List of physically disabled politicians

The following is a list of politicians who hold or held office while having a significant physical disability.

Afghanistan

• Mohammed Omar, Taliban leader and former head of state (lost one eye due to a shrapnel injury).

Argentina

• Gabriela Michetti, current vice president, wheelchair user.
• Daniel Scioli, former vice president and former governor of Buenos Aires Province. Lost his right arm in an accident in 1989 whilst racing on the Paraná river in the 1000 km Delta Argentino race.

Australia

Federal

• Graham Edwards, member of the House of Representatives (lost both legs during the Vietnam War)
• John Hyde, member of the House of Representatives (lost an arm in a farming accident)
• George Maxwell, member of the House of Representatives (deteriorating eyesight, eventually went blind)
• Gregor McGregor, senator for South Australia (deteriorating eyesight, eventually went blind)
• Alby Schultz, member of the House of Representatives (blind in one eye after accident with hydrochloric acid)

State

• Les Craig, member of the WA Legislative Council (lost a leg during World War I)
• Henry Curran, member of the WA Legislative Assembly (lost a leg in a traffic accident)
• Roberts Dunstan, member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly (lost a leg during World War II)
• Frank Guthrie, member of the WA Legislative Assembly (lost a leg during World War I)
• Cecil Hincks, member of the South Australian House of Assembly (lost a leg during World War I)
• David Hunter, member of the NSW Legislative Assembly (went blind as a child after contracting meningitis)
• Mathieson Jacoby, member of the WA Legislative Assembly (blind in one eye after dynamiting accident)
• Peter Lalor, member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly (lost an arm in the Eureka Rebellion)
• Iven Manning, member of the WA Legislative Assembly (lost an arm during World War II)
• Frank Marriott, member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly (lost sight during World War I)
• Hugh Mosman, member of the Queensland Legislative Council (lost arm in a dynamiting accident)
• Batong Pham, member of the WA Legislative Council (wheelchair-bound after brain aneurysm)
• Rob Pyne, member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly (quadriplegic, wheelchair-bound)
• Kelly Vincent, member of the South Australian Legislative Council (cerebral palsy, wheelchair-bound)
• William Willmott, member of the WA Legislative Assembly (lost a leg during World War I)

Brazil

• Golbery do Couto e Silva, chief of staff of Geisel and Figueiredo administrations (blind in one eye).

Cambodia

• Ta Mok, Khmer Rouge leader (amputated lower leg).
• Hun Sen, Prime minister (blind in one eye due to a war wound).

Canada

• Lucien Bouchard, former Ambassador to France, leader of the Bloc Québécois and Premier of Quebec (amputee due to necrotizing fasciitis).
• Stephanie Cadieux, Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (paraplegic).
• Conner Copeman, village councillor in Cumberland, British Columbia (quadriplegic with limited use of extremities after being beaten in a violent attack in Saskatoon).
• Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development (visually impaired due to Graves' disease).
• Steven Fletcher, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for Assiniboia (first quadriplegic MP).
• Pierre Sévigny, former Member of Parliament and Associate Minister of National Defence (amputee).^[1]
• Michelle Stilwell, Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (quadriplegic).
• Sam Sullivan, former Mayor of Vancouver (quadriplegic with limited use of his extremities).
• Marlene Jennings, Member of Parliament for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, partially blind due to detached retinas and cataracts.
• Manon Perreault, Member of Parliament for Montcalm (paraplegic).
• Kent Hehr, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (quadriplegic after being shot as a bystander in a drive-by shooting).

Czech Republic

• Jan Žižka, Czech general and Hussite leader, follower of Jan Hus. He took part in the civil wars in Bohemia in the reign of Wenceslaus IV. Legal records from 1378 mention Jan Žižka z Trocnova, hinting that if the nickname žižka meant one-eye, early chronologer Aeneus Sylvius Piccolomini, Pius II was correct in stating the loss of the eye was the result of a childhood fight.

