Notable National and International Figures with Disabilities

Lionel Messi (Autism/Asperger’s syndrome) - Professional Soccer Player.  Widely regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time, he has also been open about his diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome. The Argentine superstar has overcome his difficulties with social interaction and communication to lead his team to numerous championships and win numerous individual accolades.

Temple Grandin (Autism) Speaker, Author, Activist, Inventor, & Professor is a prominent speaker and author with autism. She has always been passionate about animals and has written many books on animal treatment and safety. She is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Beyond this, she works as a consultant on animal welfare and livestock handling equipment design. She has created many new and innovative animal care treatments. She was on the Time 100, the list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010. About Temple Grandin. https://www.templegrandin.com

Haben Girma (Deaf/Blind) - American Disabilities Rights Advocate, Attorney, Speaker, Author, and first deafblind graduate from Harvard Law School. The first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben Girma is a human rights lawyer advancing disability justice. President Obama named her a White House Champion of Change. She received the Helen Keller Achievement Award, a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and TIME100 Talks. President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Chancellor Angela Merkel have all honored Haben. Haben believes disability is an opportunity for innovation, and she teaches organizations the importance of choosing inclusion. The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, and TODAY Show featured her memoir, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law. More on Haben Gima. 

Jamie Oliver (ADHD & Dyslexia) - Chef, Author, TV Personality, and Activist.  A prominent and successful name in the world of cookery, Jamie Oliver was 38 years old when he completed reading his first full novel, Catching Fire. Does that make him any less worthy of all his fame and popularity? Absolutely not. Dyslexia has made Jamie leave school with two GCSEs only. He has marked his secondary school days as rough times where everybody acknowledged his special needs, but nobody did much to help him overcome that.

Jamie acknowledges his difficulty in writing and reading freely and does not find it awkward. Though he has a number of cookbooks penned by him, he has his editor check them for all the spellings as Jamie knows his own weaknesses. When asked about how he accepts dyslexia, its consequences in his life, and how he coped with it, Jamie responds that it is the idea and passion that matter the most, not whether you are good at everything.

According to Jamie, stepping outside his comfort zone and looking up to other ‘dyslexic heroes’ such as Paul Smith and Richard Branson motivated him. He ignores cynical people and believes that all of us can do anything we want, dyslexic or not, for “the sky’s the limit.”

David Beckham (Tourette Syndrome) - Professional Soccer Player. David Beckham is one of the most celebrated English football players of his generation, but most fans are not aware that David has Tourette’s Syndrome manifested through OCD.

Simone Biles – (ADHD) - Gymnast - Olympic Gold Medalist, as well as winner of multiple U.S. and World Championships. 

Gloria Lenhoff, (Williams syndrome) - world-renowned Soprano. Gloria can sing nearly 2,500 songs in more than 30 different languages, amazingly, all in a perfect accent. She has collaborated with various world class symphonies and other popular bands, including Aerosmith.  

Farida Bedwei (Cerebral Palsy) - Software Engineer, Inventor, & Entrepreneur. Farida Bedwei was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age one, and went on to become a software engineer and the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Logiciel, a Ghanaian financial software company. She invented a cloud software platform that is used by 130 micro-finance companies across Ghana. In 2013, South Africa’s CEO Magazine named Bedwei the most influential woman in government and business in Africa for the financial sector.

Sofía Jirau (Down syndrome) model, entrepreneur, disability rights activist, and philanthropist. In 2022, she was Victoria’s Secrets first model with Down Syndrome. She shows the world that “inside and out there are no limits”.