Today, May 5, is the International Day for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Unfortunately, in our country it is customary to ignore disabled people and even pretend that they do not exist at all. Seeing the rare disabled person who dares to leave the house, many shyly look away. The fact that these people can be full-fledged members of society is still out of the question.

However, we really hope that this shameful situation for society will begin to change. Today we want to start small and invite you not to take your eyes off, but to look at people with disabilities and learn the stories of their lives, the usefulness of which many people with “unlimited” physical capabilities may envy.

(Total 7 photos)

Nick Vujicic

Nick Vujicic was born with Tetra-Amelia syndrome - a rare hereditary disease leading to the absence of four limbs. At the age of 10, he tried to drown himself in a bathtub so as not to cause any more inconvenience to his loved ones. Now Nick is one of the most famous and popular motivational speakers in the world, has a beautiful wife and son. And by its very existence it gives hope for a “normal” life to thousands of people.

Carrie Brown

17-year-old Carrie Brown is a carrier of Down syndrome. Not so long ago, thanks to the active support of my friends and the Internet, one of the American manufacturers of youth clothing. Carrie posted photos of herself wearing Wet Seal clothing on her page at social network, which gained such popularity that the girl was invited to become the face of the brand.

Taylor Morris

This one made the rounds on the internet a few years ago. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan lost all his limbs after being blown up by a bomb, but miraculously survived. Upon returning home, his 23-year-old fiancée Kelly not only did not abandon her beloved, but also helped him in literally to “get back on his feet” again, even though he no longer has legs.

Jessica Long

The little resident of the Irkutsk orphanage Tanya Kirillova was lucky - at 13 months she was born without small children. tibia and foot bones, was adopted by an American family. This is how Jessica Long appeared - the famous swimmer, winner of 12 Paralympic gold medals and world record holder among athletes without legs.

Mark Inglis

New Zealander Mark Inglis in 2006, having lost both legs twenty years earlier. The climber froze them off in one of the previous expeditions, but did not give up his dream of Everest and climbed to the top, which is difficult for even “ordinary” people to achieve.

Tatiana McFadden

Tatyana is another Russian-born American disabled athlete with paralysis. lower limbs. She is a multiple winner of women's wheelchair races, including the 2013 Boston Marathon. Tatyana really wanted to go to the Paralympic Games in Sochi and for this purpose she specially mastered a completely new sport for herself - cross-country skiing and biathlon.

Lizzie Velasquez

One not-so-fine day, Lizzie saw a video posted on the Internet called “The Most scary woman in the world" with many views and corresponding comments. It’s easy to guess that the video showed... Lizzie herself, who was born with a rare syndrome due to which she completely lacks adipose tissue. Lizzie’s first impulse was to rush into an unequal “battle” with the commentators and answer them everything she thought about them. But instead, she pulled herself together and proved to the whole world that you don’t have to be beautiful to inspire people. She has already published two books and is a successful motivational speaker.

Of course, there are not seven of them. There are many more such people who have an incredible will to live and are capable of infecting others with it. And there are even more people around us who really need to be finally noticed, and when they are noticed, they do not turn away with horror or disgust, but try to help and support.

December 3 is International Day of Persons with Disabilities. It was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1992.

Miguel Cervantes(1547 - 1616) - Spanish writer. Cervantes is best known as the author of one of the greatest works of world literature - the novel "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha." In 1571, Cervantes, while serving in the navy, took part in the Battle of Lepanto, where he was seriously wounded by an arquebus shot, causing him to lose his left arm. He later wrote that “by depriving me of my left hand, God made my right hand work harder and harder.”

Ludwig van Beethoven(1770 - 1827) - German composer, representative of the Viennese classical school. In 1796, already a famous composer, Beethoven began to lose his hearing: he developed tinitis - inflammation inner ear. By 1802, Beethoven was completely deaf, but it was from this time that the composer created his most famous works. In 1803-1804 Beethoven wrote the Eroic Symphony, and in 1803-1805 - the opera Fidelio. In addition, at this time Beethoven wrote piano sonatas from the Twenty-eighth to the last - the Thirty-second; two cello sonatas, quartets, vocal cycle “To a Distant Beloved”. Being completely deaf, Beethoven created two of his most monumental works - the Solemn Mass and the Ninth Symphony with choir (1824).

Louis Braille(1809 - 1852) - French typhlopedagogue. At the age of 3, Braille injured his eye with a saddlery knife, causing sympathetic inflammation of the eyes and making him blind. In 1829, Louis Braille developed the embossed dotted font for the blind, Braille, which is still used throughout the world. In addition to letters and numbers, based on the same principles, he developed notation and taught music to the blind.

Sarah Bernhardt(1844‑1923) - French actress. Many prominent theater figures, such as Konstantin Stanislavsky, considered Bernard's art a model of technical excellence. In 1914, after an accident, her leg was amputated, but the actress continued to perform. In 1922, Sarah Bernhardt appeared on stage for the last time. She was already approaching 80 years old, and she played “The Lady of the Camellias” while sitting in a chair.

