Tilly Aston
Tilly Aston, ‘Australia’s Own Helen Keller’ was a blind writer and teacher who founded the Victorian Association of Braille Writers and later went on to establish and become secretary of the Association for the Advancement of the Blind.
Category Archives: Activism > Disability Rights
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Jane Collier
She laid the foundations for educational attainment among blind people in New Zealand, when many assumed that the blind were incapable of leading productive lives.
Jeanette Berglind
Swedish founder of Tysta Skolan, a school for deaf/mute children
Emanuella Carlbeck
Pioneering Swedish educator known for her work with students with intellectual disabilities. She founded the first institution for such students in Gothenburg in 1866, providing education and supportive home and asylum for patients.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver was a key figure in the Kennedy family, known for her philanthropy. She founded the Special Olympics, a sports organization for those with physical and intellectual disabilities, earning her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984 for her dedicated efforts.
Mary Edith Dunlop
Irish campaigner for the welfare of the blind
Mary Hare
Not only was she one of Britain’s first ‘police women’, she was also a pioneering teacher of deaf children, and a passionate suffragette determined to change women’s lives for the better.Hare’s vision for auditory/oral education. In her will Mary Hare wrote ‘my efforts on behalf of the Deaf have been my greatest joy in life.’
Sally Sainsbury
Sally Sainsbury established herself a leader in the field of disability and social policy in the UK.
Dr Barbara Stokes
Irish paediatrician and disability campaigner
Claudia Burton Bradley
Her research focused on cerebral palsy in Australia and she published major articles that dealt with aspects of the disease in children, seeking to promote the potential of cerebral palsy sufferers to lead useful and independent lives. She formed the Australian Cerebral Palsy Association in 1952 and chaired its medical and educational committee.