- Deaf Smith
Erastus "Deaf" Smith (April 19, 1787 - November 30, 1837) was an American frontiersman noted for his part in the Texas Revolution and the army of the Republic of Texas. He fought at the Grass Fight and the Battle of San Jacinto. After the war, Deaf Smith led a company of Texas Rangers.
- Charles The Deaf
Charles the Deaf from the House of Bjelbo was the jarl of Sweden during 1216-1220. His father was jarl Bengt Snivil. He was the younger brother of jarl Birger Brosa and father of jarl Ulf Fase. Charles died at the Battle of Lihula in 1220.
- Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 - June 1, 1968) was a deafblind American author, activist and lecturer.
- Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III (born January 12, 1951) is an American radio talk show host and political commentator. Born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, he is a self-described conservative, who discusses politics and current events on his program, "The Rush Limbaugh Show". He has been credited with reviving AM radio in the United States, and is considered to have been a catalyst for the Republican Party's Congressional victories in 1994.
- Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11 1847 - October 18 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and a long lasting light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention, …
- Marlee Matlin
Marlee Matlin served in the form of keynote speaker in the seventh annual Diversity Conference of the Alabama Community College System Human Resources Management Association (ACCSHRMA) that took place on October 2-3 at Shelby-Hoover Campus of Jefferson State Community College. Marlee Beth Matlin is an American deaf actress who was born in Morton Grove, Illinois as on August 24, 1965. She is the daughter of Donald Matlin who deals in automobile and Libby Matlin .
- Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven, (baptized December 17, 1770 - March 26, 1827) was a German composer. He is regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of music, and was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music. His music and his reputation inspired — and in many cases intimidated — ensuing generations of composers, musicians, and audiences.
- Laurent Clerc
Laurent Clerc was born December 26, 1785 in La Balme-les-Grottes, "département" of Isère, France, a village on the northeastern edge of Lyon. Clerc has been called "The Apostle of the Deaf in America" and "The Father of the Deaf" by generations of American deaf people. With Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, he co-founded the first school for the deaf in North America, the Hartford Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb on April 15, …
- Evelyn Glennie
Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie was born in Methlick near Ellon, Aberdeenshire on the 19th July 1965. She grew up at the family farm. She was educated at Ellon Academy. Her percussion teacher was Ron Forbes . She left Aberdeen in 1982 to study at The Royal Academy of Music in London. She won the Queen's Commendation Prize for all around excellence, the highest award given by the Royal Academy. She graduated in 1984 with an honours degree. Music Of Evelyn Glennie
- Washington Nationals
The first Washington Nationals baseball team to be a member of the National League existed from 1886 to 1889. During their four-year tenure they had six different managers and compiled a record of 163-337, a poor winning percentage of .326. Home games were played at Swampoodle Grounds. This team was also sometimes referred to as the Washington Statemen. Their most notable player was catcher Connie Mack, …
- I. King Jordan
I. King Jordan (b. June 16, 1943) made history in 1988 when he became the first deaf president of Gallaudet University, the world's only university with all programs and services designed specifically for students who are deaf and hard of hearing. That year Gallaudet students, with support from many alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the University, protested the Board of Trustees' appointment of a hearing person to the presidency.
- Elliott Yamin
Elliott Yamin (born Efraym Elliott Yamin on July 20, 1978) is an American singer who is known for being the third-place finalist on the fifth season of "American Idol".
- Jane Fernandes
UNC Asheville as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs in July 2008. As an academic leader and educator of national prominence, her life's work-creating inclusive academic excellence in education at all levels-has taken her from Hawaii to the Atlantic seaboard. She earned a Master's degree and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Iowa. Her undergraduate degree is in French and Comparative Literature from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.
- Keith Wann
Keith Wann is an American child of two deaf adults. He was born January 4, 1969.. He has turned his life-long dealings with American Sign Language into a performance art show. He caters to all hearing, deaf, and hard-of-hearing audiences. In his act, Wann takes his audience on a "visual" journey into his childhood experiences. His current show is called, "My Experiences, Different!" Prior to that, he performed, "Watching Two Worlds Collide."
- Laura Bridgman
Laura Dewey Bridgman (December 21, 1829 - May 24, 1889) is known as the first deaf-blind American child to gain a significant education in the English language, fifty years before the more famous Helen Keller. However, there are accounts of deaf-blind people communicating in tactile sign language before this time, and the deafblind Victorine Morriseau (1789-1832) had successfully learned French as a child some years earlier.