Joseph Pulitzer(1847 - 1911) - American publisher, journalist, founder of the "yellow press" genre. Blind at 40 years old. Upon his death, he left $2 million to Columbia University. Three quarters of these funds went to the creation of the Graduate School of Journalism, and the remaining amount was used to establish an award for American journalists, which has been awarded since 1917.

Helen Keller(1880‑1968) - American writer, teacher and social activist. After an illness suffered at the age of one and a half years, she remained deaf-blind and mute. Since 1887, a young teacher at the Perkins Institute, Anne Sullivan, studied with her. During many months Through hard work, the girl mastered the sign language, and then began to learn to speak, mastering the correct movements of the lips and larynx. In 1900, Helen Keller entered Radcliffe College and graduated with honors in 1904. She wrote and published more than a dozen books about herself, her feelings, studies, worldview and understanding of religion, including “The World I Live in,” “The Diary of Helen Keller,” etc., and advocated the inclusion of deaf-blind people in active life society. Helen's story became the basis for Gibson's famous play The Miracle Worker (1959), which was filmed in 1962.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt(1882‑1945) - 32nd President of the United States (1933‑1945). In 1921, Roosevelt became seriously ill with polio. Despite years of efforts to overcome the disease, Roosevelt remained paralyzed and confined to wheelchair. Some of the most significant pages in history are associated with his name foreign policy and US diplomacy, in particular, the establishment and normalization of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and US participation in the anti-Hitler coalition.

Lina Po- a pseudonym taken by Polina Mikhailovna Gorenshtein (1899-1948) when in 1918 she began performing as a ballerina and dancer. In 1934, Lina Po fell ill with encephalitis, became paralyzed, and completely lost her sight. After the tragedy, Lina Po began sculpting, and already in 1937 her works appeared at an exhibition at the Museum fine arts them. A.S. Pushkin. In 1939, Lina Poe was accepted into the Moscow Union of Soviet Artists. Currently, individual works by Lina Po are in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery and other museums in the country. But the main collection of sculptures is in the memorial hall of Lina Poe, opened in the museum of the All-Russian Society of the Blind.

Alexey Maresyev(1916 - 2001) - legendary pilot, Hero Soviet Union. On April 4, 1942, in the area of ​​the so-called “Demyansk Cauldron” (Novgorod Region), in a battle with the Germans, Alexey Maresyev’s plane was shot down, and Alexey himself was seriously wounded. For eighteen days, the pilot, wounded in the legs, crawled his way to the front line. At the hospital, both legs were amputated. But after being discharged from the hospital, he sat at the controls of the plane again. In total, during the war he made 86 combat missions and shot down 11 enemy aircraft: four before being wounded and seven after being wounded. Maresyev became the prototype of the hero of Boris Polevoy's story "The Tale of a Real Man."

Mikhail Suvorov(1930 - 1998) - author of sixteen poetry collections. At the age of 13, he lost his sight from a mine explosion. Many of the poet’s poems were set to music and received wide recognition: “Red Carnation”, “Girls Sing About Love”, “Don’t Be Sad” and others. For more than thirty years, Mikhail Suvorov taught at a specialized part-time school for working youth for the blind. He was awarded the title of Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation.

Ray Charles(1930 - 2004) - American musician, legend, author of more than 70 studio albums, one of the world's most famous performers of music in the styles of soul, jazz and rhythm and blues. Blind at the age of seven, presumably due to glaucoma. Ray Charles is the most famous blind musician of our time; He was awarded 12 Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Rock and Roll, Jazz, Country and Blues Halls of Fame, the Georgia Hall of Fame, and his recordings were included in the Library of Congress. Frank Sinatra called Charles "the only true genius in show business." In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Ray Charles number 10 on its "Immortal List" of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

Stephen Hawking(1942) - famous English theoretical physicist and astrophysicist, author of the theory of primordial black holes and many others. In 1962 he graduated from Oxford University and began studying theoretical physics. At the same time, Hawking began to show signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which led to paralysis. After throat surgery in 1985, Stephen Hawking lost the ability to speak. Only his fingers move right hand, with which he controls his chair and a special computer that speaks for him.

Stephen Hawking currently holds the position of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a position held by Isaac Newton three centuries ago. Despite serious illness Hawking leads an active life. In 2007, he flew in zero gravity on a special plane and announced that he intended to make a suborbital flight in a spaceplane in 2009.

Valery Fefelov(1949) - participant in the dissident movement in the USSR, fighter for the rights of the disabled. Working as an electrician, in 1966 he received work injury- fell from a power line support and broke his spine - after which he remained disabled for the rest of his life, he could only move in a wheelchair. In May 1978, together with Yuri Kiselev (Moscow) and Faizulla Khusainov (Chistopol, Tatarstan), he created the Initiative Group for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the USSR. The group called its main goal the creation of an All-Union Society of Disabled People. The activities of the Initiative Group were considered anti-Soviet by the authorities. In May 1982, a criminal case was opened against Valery Fefelov under the article “resistance to authorities.” Under threat of arrest, Fefelov agreed to the KGB's demand to travel abroad and in October 1982 he went to Germany, where in 1983 he and his family received political asylum. Author of the book “There are no disabled people in the USSR!”, published in Russian, English and Dutch.

