Deafness refers to a complete or significant hearing loss. There are varying degrees of deafness, and people can be deaf in one ear (unilateral deafness) or both ears (bilateral deafness). Deafness can be caused by a variety of factors, including genetics, illness, injury, or exposure to loud noises.
5 famous people who are deaf or hard of hearing:
- Marlee Matlin: An award-winning actress, Matlin is the only deaf performer to win an Academy Award. She won Best Actress for her role in "Children of a Lesser God" (1986).
- Nyle DiMarco: This model and actor rose to fame after winning America's Next Top Model in 2015. He is also a deaf activist.
- Beethoven: One of the most renowned composers in history, Beethoven began experiencing hearing loss in his late 20s and eventually became completely deaf. Despite this, he continued to compose some of his most famous works.
- Helen Keller: While not deaf in the strictest sense (she had some residual hearing), Keller is deaf blind, having lost her sight and most of her hearing due to illness as a child. She became a world-famous educator, author, and disability rights advocate.
- Shoshanna Stern: This Paralympic swimmer holds multiple gold medals and world records. She is the first deaf Israeli athlete to win a Paralympic medal.
To learn more about deafness and hearing loss, click here to visit the World Health Organization (WHO) website.
Our Access Group and wider business is committed to ensuring current and future employees who have a disability feel welcome, included, and supported. Allowing everyone to bring their best selves to work.
Check out some of their latest achievements:
- Ensuring kitchen items are in an accessible location
- Introduced Recite Me to make sure our website is user-friendly for anyone with a disability
- Offering every employee with dyslexia a premium Grammarly account
- Launched an internal Happy Newsletter to share non-work related positive news stories from our people
- Hosted a Movember charity bake sale and raised over £460 for men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s suicide.
- Month-end takeover to help raise awareness about mental health issues, neurodiversity, physical/mental disabilities, and impairment, among other topics
- Created awareness around World Suicide Prevention Day with a video from our Executive Directors discussing how they manage stress and anxiety
- Our annual charity Wellbeing Walk
Click here to learn more about our approach to diversity and inclusion!
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