- Heather Whitestone
Heather Whitestone McCallum (born February 24, 1973 in Dothan, Alabama) is a beauty queen who was the first deaf Miss America title holder, having lost her hearing at the age of eighteen months. Whitestone was born and raised in Dothan for the first eleven years of her life. She went to Central Institute for the Deaf in 1984 when she was doing poorly in the mainstream environment.
- Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, LL.D., (December 10 1787 - September 10 1851) was a renowned American pioneer in the education of the deaf. He helped found and was for many years the principal of the first institution for the education of the deaf in the United States. When opened in 1817, it was called the "Hartford School for the Deaf" in Connecticut, but it is now known as the American School for the Deaf. Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- Sue Thomas
Sue Thomas is an American woman who became the first deaf person to work as an investigator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Thomas, who lost her hearing at 18 months of age, grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. She was educated at Springfield College and Case Western Reserve University in political science and international relations, and was later hired as a filing clerk by the FBI.
- Brother Andrew
Andy van der Bijl (born 11 May 1928), known in English-speaking countries as Brother Andrew, is a Christian missionary famous for his exploits smuggling Bibles to communist countries in the height of the Cold War, a feat that has earned him the nickname "God's smuggler". Brother Andrew studied at the Bible Training Institute (now the International Christian College) in Glasgow, Scotland. Brother Andrew was born in Sint Pancras, the Netherlands, …
- Lou Ferrigno
Louis Jude Ferrigno (born November 9, 1951) is an American bodybuilder and actor. Ferrigno has appeared in such television shows and movies as "The Incredible Hulk", "Pumping Iron" (with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbu), "Sinbad of the Seven Seas", and, in the title role, "Hercules" in 1983. He is more recently known for playing a minor role in the sitcom King of Queens.
- Jason Smith
Jason R. Smith (born January 11, 1982 in Aspen, Colorado) is an American snowboarder, primarily successful in the event Snowboard Cross, finishing Sixth place in the 2006 Torino Winter Games. He was the roommate of Seth Wescott, eventual Gold Medalist in Snowboard X (SBX or Snowboard Cross). He is the younger brother of Christy Smith, the first Deaf contestant on Survivor: The Amazon.
- Dummy Hoy
William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for several teams from 1888 to 1902, most notably the Cincinnati Reds and two Washington, D.C. franchises. He is noted for being the most accomplished deaf player in major league history, and is credited by some sources with causing the establishment of signals for safe and out calls. He held the major league record for games in center field (1726) from 1899 to 1920, …
- Carol Padden
Carol Padden (born 1955 in Washington, D.C.) is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego, where she has been teaching since 1983.
- Deanne Bray
Deanne Bray (born 14 May 1971) is a deaf actress who portrayed Sue Thomas in the show "Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye".
- Kenny Walker
Kenny Wayne Walker (born April 6, 1967) is a former defensive end for the Denver Broncos. He is one of only two deaf players in the history of the National Football League. (The other, Bonnie Sloan, played in the 1970s.) Walker starred at the University of Nebraska, playing in the Senior Bowl in January of 1991. Three months later, the Broncos selected him in the eighth round of the NFL Draft. He emerged as a regular for the Broncos in 1991, playing in all 16 games.
- Kenny Walker
Kenny Walker (born April 6, 1967 in Crane, Texas) is a former professional American football player who played defensive lineman for two seasons for the Denver Broncos. At the age of two, Walker became deaf from a bout with meningitis.
- Linda Bove
Linda Bove (born November 30, 1945), is a deaf American actress who played the part of Linda the Librarian on the children's television program "Sesame Street" from 1971 to 2003. (Her last name rhymes with "cove" and is pronounced .) On "Sesame Street", Bove has introduced thousands of children to sign language and issues surrounding the Deaf Community.
- Christy Smith
Christy Smith (born September 13, 1978, in Aspen, Colorado) was born to her parents, Bob and Glenda Smith. Christy has two brothers, one being American snowboarder Jason Smith. Christy was a premature baby who weighed less than two pounds (1 kg) at birth. Christy pulled out her air tube as a baby, and she ended up losing 90 percent of her hearing. Christy is deaf, and she is skilled in lip reading and American Sign Language.