Stevie Wonder(1950) - American musician, singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer. Lost my sight in infancy. Too much oxygen was supplied to the oxygen box where the child was placed. The result is pigmentary degeneration of the retina and blindness. He is called one of the greatest musicians of our time: he received a Grammy Award 22 times; became one of the musicians who actually defined the popular styles of “black” music - rhythm and blues and soul of the mid-20th century. Wonder's name is immortalized in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Composers Hall of Fame in the USA. During his career, he recorded more than 30 albums.

Christopher Reeve(1952‑2004) - American theater and film actor, director, screenwriter, public figure. In 1978, he gained worldwide fame for his role as Superman in the American film of the same name and its sequels. In 1995, during a race, he fell from his horse, was seriously injured and was left completely paralyzed. Since then, he has devoted his life to rehabilitation therapy and, together with his wife, opened a center to teach paralyzed people how to live independently. Despite the injury, Christopher Reeve continued to work in television, film and participate in social activities until his last days.

Marlee Matlin(1965) - American actress. She lost her hearing at the age of one and a half years, and despite this, at the age of seven she began acting in a children's theater. At the age of 21, she won an Oscar for her debut film Children of a Lesser God, becoming the youngest Oscar winner in history in the category "Best female role".

Eric Weihenmayer(1968) - the world's first rock climber to reach the top of Everest while blind. Eric Weihenmayer lost his sight when he was 13 years old. He completed his studies and then became a high school teacher, then a wrestling coach and a world-class athlete. Director Peter Winter made a live-action television film about Weihenmayer's journey, "Touch the Top of the World." In addition to Everest, Weihenmayer has conquered the seven highest mountain peaks in the world, including Kilimanjaro and Elbrus.

Esther Vergeer(1981) - Dutch tennis player. Considered one of the greatest wheelchair tennis players in history. She has been bedridden since the age of nine, when spinal cord surgery left her with paralysis of her legs. Esther Vergeer - multiple winner of Grand Slam tournaments, seven-time world champion, four-time Olympic champion. In Sydney and Athens she excelled both independently and in pairs. Since January 2003, Vergeer has not suffered a single defeat, winning 240 sets in a row. In 2002 and 2008 she became the winner of the “Best Athlete with disabilities", awarded by the Laureus World Sports Academy.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Disabled people are PEOPLE with limited abilities.

People with disabilities, in Russian, disabled people, are everywhere. Limitation of opportunities leaves its mark on the character of such people. And, perhaps, the most striking feature is the desire to be needed and useful. The overwhelming majority of such people want and can work. We all know that it is more than difficult for a disabled person to find any kind of employment in Russia, let alone the opportunity to find a good job that suits your liking, strength and pay. Therefore, we would like to bring to your attention a sketch story about the life of disabled people in the USA. Its author, Svetlana Bukina, has lived in the United States of America for 17 years. Her view of the problem is simply an outside view.

Walids

It took me several years to live in America to realize that the word “disabled” is written in Russian letters English word invalid. The Miriam-Webster dictionary defines invalid as follows:

not valid: a: being without foundation or force in fact, truth, or law b: logically inconsequent – ​​groundless, lawless, unsupported by facts. Illogical. Disabled is a noun. We can say: “Here comes the disabled person.” In English, there is also a similar word - CRIPPLE, but in terms of the degree of unspoken correlation it will be compared only with the "Negro". This is the name-calling that angry teenagers shout at the poor boy on crutches in heart-warming novels.

Nouns define a person - freak, genius, idiot, hero. Americans love adjective nouns no less than other peoples, but they prefer to call people with disabilities “disabled persons.” A person whose capabilities are limited. But first the man.

I work in the National Guard building, and there are disabled people everywhere. We are not talking about war veterans who lost arms or legs. They say there are many of them, but I don't see them. They sit in their “cubes” and do paper or computer work. I'm talking about those who were born with some kind of physical or mental disability, and more often - with both. It is easy for a soldier without a leg or arm to find a job. Try to find a job for a deaf-mute mentally retarded Korean or a woman in a wheelchair whose IQ, God forbid, is 75.

The Korean collects our trash from baskets and gives us new bags. Nice guy, whom everyone loves, and pull out trash baskets from under the tables at the first sounds of his good-natured moo. A woman in a stroller, along with a half-mute Mexican, are cleaning our toilets. I don’t know exactly how they do it (especially she, in a stroller), but the toilets are shiny. And in the cafeteria, half of the servers are clearly not from this world, and they don’t even speak English well. But there’s no problem - you point your finger and they put it on a plate. They put it in very generously, I always ask to take some meat off, I can’t eat that much. And they always smile. And in the mini-cafe on the third floor he works funny guy, completely blind. He makes such hot dogs that hold on. In seconds. In general, it works better and faster than most sighted people.

