Famous Blind People: Singers, Writers and Who Read Braille

Famous blind people include the singers Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Andrea Bocelli, the poet John Milton, the writer Jorge Luis Borges, the mathematician Leonhard Euler and Helen Keller, who was deafblind. Many of them read braille: Stevie Wonder studied with a braille writer and a slate backstage, Ray Charles learned to read music in braille at school, and the composer Joaquín Rodrigo wrote all his music in braille. Others never used it: Milton and Euler died before braille existed, and Borges never learned it.

Below: 17 famous blind and deafblind people by field, how each one lost their sight where a source says so, and whether they read braille. Every braille fact links to its source; where we found none, the table says not documented.

Key points

• 11 of the 17 people here read braille, according to their own words or a reliable source: six musicians, a scientist, a politician, two deafblind women and Louis Braille himself.
• Braille music is how Ray Charles and Andrea Bocelli learned to read scores. Joaquín Rodrigo composed in braille and dictated each work, note by note, to a copyist.
• John Milton and Leonhard Euler went blind before braille existed: Louis Braille published his method in 1829. Milton dictated Paradise Lost; Euler had help from his sons.
• Jorge Luis Borges never learned braille. He went blind at about 55 and worked by listening and dictating.
• Deafblind readers use braille too. Helen Keller prepared her manuscripts on a braille typewriter, and Haben Girma read her law school readings on a braille display.

Famous blind people at a glance

Blind singers and musicians

Six of the seven musicians here read braille, and three of them read or wrote music in it. How the braille music code works is explained in braille music.

Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder was born Stevland Morris in Saginaw, Michigan, in May 1950. He was born premature, and the incubator that kept him alive gave him too much oxygen, which damaged his eyes (APH).

Braille: yes. Motown found him at 12, and in 1963 Ted Hull, a teacher of the visually impaired, became his tutor. His kit included braille textbooks, a Perkins braille writer, a slate and stylus and braille paper, and some lessons took place backstage. He was enrolled at the Michigan School for the Blind and graduated in 1969 (APH). At the 2016 Grammys he read the winner from an envelope embossed in braille and joked that nobody else could read it (Library of Congress).

Ray Charles

Ray Charles was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia. He began losing his sight at four or five and was blind by seven, most likely from glaucoma (Wikipedia).

Braille: yes, including braille music. From 1937 to 1945 he attended the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, where he mastered braille and learned piano, organ, clarinet, trumpet and saxophone (Florida Artists Hall of Fame). A teacher there, Mrs. Lawrence, taught him to read and write music in braille (Wikipedia).

Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli, the Italian tenor, was born on 22 September 1958 in Lajatico, Tuscany, with congenital glaucoma. At 12 he lost his remaining sight after being hit in the eye with a soccer ball (Wikipedia; Classic FM).

Braille: yes, including braille music. He taught himself to read music in braille and learned the piano (Classic FM). He wrote his memoir, The Music of Silence, himself on a braille computer, and the book describes learning to read music in braille (Bookshare).

Ronnie Milsap

Ronnie Milsap, the country singer, was born blind on January 16, 1943, in Robbinsville, North Carolina. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014 (Country Music Hall of Fame).

Braille: yes. He learned it at six at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, and told NPR in 2009: "You can't make it as a blind person without Braille." He has also brailled out the lyrics of new songs (NPR).

José Feliciano

José Feliciano was born on September 10, 1945, in Lares, Puerto Rico, blind from congenital glaucoma. As a teenager in New York he took classical guitar lessons with a music teacher at The Light House School for the Blind (Wikipedia). He is best known for the 1970 holiday single "Feliz Navidad" (Hollywood Walk of Fame).

Braille: not documented. We found no source that says whether he reads braille.

Art Tatum

Art Tatum, the jazz pianist, was born on October 13, 1909, in Toledo, Ohio. He had very poor vision from childhood, probably from cataracts, and eye operations later let him see things held close (Library of Congress; UKDHM).

Braille: yes, at school. At Jefferson School in Toledo he studied braille along with his regular subjects through eighth grade (Encyclopedia.com), and then went on to the school for the blind in Columbus (Library of Congress).

Joaquín Rodrigo

Joaquín Rodrigo, the Spanish composer of the Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra, first performed in Barcelona in 1940, was born in Sagunto, Valencia, on 22 November 1901. He lost his sight at three, after diphtheria (Joaquín Rodrigo's official site).

Braille: yes, he composed in it. He always wrote his music in braille and then dictated the whole work, note by note, to a copyist (official site; ClassicalConnect).

Blind writers and thinkers

John Milton

John Milton, the English poet, was born on 9 December 1608 and went totally and permanently blind in February 1652. Paradise Lost, first published in 1667, was dictated to whoever could write his words down (Christ's College, Cambridge; Folger).

Braille: no. Milton died in 1674 (Wikipedia), more than 150 years before Louis Braille published his method in 1829. How the code came about is in the history of braille.

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine short-story writer and poet, was born on 24 August 1899. His blindness was hereditary, as his father's had been. His sight declined over many years, and he was blind by about 55, around the time he became director of Argentina's National Library in 1955 (Wikipedia; Literary Hub).