- Edward Miner Gallaudet
Edward Miner Gallaudet (February 5, 1837- September 26, 1917), son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, was a famous early educator of the deaf in Washington, DC. Little is known about Edward Miner's childhood. However, it is known that at the age of 16 he worked at a bank in Hartford, Connecticut which he found dull. He promptly quit this job and joined the staff at the American Asylum for the Deaf (now called the American School for the Deaf) in Hartford, …
- James Burke
James "Deaf" Burke (1809-1845), 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall, weighing 200 lb (90 kg), was one of England's earliest boxing champions. He trained in the area around the River Thames. In 1833, in a particularly brutal fight for the English heavyweight championship, Burke defeated Simon Byrne, knocking him unconscious. Byrne died three days later and Burke was promptly arrested and tried for Byrne's murder, but he was acquitted on 11 July 1833 and subsequently freed.
- Shoshannah Stern
Shoshannah Stern (born July 3, 1980) is an American actress. She was born in Walnut Creek, California into an observant Jewish and fourth-generation deaf family. Her first language is American Sign Language. She is also able to read lips and speak English without an interpreter. Her hometown is Fremont, California where she attended the California School for the Deaf, Fremont. She attended Gallaudet University, the only liberal arts college for the deaf in the world.
- Phyllis Frelich
Phyllis Frelich (born February 29, 1944 in Devils Lake, North Dakota), is, along with Marlee Matlin and Linda Bove, one of the three most noted hearing impaired U.S. actresses working in the entertainment industry since the late 20th century. Frelich was born in a small town in North Dakota to deaf parents and is the oldest of 9 children (all of whom are also deaf). She attended North Dakota School for the Deaf, graduating in 1962, …
- Tyrone Giordano
Tyrone Giordano (b. 1976) is a deaf American actor. He began acting in Washington DC. He was a member of a small troupe of Deaf and hearing actors when he was asked to participate in a production of "The Miracle Worker", his first major role. For a short time he taught at Kendall. In 1999, Giordano had obtained his BA in English Literature from Gallaudet University; by September of 2001, he played the lead in "Big River", …
- William Stokoe
Dr. William C. Stokoe, Jr. (1919 - 2000) was a scholar who researched American Sign Language (ASL) extensively while he worked at Gallaudet University. From 1955 to 1970 he served as a professor and chairman of the English department at Gallaudet. He published "Sign Language Structure" and co-authored "A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles" (1965).
- Andrew Foster
Andrew Foster (1925 - 1987), born in Ensley, Alabama, was the first African-American graduate of Gallaudet University. Foster got a Master's Degree from Seattle Pacific Christian College, and went to Africa in 1957; he encountered cultures so oppressive of deaf people that parents often hid their deaf children at home or abandoned them altogether. Hearing missionaries told Foster that deaf children didn't even exist in Africa.
- Alice Betteridge
Alice Betteridge (born 1901 at Sawyers Gully, near Maitland, New South Wales; died 1966, Woollahra) is known as the first deafblind child to be educated in Australia. Born in the Hunter Valley to parents George and Emily, Betteridge became blind at the age of two from suspected meningitis. Her mother took her to the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in 1904, but she was thought to be too young, and was sent home after a few months.
- Clayton Valli
Clayton Valli (d. March 7 2003) was the author of numerous articles and books on linguistics and on American Sign Language poetry. He gave workshops and presentations across the country that raised awareness and appreciation for the movement, meter, and rhythm in ASL poetry. His own poetic works, which have drawn international recognition for their aestheticism and contribution to literary scholarship, are available on video, taped both by him and by other ASL artists.
- Howie Seago
Howie Seago (born in Tacoma, Washington) is an American deaf actor. Born deaf, he first began to develop his mimic abilities as a child with the help of his mother. He began his serious acting work in college, when he joined the National Theatre of the Deaf. His break-out role was in Peter Sellars' production of "Ajax". He was later cast by David Byrne for the German production of "The Forest" (1989), because he was so impressed with Seago's performance.
- Curtis Pride
Curtis John Pride (born December 17, 1968 in Washington, D.C.) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. After spending 2007 spring training as a non-roster invitee for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, he has been assigned to start the 2007 season as a member of the Salt Lake Bees, the Angels' AAA affiliate. Pride stands at 6'0" tall and weighs 210 pounds. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed.
- Dorothy Miles
Dorothy Miles (19 August 1931 - 1993) (Dot Miles) was a sign language poetess and playwright who worked in the UK and U.S.. She was passionate about deaf issues, culture and sign language, and longed to bridge the gap between deaf and hearing people. The Dorothy Miles Cultural Centre in the UK is named after her.