These people do not give the impression of being unhappy and wretched, and they are not them. Disabled people in wheelchairs have specially equipped cars, or they are transported by a minibus adapted for this purpose. Everyone has a decently paid job, plus very decent pensions, vacations and insurance (they work for the state, after all). I know how apartments are furnished with them from the example of my own late grandmother, who was installed with a special telephone when she was almost deaf, and then replaced with the same one, but with giant buttons, when she was almost blind. They also brought a magnifying glass that magnified each letter a hundred times so that she could read. When her leg was amputated, the grandmother was moved to a new apartment, where there was room under the sinks for a wheelchair to enter, all the counters were low, and the bathroom was equipped with “grabs” built into the wall so that it was convenient to transfer from the chair to the toilet or to the bathroom.

Having seen enough of these people, I began to observe mentally and physically retarded children. The kindergarten where my youngest son goes is located in a separate wing of the school for such children. Every morning I see them getting off buses or their parents’ cars – some on their own, some with the help of someone else. Some from the outside look absolutely normal, while others can be seen a mile away that something is wrong with them. But these are ordinary children - they throw snowballs, laugh, make faces, lose their mittens. They study in a well-equipped school, taught by specialists who have been trained for at least four years on how to best treat them and how to best teach such children.

Recently, at work, I had the opportunity to encounter a man, let’s call him Nikolai, who came to America from Moscow several years ago. After talking with him for some time, I still could not understand what prompted this man to emigrate. He himself is a highly qualified specialist, a programmer, his wife too, and both were well settled; the eldest son graduated from one of the best physical and mathematical schools in Moscow. They had a wonderful apartment, a car... Besides, the people were Russian, Muscovites of God-knows-what generation, all their relatives remained there, all their friends. Nikolai did not fit into the image of a typical immigrant. However, he was precisely an immigrant: he won a green card, applied for citizenship, bought a house and had no intention of returning. Policy? Climate? Ecology? I was at a loss.

I had to ask directly. “So I have a daughter...” my new acquaintance hesitated. My daughter was mutilated at birth - somehow they pulled her out with forceps incorrectly. The girl has cerebral palsy in a fairly serious form, she walks on crutches (those that start from the elbow, such as stands), must wear special shoes and is several years behind in development.

In Moscow, I had neither relatives nor friends with mentally or physically retarded children, so what Nikolai said was a revelation and caused a slight shock. Firstly, there was no place for the girl to study. At home, please, but there are no normal (read: special) schools for them. It is better not to mention what exists. My wife had to quit her job and teach her daughter at home. But how? Such children are difficult to teach traditional ways, are needed special methods, a certain approach. It is not enough to gather information on the Internet; it requires special talent. The mathematician’s wife had many talents, but God deprived her of this specific one. The woman left a promising and beloved job and hung around with a disabled child, not knowing how to deal with her, and feeling that life was going to hell.

But that was just the beginning. The child was entitled to some special benefits, which had to be obtained by humiliating himself and going through the seven circles of bureaucratic hell. The worst part were the visits to the doctors. The girl was terrified of them, screaming, trembling and hysterical. Each time they hurt her very much, explaining to her mother with a stern look that this was necessary. All this - for very decent money, in a private clinic. Nikolai told me that his daughter developed a phobia for many years - she was terrified of all people in white coats. It took several months here in America for her to begin to recover, and several years for her to fully trust the doctors.

However, all this was not enough to push Nicholas to emigrate. His roots are too deeply rooted in Russia. The decision to leave was made when the daughter began to grow up, and Nikolai and his wife suddenly realized that in that country she had absolutely no prospects, no hope, excuse the banality, for a bright future. You can live in Moscow if you are healthy and able to earn a decent living. A person with a serious disability coupled with mental retardation simply has nothing to do there. They left for the sake of their daughter.

They don't regret it. They are nostalgic, of course, they love their homeland, they go there every two years for the third year and take care of their Russian passports. Nikolai said only good things about Russia. But he prefers to live here. My daughter has blossomed in America, goes to a school similar to the one where my son is in kindergarten, is only two or three years behind in development compared to five just a few years ago, has made a bunch of girlfriends and learned to love doctors and physical therapists. The whole street adores her. The wife went to work and perked up.

Nikolai and his family live not in a metropolis like New York or Washington, but in a small city in a Central American state. I won’t name the state - there are too few Russians there, they are easily recognized - but imagine Kentucky or Ohio. There are similar schools everywhere, and not only teachers work there, but also psychologists and career counselors.

By the way, about careers. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not, as some people think, force people with disabilities to be hired or guaranteed employment. It clearly states that the same things are expected from an employee with a disability as from others. I personally saw and took part in interviews how they hired not a deaf or lame person (and not a black person, by the way), but the one who was better suited for the open position. Decisions were always well-reasoned, and problems never arose.