Dominican Republic

• Joaquín Balaguer, President, became blind due to glaucoma.

Ecuador

• Lenín Moreno, Vice President of Ecuador 2007–2013, paraplegic.^[2]

Estonia

• Edgar Savisaar, Mayor of Tallinn and former acting Prime Minister, had a leg amputated due to necrotizing fasciitis.

Fiji

• Iliesa Delana, member of Parliament and Assistant Minister for Youth and Sports (since 2014); leg amputee (due to an accident as a child) and Paralympic gold medallist.

France

• Georges Couthon, one of the leaders of the French Revolution, was a paraplegic.
• Louis XVIII, King of France, was paralysed by gout in his final years.
• Antoine Pinay, Prime Minister of France (paralyzed right arm due to a World War I injury).
• Jean-Marie Le Pen, Member of the European Parliament and three-time presidential candidate (blind in his left eye).

Germany

• Wolfgang Schäuble, minister (currently of finance, formerly of the interior) and former CDU party chairman; wheelchair user since 1990 assassination attempt.

Hungary

• Béla II, King of Hungary (1131–1141), was blinded by his father's political opponents in 1113
• Ferenc Hirt, Member of Parliament for Tamási (since 2006); wheelchair user due to a car accident since 1988
• Katalin Szili, Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary.

Indonesia

• Abdurrahman Wahid, famous cleric and the head of largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama, former parliament member, founder of National Awakening Party - Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB), President of The Republic of Indonesia (1999-2001), was blinded due to a car accident on March 14, 1993 - suspected sabotage by military regime at that time.

Israel

• Moshe Dayan, Defense Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel (lost his left eye in World War II).
• Ilan Gilon, member of the Knesset (paralyzed leg due to polio).
• Ya'akov Katz, member of the Knesset (injury sustained in the Yom Kippur War).
• Moshe Matalon, member of the Knesset (paraplegic due to injury sustained in the Yom Kippur War).
• Zion Pinyan, member of the Knesset (polio).
• David Rotem, member of the Knesset (polio).
• Karin Elharar, member of the Knesset, (Suffers from Sarcopenia which causes a degenerative loss in skeletal muscle mass, she is wheelchair bound)

Jamaica

• Floyd Morris, President of the Senate. (Blind)^[3]

Kingdom of Jerusalem

• Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, King of Jerusalem, grave physical impairments as a result of his leprosy.

Malaysia

• Karpal Singh, member of parliament for Bukit Gelugor (a car accident has since left him a full-time wheelchair user with neurological problems in his right arm).

Mexico

• Antonio López de Santa Anna, former President of the United Mexican States, lost his left leg in combat.
• Álvaro Obregón, former President of the United Mexican States, lost his right arm in combat.
• Miguel Barbosa, current President of the Senate, lost his right foot due to diabetes.
• Alonso Lujambio, former Secretary of Public Education and Senator, wheelchair user due to multiple myeloma. Died after 24 days in office due to cancer.
• Gilberto Rincón Gallardo, former Predident of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, congenital physical anomaly.

New Zealand

• John A. Lee, MP 1922-1943, left arm amputee (war wound during the First World War).^[4]
• Mojo Mathers, MP 2011-current, born deaf

Norway

• Guro Fjellanger, former Environment Minister (wheelchair user due to spina bifida).^[5]
• Tove Linnea Brandvik, former Member of the Parliament of Norway. Uses a wheelchair due to a neuromuscular disease.^[6]

Poland

• Jan Filip Libicki, member of the Sejm and the Senate of Poland, wheelchair user
• Malgorzata Olejnik, member of the Sejm, wheelchair user (quadraplegic)
• Marek Plura, member of the Sejm and later Member of the European Parliament, wheelchair user due to spinal muscular atrophy
• Sławomir Piechota, member of the Sejm, wheelchair user

Republic of Venice

• Enrico Dandolo (1107?–1205), 42nd Doge of Venice, blind.

