most disability consultants recommend using a mixed approach when writing in order to include both perspectives.

For more information, see "Writing Respectfully: Person-First and Identity-First Language" by Shannon Wooldridge.

Websites:

• http://www.disabilityhistory.org/people.html
• http://www.twu.edu/dsc/index.htm
• http://hcdg.org/famous.htm
• http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_0060.shtml

Examples of notables with disabilities

Note: Some of the notables below have been determined to have disabilities by historians in later periods

Arts & Culture

• Wäinö Aaltonen (1864-1966)
• Sarah Bernhardt (Rosine Bernardt) (1844-1923)
• George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
• Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
• Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (1866-1944)
• John Milton (1608-1674)
• Petronella Moens (1762-1843)
• Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585)
• Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (1864-1901)
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
• Virginia Woolf (Adeline Virgina Stephen) (1882-1941)
• Zangeres Zonder Naam (Maria Beij) (1919-1998)
• Bill Cosby
• Will Smith
• R. Kelly
• Fantasia
• Earvin "Magic" Johnson
• Samuel L. Jackson
• Solange Knowles

Heroes & Heroines

• Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968)
• Horatio Nelson (1758-1805)
• Harriet Tubman (Araminta Harriet Ross) (1820-1913)
• Blas de Lezo (1689-1741)

Politics & Government

• David Blunkett (1947-)
• Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826)
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945)

Science & Education

• Albert Einstein
• Charles Bonnet (1720-1793)
• Louis Braille (1809-1852)
• Anders Gustaf Ekeberg (1767-1813)
• John Goodricke (1764-1786)
• Stephen Willam Hawking (1942-)
• John Nash (1928 - )

Please join and collaborate on this project to add profiles or other information.