A conductor who goes deaf, a photographer who goes blind, or a loader who breaks his back will have to find another job. But if an accountant breaks his back, then the employer is obliged to provide him with access to the workplace - build a ramp for a stroller, for example, or install an elevator. A paralyzed accountant is no worse than a healthy one, but if he is fired or not hired, all other things being equal, because the owner of the company was too lazy to build a ramp or wasted money on a specially equipped toilet stall, then the boss can easily be sued.

At first many people spat, but then buildings simply began to be built differently. And at the same time modify the old ones - just in case. Being determines consciousness. Almost everything is now equipped for disabled people, everywhere. Not only do people with disabilities themselves benefit, society benefits. We are not even talking about those who have only physical problems - the country is acquiring high-quality specialists in a myriad of fields. At IBM alone, for example, there are hundreds of paralyzed, blind, deaf-mute and any other programmers and financiers. Their work is evaluated according to exactly the same criteria as the work of everyone else. Having once invested money in infrastructure, the company reaps the benefits for many years, receiving qualified and, most importantly, grateful and loyal employees to the company.

But what about the mentally retarded? For those who are okay with mobility, there is also plenty of work to do. But even people like the woman who cleans our toilets have work to do. Lengthen her brush and brush, and she will scrub the toilet no worse than any other cleaner. You can bag food in supermarkets or mow lawns, walk dogs or look after kids. One of the teachers in my son’s kindergarten is a girl with Down syndrome. She is, of course, not the main teacher and does not make serious decisions, but she is a very warm and gentle person and calms all the screaming kids, never getting irritated or raising her voice. The children adore her.

Let's forget about the benefits to society for a moment. Of course, well-off people do not have to pay disability benefits from our common pocket, and this is good from an economic and demographic point of view. But it's not just that. Attitude towards the elderly and disabled is one of the best determinants of the health of a society. None economic indicators, no military power, no political weight will tell you about the country what a bunch of happy kids with autism, cerebral palsy, or Down syndrome will say, not to mention an equally happy group of their parents. After all, America not only gave Nikolai’s daughter hope for a normal – and decent – ​​life, it gave no less to her mother.

Medicine is moving forward by leaps and bounds. More and more sick children are surviving into adulthood, and women are giving birth later and later, whether we like it or not. The number of children with disabilities is unlikely to decrease, although early testing of pregnant women makes it possible for now to keep it more or less stable. An interesting fact is that more and more mothers, having learned that their child has Down syndrome or some other disorder, prefer not to have an abortion.

Of course, physical problems and low IQ will not go away, and these people will not function at the average level. But one thing is certain: whatever their potential, they will achieve the maximum of what they are capable of. Because a person with disability is not disabled. This is a man with a set of problems. And if you help him, he will become valid.

This article was one of the thirty most discussed articles in the blogosphere. But it does not contain anything that the general reader usually falls for. Just a calm look from the outside, just a sketch. The author did not set a goal to be proud, show off, or collect hundreds of comments. In the United States, everyone is accustomed to seeing people with disabilities as they are. The life of a person with disabilities does not become a super effort. This is probably why the article had so many responses from Russia.

You read the article and understand how far we are from such social comfort. Sometimes it’s not possible to push an ordinary baby stroller into an elevator, and there’s no need to talk about strollers for the disabled.

A year ago, we translated one of the popular materials on our website into English, Do We Need Sick Children? , the article was devoted to the problems of disabled children in Russia. English-speaking readers did not understand us; they were completely incomprehensible to the problems of the article and the problems discussed in it. Instead of drawing attention to what we thought was an acute problem, we emphasized the difficult situation that has developed in the Fatherland.

However, we are also seeing some changes. At least they are starting to talk about the problems of people with disabilities. There are more and more ramps, large spacious elevators and toilets for the disabled appear. It is still difficult for disabled people to use these benefits of civilization, because the houses that were like that remain the same, as well as public transport, metro, etc.

But, most likely, this is not the main problem. Disabled people have been isolated from society for so long that now meeting them for ordinary people like a shock. The man looks at the disabled man for a long time with surprise and curiosity. It turns out to be a kind of “zoo” among people. But such long-term isolation from “other” people did not benefit a healthy, so to speak, society. We have absolutely no knowledge and culture of behavior towards a disabled person. That’s why we behave wildly and tactlessly with him.

«. ..I live in Russia, my child is severely disabled. Plus, I live in a small provincial town, where there is NOTHING at all for my child. No treatment, no training, no seedy integration. We try to walk with the child every day, and every day passersby examine me and the child from head to toe, some try to pass by 2-3 times if they were not able to look at everything the first time.. If someone sees that I cannot to carry the stroller or got stuck in a snowdrift, they will watch how the matter ends, whether I throw the child on the ground or not, but no one will come to help... When we have the impudence and we stop at a cafe (the only cafe in the city without steps, the entrance is level with the pavement ), then no one will sit at our table, even if free seats there won't be any more.

