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Wood, Marjorie Dick McGuffin

ID
3692
Nationality
Canadian
born American
Occupation
Author
Deaf-blind
Summary
Born as Marjorie Dick at Rainier, OR and moved to Canada in infancy with her parents. Measles contracted at age 3 left her blind and progressively deaf, totally deaf by age 7. Seattle day schools for several years, then the Oregon School for the Deaf from age 12 to about age 19. In 1922, married deaf man Albert F. McGuffin for 36 years until his death; later remarried to Eric A. Wood. Took a correspondence course in writing and became a writer of over 30 articles in newspapers and children's magazines, plus a book, Trudging Up Life's Three-Sensed Highway (1978). Awarded the Order of Canada in 1976 in recognition of her service to Canadian deaf-blind persons.
References
Deaf Women of Canada, p.269-270.
Dates
1903-18 November 1988

Birrell, Isabella

ID
0263
Nationality
British
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Pupil in the Glasgow Blind Asylum; adept with a typewriter; little else is known about her.
References
Touch, Touch, and Touch Again, p.64-65.
Dates
1884?-?

Mitchell, James Erold

ID
1968
Nationality
Scottish
British
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Born both deaf and blind in Ardelach, Nairnshire, Scotland. May be the first deaf-blind person in history known by name, and may also have been the first deaf-blind person to communicate primarily through the use of (home) signs. At age 14, an operation to remove cataracts gave him a small amount of sight. Never educated, he wandered around his village for the rest of his life. The contemporary Scottish philospher Dugald Stewart wrote about him in "An Account of a Boy Born Blind and Deaf".
References
Touch, Touch, and Touch Again, p.5-11; The Deaf Way, p.497.
Dates
11 November 1795-1868

Bridgman, Laura Dewey

ID
0449
Nationality
American
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Said to be the first deaf-blind person in America, and probably the world, to be successfully educated (at the Perkins School for the Blind, by Samuel Gridley Howe); afterward, she lived at the School. Became deaf and blind at age 2 from fever; she had begun to speak by that time, but lost the skill and never regained it. Biography books about her include The Education of Laura Bridgman: First deaf and Blind Person to Learn Language (2001) and The Imprisoned Guest: Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman, the Original Deaf-Blind Girl (also 2001).
References
Gallaudet Encyclopedia, vol.1 p.157-159; Encyclopedia of Special Education, vol.1, p.246; American National Biography, vol.3 p.529-531; Deaf Women, p.78.
Dates
21 December 1829-24 May 1889

Dhladha, Radcliffe Bhenkinkosi

ID
3188
Nationality
South African
African/Black
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Lost his hearing and sight, and was also crippled, by a high fever during infancy. Taken to a hospital in Durban, he recovered his mobility but remained deaf-blind. Refused admission into various schoools until age 11, when he was taken charge of by Florence Blaxall about 1937. She educated him using the Tadoma method. Later, Blaxall and Bhenkinkosi moved to Ezenzeleni, a new home for adult blind persons near Johannesburg.
References
Deaf History International Newsletter, Fall 2002, p.14.
Dates
1927?-?

Macalister, Brenda Louise Slater

ID
3559
Nationality
Canadian
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Teacher
Summary
Born deaf at Vancouver, BC and went to the Ontario School for the Deaf from ages 4 to 13, then the Jericho Hill School for the Deaf until graduation. Electronic production worker 1970-1981. Special training then prepared her for a new role as an educator and counselor for deaf-blind individuals, having become deaf-blind herself. Married to deaf man Ian Macalister.
References
Deaf Women of Canada, p.153.
Dates
1952-

Skorochodova, Olga Ivanovna

ID
2553
Nationality
Ukrainian
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
At age 5, contracted an illness that blinded her and left her deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other. Orphaned as a girl, she went to an institute for the blind, where she lost her remaining hearing. A deaf-blind institute took her in, and its headmaster succeeded in teaching her to speak intelligibly and to give her a basic education. She attended the University of Moscow, graduating and becoming a researcher in the problems of the deaf-blind at the Moscow Institute of Defectology. Author of a book, How I Perceive and Conceive the World Surrounding Me (translated into several languages), and others on deaf-blindness.
References
We Have Overcome, p.142-144.
Dates
1914-?

Coker, Jackie

ID
0656
Nationality
American
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Counselor
Summary
Deaf and blind at age 7 from meningitis; first deaf-blind graduate of the California School for the Blind, Berkeley (1949); in 1959, graduated the College of the Pacific (Stockton, CA). Counselor to the deaf-blind for the California Departments of Education and of Vocational Rehabilitation for 25 years, retiring 1986.
References
Deaf Women, p.79.
Dates
1928?-19 February 2005

Follette, Dee

ID
1040
Nationality
American
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Advocate for the deaf-blind; spoke to schools and community groups.
References
Deaf Women, p.79.
Dates
fl. 1989

Cummings, Marjorie [Mary?]

ID
0749
Nationality
British
Occupation
Deaf-blind
Summary
Apparently born deaf and blind, and seems to have been mentally disabled also. A teacher at the Royal Blind Asylum in Edinburgh tried unsuccessfully to "tame" and teach her.
References
Touch, Touch, and Touch Again, p.82-83.
Dates
fl. 1900?