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Famous people with sight problems

Summary: Famous people, some real, some imaginary, who have lost their sight

This is a list of famous people, both real and imaginary, who have lost their sight. The people on this list have been included because they are well-known in their own right rather than because they are, or were, blind or partially sighted.

The portrayal of some blind characters in literature or the arts is very negative. Blind characters are often seen as frightening or pathetic, or as being punished for some moral lapse.

It is important to realise that sight loss is a natural phenomenon which can affect anyone, irrespective of moral behaviour or religious belief. While it may cause very real problems it does not turn ordinary people into monsters or victims.

• Thomas Rhodes Armitage - founder of RNIB
• Rt Hon David Blunkett MP - politician
• Louis Braille - inventor of braille
• Ray Charles - American singer and composer
• Cupid/Eros - Greek/Roman god of love
• Eduard Degas - French painter
• Henry Fawcett - UK Postmaster General, 19th Century
• Homer - Greek poet
• Horus - Egyptian god
• Helen Keller - American author and philanthropist
• Denise Leigh - opera singer and winner of Channel 4's Operatunity
• John Milton - English poet
• Claude Monet - French painter
• Dr William Moon - inventor of Moon system of reading
• Horatio Nelson - British admiral
• Odin - Norse god
• Oedipus - mythological Greek King
• Samson - Biblical hero
• St. Paul - Apostle
• Tiresias - mythological, Greek seer
• Stevie Wonder - American singer and composer

For more information, contact webeditor@rnib.org.uk

Content author: webeditor@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 06/03/2008 15:41