And this is Russia... our country... Our Motherland.”

What is your answer to this... Infinitely sad and endlessly ashamed. So start solving problems social adaptation whoever needs it healthy people, from yourself and right now. And while situations like those in the above comment exist, no amount of ramps, lifts, handrails or elevators will reduce the gap between the healthy and the sick, those with normal capabilities and those with disabilities.

It's no secret that in modern world There is a certain “beauty standard”. And if you want to succeed, to become famous, be kind enough to meet this standard. However, it is very pleasant that from time to time people appear who say to hell with all these standards and conventions and simply go towards their goal no matter what. Such people deserve respect.

Winnie Harlow

A professional model originally from Canada, who suffers from vitiligo, a skin pigmentation disorder associated with a lack of melanin. This disease is expressed almost exclusively in external effect and there is almost no cure. Vinny dreamed of becoming a model since childhood and persistently pursued her goal. As a result, she became the first girl in the serious modeling business with this disease.

Peter Dinklage

He is best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister in the TV series Game of Thrones. Dinklage was born with a hereditary disease - achondroplasia, which leads to dwarfism. His height is 134 cm. Despite the fact that both his parents are of average height, as is his brother Jonathan.

RJ Mitt

He is best known for his role as Walter White Jr. in the television series Breaking Bad. Like his character in Breaking Bad, Mitt suffers from cerebral palsy. Due to cerebral palsy, signals reach the brain more slowly, since at birth his brain was damaged due to lack of oxygen. As a result of his musculoskeletal system and the ability to control one's muscles were impaired. For example, the hand twitches uncontrollably. However, this does not in the least prevent the 23-year-old guy from acting in films and producing films.

Henry Samuel

Better known by his pseudonym Seal. British singer and songwriter, winner of three Grammy music awards and several Brit Awards. The scars on his face are the result skin disease, known as discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE). He suffered from this disease as a teenager and suffered greatly due to the scars that appeared on his face. Now the singer is sure that they give him a certain charm.

Forest Whitaker

American actor, director, producer. Winner of Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Emmy awards. He became the fourth African American to win an Oscar for Best Actor. Forest suffers from ptosis in his left eye - congenital disease oculomotor nerve. However, many critics and viewers often note that this gives it a certain mystery and charm. At the same time, the actor himself is considering the possibility of corrective surgery. True, according to his statement, the purpose of the operation is not cosmetic at all, but purely medical - ptosis worsens the field of vision and contributes to the degradation of vision itself.

Jamel Debbouze

French actor, producer, showman of Moroccan origin. In January 1990 (that is, at the age of 14), Jamel injured his hand while playing on the train tracks in the Paris metro. As a result, the arm has stopped developing and he cannot use it. Since then, he almost always keeps his right hand in his pocket. However, this does not in the least prevent him from remaining one of the most sought-after actors in France to this day.

Donald Joseph Qualls

Better known as DJ Qualls, he is an American actor and producer. Qualls' most popular role is considered to be the title role in the Edward Decter film Tough Guy. Many who see him in films cannot help but notice Qualls' unusual thinness. The reason for this is cancer. At age 14, Qualls was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphogranulomatosis ( malignancy lymphoid tissue). The treatment turned out to be quite successful, and after two years of fighting the disease, remission occurred. This episode in his life served as the beginning of DJ’s activities to support the foundation, which is fighting this disease.

Zinovy ​​Gerdt

Magnificent Soviet and Russian theater and film actor, People's Artist USSR. In addition to his acting career, Zinoviy Efimovich, like many in those days, had to engage in other, not so peaceful activities; he was a participant in the Great Patriotic War. On February 12, 1943, on the approaches to Kharkov, while clearing enemy minefields for the passage of Soviet tanks, he was seriously wounded in the leg by a fragment of a tank shell. After eleven operations, Gerdt was spared his damaged leg, which has since been 8 centimeters shorter than the healthy one and forced the artist to limp heavily. It was difficult for him to even just walk, but the actor did not slack and did not spare himself on the set.

Sylvester Stallone

A striking example of the fact that any disadvantage, if desired, can be turned into an advantage. At Sylvester's birth, doctors used obstetric forceps to injure him, damaging his facial nerves. The result is partial paralysis of the lower left side of the face and slurred speech. It would seem that you can forget about an acting career with such problems. However, Sly still managed to break through, choosing the role of a brutal guy who doesn’t need to talk much on camera, his muscles will do everything for him.

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To become the best in your field, to live in harmony with yourself - it is generally believed that only the “darlings of fate” can do this: the lucky, the brave, the strong. But there are people who achieve significant results, despite the fact that life has not always been kind to them. We dedicate this presentation to those who persistently strive to achieve their goals, overcoming limitations and circumstances. Those who know that they can achieve great things. To those who achieve. And also to those who help people with disabilities believe in themselves and make their dreams come true.

