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Castillo, Rodenna

ID
0591
Nationality
American
Hispanic American?
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Mainstreamed in Booker T. Washington High School, Pensacola, FL; maintained a 3.32 high school grade average through grade 11; was scheduled to graduate in 1984 with honors.
Dates
fl. 1984

Kaata, Ragnhild Tollefsdatter

ID
4104
Nationality
Norwegian
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Born on a farm; became deaf and blind at age 4 from scarlet fever. Attended the school for the deaf at Hamar, Norway. She was taught to speak and to read and write Norwegian, as well as tactile lipreading, by Elias Hansen Hofgaard, principal of the Hamar school. She is often claimed to be the first prelingually deaf-blind person in history taught to speak. Famous at the time, her pioneering education influenced deaf-blind education in other countries, including that of Helen Keller, who mentions Kaata in her autobiography.
References
http://home.wit.no/skarpreklame/Kunder/Bedrifter/Theodor/Letters/KM/ (seen Oct. 7, 2005).
Dates
30 May 1873-1947

Robinson, Stanley

ID
4091
Nationality
American
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Student
Summary
Was a "nearly blind semi-mute" (i.e., postlingually deafened) at the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb.
References
American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, v.23 no.2, April 1878, p.139.
Dates
fl. 1878

Cartwright, Stephen

ID
0583
Nationality
American
Occupation
Radio announcer
Summary
Late deaf-blinded. Graduated from Carnegie Tech as an engineer; at age 33, lost both sight and hearing as the result of a cerebral henorrhage caused by a skull fracture. He became a radio announcer after becoming deaf-blind.
References
The Deaf Way, p.498.
Dates
1892-1938

Patterson, Jane

ID
2144
Nationality
English
British
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Deaf at age 8 and blind at age 11. Learned both the two-handed British and one-handed American manual alphabets. Wrote a book entirely in Braille.
References
Peeps into the Deaf World, p.301-303; Touch, Touch, and Touch Again, p.40-41.
Dates
fl. 1915

Sullivan, Jane Margaret (Margaret Sullivan)

ID
2690
Nationality
English
British
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Born deaf and blinded at age 3 by smallpox. Sent to a "workhouse" in Rotherhite but never educated in any way. When her two main caretakers quit the workhouse, Margaret fell into a depression because their replacements could not communicate with her. Nothing else is known of her after that.
References
Touch, Touch, and Touch Again, p.35-37.
Dates
1823?-?

Martin, Michelle

ID
4006
Nationality
American
Occupation
Massage therapist
Summary
A registered massage therapist, the first deaf one in the state of Texas and possibly in the nation, though a deaf-blind one, name unknown, is reported in California and another in Britain.
Dates
fl. 2004

Stark, William

ID
2627
Nationality
American
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Donated over 11 pints of blood to the Red Cross blood bank during World War II.
Dates
fl. 1944

Galeron de Calonne, Bertha

ID
1094
Nationality
French
Occupation
Poet
Author
Summary
A celebrated deaf-blind poetess.
Dates
fl. 1900

Taskey, Catherine St. Just

ID
2731
Nationality
Canadian
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Apparently the first Canadian deaf-blind person to receive any formal schooling, when whe was "partly" educated at the Protestant Institution for Deaf-Mutes, in Montreal. She entered in 1871 at the age of 23, but withdrew several weeks later when her parents moved to Ontario.
References
Deaf Heritage in Canada, p.410.
Dates
1848-?