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.
• Louis Braille - Known for Braille.
• Francis Joseph Campbell - Anti-slavery campaigner and co-founder of the Royal National College for the Blind
• Kenneth Jernigan - Long-time leader of the National Federation of the Blind.
• Helen Keller - American deaf-blind writer, lecturer, and activist.
• Juan Carlos González Leiva - Cuban lawyer, who founded the Fraternity of the Independent Blind of Cuba and the Cuban Foundation of Human Rights. He has been harassed, imprisoned and tortured by the communist regime.
• Sabriye Tenberken - Braille Without Borders co-founder.

Adventurers

• Miles Hilton-Barber - British traveler and climber.
• James Holman - British man known as the "Blind Traveler."
• 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.
• 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.

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 and in televised productions of Shakespeare
• Dana Elcar - Played Peter Thornton (MacGyver). He lost his vision during this time and it was written into the character's story.
• S. Robert Morgan - A small role in The Wire.

Music

For more details on this topic, see Blind musicians.

• Tsutomu Aragaki, Japanese tenor, blind from just after birth.
• Frankie Armstrong - English folk singer and community musician, increasing visual impairment, some sight regained following 1990 operation.
• The Blind Boys of Alabama - Gospel group.
• Andrea Bocelli - Operatic pop singer.
• Henry Caldera - Sri Lankan singer/songwriter, blind since age 14.
• Jessica Callahan - Singer/songwriter and pianist
• Turlough Carolan - Harper and composer blinded by smallpox.
• Ray Charles - Pianist and singer inducted to varied halls of fame.
• Fanny Crosby - Christian hymn writer.
• Reverend Gary Davis - Gospel blues guitarist.
• José Feliciano - Grammy Award-winner.
• Five Blind Boys of Mississippi - The original line-up of this gospel group was blind, some later members were not.
• Blind Boy Fuller - Blues guitarist and vocalist.
• Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu - indigenous Australian singer-songwriter.
• Diana Gurtskaya, pop singer from the ex-Soviet country of Georgia
• Ed Haley - Appalachian old-time fiddler.
• Jeff Healey - Blues-rock guitarist and vocalist.
• Al Hibbler - Jazz pop vocalist.
• Heather Hutchison, pop singer
• Blind Willie Johnson - Slide guitarist who's been termed "influential" and "the apogee" for the instrument.
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Jazz multi-instrumentalist.
• Lachi - Visually impaired Nigerian American singer-songwriter, pianist and composer out of New York City
• Francesco Landini - Fourteenth century Italian composer and organist.
• Blind Willie McTell - Blues guitarist.
• Raul Midón - Singer-songwriter.
• Ronnie Milsap - Country and pop singer.
• Moondog - Outsider musician born "Louis Thomas Hardin."
• Paul Pena, American blues musician and throat singer.
• Joaquín Rodrigo - Spanish composer and pianist.
• Diane Schuur - Grammy winning jazz singer.
• Charlotta Seuerling
• George Shearing - British jazz pianist.
• Tom Sullivan - American musician, author and motivational speaker. The 1982 film If You Could See What I Hear is based on his autobiography.
• Bertha Tammelin
• Art Tatum - Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame, partial sight in one eye.
• Lennie Tristano - Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame, critics choice.
• Ostap Veresai - Noted kobzar.
• Doc Watson - Guitarist in several genres.
• Stevie Wonder - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee.
• V. Hemapala Perera - Sri Lankan Classical Musician.

Visual artists

• Esref Armagan - Turkish painter, born blind.
• John Bramblitt - American painter.
• Keith Salmon - English painter & sculptor, blind through diabetes retinopathy.

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.
• Didymus the Blind - Ecclesiastical writer of Alexandria.
• Ed Lucas - Sports writer.
• John Milton - Poet who was blind for the last 22 years of life.
• Helen Keller - American writer who was both blind and deaf
• Helen Aldrich De Kroyft - American writer who was blind
• Ved Mehta - an Indian/American writer who was born in Lahore (now a Pakistani city) to a Hindu family.
• Aldous Huxley - British philosophical writer, partially blind.
• Taha Hussein - Egyptian writer and intellectual who became blind at the age of three.

Athletes and sportspersons

• Lisa Banta - Goalball player.
• Anthony Clarke (athlete) - World class Judoka.
• Chris Holmes (swimmer) - He has won multiple Paralympic gold medals for swimming.
• Greg Rando IFBB professional bodybuilder.
• Marla Runyan - Legally blind Olympic and Paralympic runner.
• Zohar Sharon - Blind golfer.
• Henry Wanyoike - Long-distance runner with 95% vision loss.
• Trischa Zorn - Swimmer who's the most successful athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games.

Mathematicians and scientists

• Gustaf Dalén - Swedish inventor and Nobel Prize winner, who continued to make inventions and lead his company despite being blinded in an accident.
• Bernard Morin - topologist from France.
• Abraham Nemeth - Developed Nemeth Braille for blind students in science and math.
• 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.
• Nicholas Saunderson - English mathematician who went blind at the age of twelve months, held in high esteem by Isaac Newton.

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.
• Kristen Cox - Cabinet secretary in Utah and Maryland.
• Matthew A. Dunn - Member of the United States House of Representatives.
• Henry Fawcett - Member of Parliament and Postmaster General of the United Kingdom.
• Ian Fraser, Baron Fraser of Lonsdale - MP for St Pancras North for eleven non-consecutive years, blinded in World War I.
• Thomas Gore - US Senator.
• Louis the Blind, 10th century European king, blinded after being captured.
• Colin Low, Baron Low of Dalston, Member of the British House of Lords.
• David Paterson - Governor of New York.
• Bob C. Riley - An acting governor of Arkansas.
• Thomas D. Schall - A US Senator from Minnesota, blinded by an electrical shock before his time in office.
• Vasily II of Russia, the XV century Grand Prince of Moscow

Political activists

• Shelley Davis - American lawyer and labor advocate.
• Chen Guangcheng - Lawyer and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner imprisoned in China.
• Jacques Lusseyran, French author and political activist during World War II.

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).

In Fiction

• Daredevil (Marvel Comics) - Blind "superhero."
• Geordi La Forge was blind since birth but uses a VISOR and later occular implants that allow him to see the electromagnetic spectrum. The character was created by Gene Roddenberry as a positve 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.
• Xerxes Break from the anime and manga series Pandora Hearts became almost completely blind in issue 42 as a result of overusing his powers. However, he still retains the ability to recognize objects if they are placed directly infront of him, although he explains he will lose that ability soon as well.

See also: Fictional blind characters

Others

• Morris Frank - Opened The Seeing Eye, the first guide dog school for the blind in the United States.
• Mary Ingalls - Sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author.
• Princess Christina of the Netherlands - youngest daughter of Queen Juliana and sister of the current Queen Beatrix.
• Gary O'Donoghue - Political correspondent for the BBC.