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The word "disabled" in Latin means "powerless." A disabled person is a person whose capabilities are limited due to his physical, mental or mental disabilities. The word “disabled” is perceived as offensive by some people, which is why the term “person with disabilities” is now more often used. Our society strives to ensure that people with disabilities are more involved in social life, therefore organizes many rehabilitation centers for people with disabilities.

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People with disabilities are people with physical disabilities, BUT this does not prevent them from being successful in life!

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Ludwig van Beethoven - the great German composer, conductor and pianist of the 28th century. In 1796, already a famous composer, Beethoven began to lose his hearing: he developed tinitis - inflammation of the inner ear. By 1802, Beethoven was completely deaf, but it was from this time that the composer began to create his most famous works.

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Louis Braille, teacher, creator of the Braille alphabet (1809 - 1852) Due to an absurd accident, he lost his sight and created the alphabet for the blind. At the age of three, Louis injured his eye with a knife, which caused inflammation of the eyes and left him blind. In 1829, Louis Braille developed the embossed dotted font for the blind, Braille, which is still used throughout the world. In addition to letters and numbers, based on the same principles, he developed writing notes for the blind and taught them music. Braille, now used to transmit knowledge in all areas of human activity, is equally accessible to scientists and ordinary people.

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Sarah Bernhardt, actress French actress Sarah Bernhardt at the beginning of the 20th century was called “the most famous actress in history.” Sarah achieved success on the stages of Europe, and then triumphantly toured in America. Her repertoire consisted mainly of serious dramatic roles, which is why the actress received the nickname “Divine Sarah.” However, in 1905, during a tour in Rio de Janeiro, Bernard was seriously injured right leg, which had to be amputated in 1915. But “The Divine Sarah” did not give up her stage activities: during the First World War she performed at the front and was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

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Nikolai Ostrovsky, writer Nikolai Ostrovsky managed to change many professions. But most importantly, he wrote the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered.” Already in his youth, “ossification” of the spine occurred, and at the age of 36 the writer became blind and paralyzed. He no longer got out of bed, but continued to write a book, dictating its text to his assistant.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt - 32nd President of the United States In 1921, Roosevelt became seriously ill with polio and was confined to wheelchair until the end of his days, but this did not prevent him from being elected to the presidency of the United States four times - an unprecedented case in American history! Some of the most significant pages in the history of US foreign policy and diplomacy are associated with his name, in particular, the establishment and normalization of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and US participation in the anti-Hitler coalition.

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Alexey Petrovich Maresyev Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot Legendary pilot of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union. On April 4, 1942, in a battle with the Germans, Alexey Maresyev’s plane was shot down, and Alexey himself was seriously wounded. For eighteen days, the pilot, wounded in the legs, crawled his way to the front line. At the hospital, both legs were amputated. But after being discharged from the hospital, he sat at the controls of the plane again. In total, during the war he made 86 combat missions and shot down 11 enemy aircraft: four before being wounded and seven after being wounded. Maresyev became the prototype of the hero of Boris Polevoy's story "The Tale of a Real Man."

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Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, scientist, creator space rocket“The main motive of my life: to do something useful for people, to advance humanity at least a little forward.” At the age of nine, after sledding, Kostya Tsiolkovsky caught a cold. The temperature has risen. The doctor called diagnosed it as scarlet fever. He was ill for a long time and seriously, but survived. However, the disease resulted in partial deafness. A Russian scientist who worked in the fields of aeronautics, aerodynamics and astronautics, rocket inventor and space explorer, Tsiolkovsky was the first to develop a model of a rocket capable of flying into space. True, during his lifetime he was not able to observe its launch.

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Stephen Hawking, scientist "I am free in my thoughts" Laureate Nobel Prize. World-class physicist and mathematician, considered the second greatest scientist of the 20th century after Einstein. Almost completely paralyzed. Only the fingers of his right hand move, with which he controls his moving chair and a special computer that speaks for him. He is alive and continues his research, has visited space, is filming scientific programs and TV series, films.

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Vanga, fortuneteller One of the famous blind people- clairvoyant Vanga. At the age of 12, she lost her sight due to a hurricane that threw her hundreds of meters. They found her only in the evening with her eyes filled with sand. During the Second World War, Vanga determined the location of missing people, whether they were alive or not, and predicted the future not only for individuals, but also for entire parties and even countries.

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Pablo Pineda, writer, actor Worst Enemy children with Down syndrome - silence" Spaniard Pablo Pineda is the first person in Europe with Down syndrome to receive higher education. In March 2009, Pineda completed a teaching practice in Cordoba and is preparing for exams to qualify as a teacher. Recently the feature film “Me Too” was released with Pablo Pineda in leading role. At the San Sebastian Film Festival he was awarded the Silver Shell for Best Actor.