Braille: no. He never learned it (Wikipedia; Literary Hub). His mother became his secretary, and companions read to him and wrote down what he dictated. He published nearly forty books after he went blind (Literary Hub).

Blind scientists and inventors

Louis Braille

Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, France, on 4 January 1809. At three he hurt his eye with an awl in his father's workshop, and the infection that followed left him totally blind (Musée Louis Braille; Wikipedia).

Braille: yes. He invented it and published his method in 1829 (Musée Louis Braille). His full story is in Louis Braille: life and timeline.

Leonhard Euler

Leonhard Euler, the Swiss mathematician, was born in Basel on 15 April 1707 and had eye trouble from 1738. Soon after he returned to St Petersburg in 1766, an illness left him almost entirely blind. A cataract operation in 1771 restored his sight for a few days, and after that he was totally blind. He still produced almost half of his total work after 1766, with help from his sons (MacTutor).

Braille: no. He died in 1783, before braille existed.

Geerat Vermeij

Geerat Vermeij, an evolutionary biologist and paleontologist at the University of California, Davis, was born on 28 September 1946 in Sappemeer, Netherlands. He lost his sight at three to glaucoma, and he received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992 (NTAC; Wikipedia).

Braille: yes. He studied braille at a boarding school in the Netherlands (Wikipedia). He reads and writes in braille, and an assistant reads scientific papers to him while he takes braille notes (NTAC).

In politics

David Blunkett

David Blunkett was born in Sheffield in 1947, blind from birth, and went to a boarding school for visually impaired children at four. He was MP for Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2015, Education Secretary from 1997 and Home Secretary from 2001: the first blind cabinet minister in the UK (University of Sheffield; Sheffield archives).

Braille: yes, for notes and reports. He learned braille shorthand. As a minister he used braille for notes of the facts and figures he wanted to keep for meetings and speeches, while staff read his papers onto tape, which he listened to at double speed (University of Sheffield). His ministerial red box was made larger than the standard one to fit braille reports (Sheffield archives).

In sport and adventure

Erik Weihenmayer

Erik Weihenmayer was born in New Jersey with juvenile retinoschisis, found when he was a baby. He lost most of his sight at nine and was completely blind by 14. On 25 May 2001 he became the first blind person to reach the summit of Everest, and in 2002 he completed the Seven Summits (Guinness World Records).

Braille: not documented. We found no source that says whether he reads braille.

Famous deafblind people

All three people below read by touch: two of them in braille, one in raised letters. The ways deafblind people communicate are explained in deafblind communication.

Helen Keller

Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. At 19 months an illness, perhaps rubella or scarlet fever, left her deaf and blind. Anne Sullivan came to teach her in 1887, and in 1904 Keller graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor's degree (AFB).

Braille: yes. She prepared her manuscripts on a braille typewriter (AFB). The full story is in Helen Keller and braille.

Laura Bridgman

Laura Bridgman was born on December 21, 1829, in Hanover, New Hampshire. At two, scarlet fever took her sight and hearing. She arrived at Perkins in 1837, aged seven (Encyclopedia.com), and became the first deaf and blind person to be formally taught language (Harvard Library).

Braille: not documented. She read raised letters. Samuel Gridley Howe, the school's first director, taught her with labels in raised letters on everyday objects such as spoons and keys (Harvard Library), and she read a raised-letter Bible. Charles Dickens met her at Perkins in 1842 (Encyclopedia.com).

Haben Girma

Haben Girma is deafblind, with very limited sight and hearing. She grew up in Oakland, California, where she learned sign language and braille at her local public school. She was the first deafblind student at Harvard Law School, graduating in 2013, and then joined Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley on a Skadden Fellowship (Harvard Law School).

Braille: yes, on a braille display. She got her readings in digital form and listened to them or read them on a braille display. She paired a Bluetooth keyboard with the display, so people can type and she reads their words in braille. She has used it to talk with Stevie Wonder (Harvard Law School).

Learn braille yourself

Several people on this list, among them Ray Charles, Ronnie Milsap and Geerat Vermeij, learned braille as children at a school for the blind. Adults learn it too, blind or sighted: how to learn braille shows where to start, and learning braille as an adult covers learning it after losing your sight.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the most famous blind person?

There is no official ranking. Helen Keller, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Louis Braille are among the best known: Keller as a deafblind writer, Wonder and Charles as singers, and Louis Braille as the inventor of the raised-dot code that bears his name. All four read braille.

Which famous singers are blind?

Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Andrea Bocelli, Ronnie Milsap and José Feliciano are among the best-known blind singers. Milsap and Feliciano were born blind, Stevie Wonder lost his sight shortly after a premature birth, Ray Charles was blind by seven and Bocelli lost his remaining sight at 12.

Did Stevie Wonder read braille?

Yes. From 1963 his tutor taught him with braille textbooks, a Perkins braille writer and a slate and stylus, sometimes backstage, and he graduated from the Michigan School for the Blind in 1969. At the 2016 Grammys he read the winner's name from an envelope embossed in braille.

Who are famous deafblind people?

Helen Keller is the best known: deaf and blind from 19 months, she graduated from Radcliffe in 1904. Before her came Laura Bridgman, the first deaf and blind person formally taught language, at Perkins from 1837. More recently, Haben Girma, the first deafblind student at Harvard Law School, read her law readings on a braille display.