From time to time on this blog I’ve profiled individuals from a variety of fields who have achieved great things despite being blind or visually impaired. Examples include the amazing sportsman and businessman Mike May, marathoner (and Seattle resident) Aaron Scheidies and the “social entrepreneur” Caroline Casey.
These three successful individuals are outstanding examples of perseverance, but they are far from unique. I recently found myself fascinated by a page on disabled-world.com that features short biographies of several dozen people from all walks of life and many different eras who overcame blindness or visual impairments to achieve great things.
Some of the people profiled are familiar to all of us: Helen Keller, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Andrea Bocelli, to name a few. Those names weren’t surprising—but some other names were. Here are a few that I found particular interesting:
- John Milton (1608-1674) – The author of “Paradise Lost” became blind at the age of 43 and lived 23 more years without vision.
- Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) – The famous British naval admiral lost an eye as a young seaman, but that didn’t affect his rise through the ranks. As a commander he was said to raise his telescope to his blind eye and then claim not to see the flags of surrender being raised by enemy ships.
- Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) – The American newspaper publisher who established the most prestigious award in journalism became blind due to a retinal detachment at the age of 42.
- Thomas Gore (1870-1949) – Although blinded as a child, Thomas Gore went on to become the first senator from the state of Oklahoma and the Senate’s first blind member. He was also the grandfather of the writer Gore Vidal.
- Dr. Jacob Bolotin (1888-1924) – Dr. Bolotin was the first congenitally blind man to receive a medical license. The Chicago physician was an expert of diseases of the heart and lungs and an advocate for the full inclusion of the blind in education, employment, and all other aspects of society.
- James Thurber (1894-1961) – James lost an eye when one of his brothers shot him with an arrow while recreating the legend of William Tell shooting the apple on his son’s head. As a result of the accident, James switched his attention from sports to writing, and the rest is literary history.
Photo by Scorpions and Centaurs
Those are only a few examples from what is a very interesting and often inspiring site.