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Ruben David Gonzalez Gallego, writer “I am a hero. I simply have no other choice." Ruben David Gonzalez Gallego is widely known as the author of the autobiographical work "White on Black", awarded in 2003 literary prize"Booker - Open Russia" for best novel in Russian. Ruben Gallego wrote this book with one finger because he has been almost completely paralyzed since birth.

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Valentin Ivanovich Dikul, circus performer, creator of medical centers. While performing a trick in the circus, he fell from high altitude. The doctors’ verdict was merciless: “a spinal fracture and a traumatic brain injury. Will never walk again." Dikul created his own restoration method, discovered medical center under your own name. Later, under his leadership, clinics appeared throughout Russia and abroad, which helped people with similar injuries to the spine and limbs.

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Diana Gurtskaya, singer, pianist At first, Diana sang only for her family and classmates at a boarding school for blind children. Little Diana managed to convince the music school teachers that she could learn to play the piano and graduated from school with success. Her sensual style of performance created a real sensation in the hall of the Tbilisi Philharmonic. Now she is a famous singer of our stage.

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Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev is a Russian artist, master of portrait painting, graphics, caricature. I knew a lot of interesting, talented and good people. But if I have ever seen a truly great spirit in a person, it is in Kustodiev.” This is what Fyodor Chaliapin wrote about this painter. At the age of 31, Kustodiev developed spinal tuberculosis, which resulted in complete paralysis of the legs, and from that moment the artist was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. But he continued to paint.

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Veronica Skugina, actress My coach is life It happens that she is rushing through the streets of St. Petersburg on business, and she is stopped: “Oh, we saw the film in which you played! Please give me an autograph." At this moment, those who were nearby look with even greater curiosity at the beautiful girl without legs on the cart. Veronica never refuses an autograph, gives a charming smile and rolls on. But I don’t want to let this girl go. And I want to speed up my step to the beat of her nimble cart and chat. About the weather, about the last movie you saw, about music, about a new book.

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Eric Weihenmayer, mountaineer The world's first rock climber to reach the summit of Everest while blind. Eric Weihenmayer lost his sight when he was 13 years old. However, he graduated and then became a high school teacher himself, then a wrestling coach and a world-class athlete. Director Peter Winter made a live-action television film about Weihenmayer's journey, "Touch the Top of the World." In addition to Everest, Weihenmayer has conquered the seven highest mountain peaks in the world, including Kilimanjaro and Elbrus.

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Marlee Matlin, actress American actress Marlee Matlin became the first and only deaf actress to receive an Oscar for Best Actress in the film Children of a Lesser God. Her subsequent work in film and television earned her a Golden Globe Award and two more nominations, as well as four Emmy nominations. For her career achievements, Matlin was awarded her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Nick Vujicic, speaker Possesses a rare genetic disease– tetraamelia. This disabled person is deprived by nature of both arms and legs. Nick’s only limb is one small foot 10–15 cm with two fingers, with which he learned to type with incredible effort, and then began to write motivational articles that were extremely popular not only among sick people, but also among healthy people. Worried about his appearance, this strong-willed disabled person mastered the principles of positive psychology. He came to the conclusion that all complexes and fears occur solely due to negative thoughts. By changing their course, you can completely change everything in life. Today, Nick Vujicic works as a motivational speaker, invited to speak on all continents. Mostly his speeches are listened to by disabled people and people who, for certain reasons, have lost the meaning in life. In addition to success, the courageous disabled person has other joys in life - a beautiful wife and an absolutely healthy son.

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Michael Kreuzer - mime Yomi It is very important not to isolate yourself. Find the strength to move forward and reveal your talent. The unique actor Michael Kreuzer, better known as mime Yomi, lost his hearing in childhood after suffering from meningitis. But this did not stop him from making a brilliant career on stage. Michael studied with the legendary Parisian mime Marcel Marceau, and he was his only deaf student. Thanks to his virtuoso pantomimes, Yomi gained worldwide fame. Yomi is currently performing at the best sites world with solo programs.

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Anna MacDonald, writer British writer Anna MacDonald did not even receive parental support as a child. Due to the careless handling of the mother, literally a few days after birth, the baby suffered a head injury. Because of her, the disabled girl became intellectually disabled. Noticing the child’s growing mental retardation, her family sent her to an orphanage. In this institution, the girl noticed that she was different from healthy people and immediately began to actively work on herself. The task ahead was difficult, because even the teachers did not help her. Having found the alphabet on the shelves, the girl spent months studying the meaning of one letter. Having learned to read, Anna did not miss a single book that fell into her hands. Having literally developed her talent as a writer with great effort, the already young girl wrote a memoir entitled “Anna’s Exit,” describing her many difficulties on the path to growing up. The memoirs achieved worldwide recognition and were later filmed. As a result, the disabled woman became a welcome guest on foreign channels and significantly improved her financial condition. After this Anna Macdonald wrote large number books, got married successfully and began to conduct active charitable work with people who also have certain physical and mental disabilities. The writer says about her work: “Of course, all disabled people can find their calling in life, for this they only need help to gain faith in themselves.”