Russia

• Vasily II, the Grand Prince of Moscow, was blinded by his captors in 1446, yet regained power and reigned until his death in 1462.
• Said Amirov, former mayor of Makhachkala. Paralysed as a result of one of many assassination attempts.

San Marino

• Mirko Tomassoni, former Captain-Regent (paraplegic).

Solomon Islands

• Martin Magga. Became seriously ill and needed to use a wheelchair in 2009 while serving as Minister for Health. Resigned from the Cabinet but retained his seat in Parliament in the 2010 general election. Served as MP, in a wheelchair, until his death in 2014.

Soviet Union

• Vladimir Lenin, 1st Head of Government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, mute and bed-ridden after a series of strokes.

Sri Lanka

• Senarath Attanayake, Member of Uva Provincial Council. The first elected representative with a disability in Sri Lanka. The first person with a disability to hold ministerial portfolios (Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation, Land and Forestry) and to become an Acting Chief Minister of a Province. Also the first person with a disability to become a lawyer in Sri Lanka. Full-time wheelchair user due to polio infection at the age of 2 years.

Ukraine

• Hennadiy Kernes, Mayor of Kharkiv, wheelchair user since 2014 assassination attempt.
• Oleksandr Pabat, Kyiv City Council member and former presidential candidate, is blind since 2013 because of an accident.
• Yuriy Shukhevych, MP since 2014, is blind since imprisonment in 1970s.
• Valeriy Sushkevich, MP from 1998 to 2014, wheelchair user since childhood.

United Kingdom

• Anne Begg, MP from 1997 to 2015, wheelchair user.
• Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister, is blind in one eye.
• David Blunkett, former Home Secretary, is blind since birth.
• Jack Ashley, MP from 1966 to 1992, profoundly deaf from 1967.
• Jane Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton, disabled rights activist and member of the House of Lords, was born with spinal muscular atrophy.
• Susan Cunliffe-Lister, Countess of Swinton and Baroness Masham of Ilton, politician, had several parts of her body paralysed following a car accident.
• Ian Fraser, Baron Fraser of Lonsdale, MP several times between 1924 and 1958, then first life peer appointed to the House of Lords in 1958, blinded in action during the First World War.
• Tanni Grey-Thompson, Baroness Grey-Thompson, disabled athlete and Member of the house of Lords, was born with spina bifida.
• Davina Ingrams, 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth, member of the House of Lords, paralyzed from neck down following a car accident.
• Colin Low, Baron Low of Dalston was born blind.
• David Maclean, Baron Blencathra, MP (1983–2010) currently sitting to the house of Lords, since 1996 has multiple sclerosis.

United States

• Tammy Duckworth, current U.S. Congresswoman from Illinois and U.S Senator-elect, lost both of her legs and damaged her right arm due to a rocket propelled grenade attack in the Iraq War.^[7]
• Greg Abbott, current Governor of Texas and former Texas Attorney General, paraplegic due to a 1984 freak accident when a falling oak tree hit him in the back.^[8]
• Max Cleland, former U.S. Senator from Georgia, triple amputee (both legs and one arm) due to a grenade blast in the Vietnam War.^[9]
• Kristen Cox, 2006 Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, blind from Stargardt disease.^[10]
• Bob Dole, former U.S. Senator from Kansas and 1996 presidential candidate, has had a withered, useless arm since a World War II injury.^[11]
• John Porter East, former U.S. Senator from North Carolina, (paraplegic due to polio contracted in 1955).^[12]
• Thomas Gore, former U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, blind from childhood accidents.^[13]
• Cyrus Habib, current member of the Washington State Senate, blind since the age of 8 from illness
• Daniel Inouye, former U.S. Senator from Hawaii, lost his right arm due to grenade shrapnel in World War II.^[14]
• Bob Kerrey, former Governor of Nebraska and former U.S. Senator from Nebraska, lost one leg below the knee due to combat injury in the Vietnam War.^[15]
• Mark Kirk, current U.S. Senator from Illinois who suffered a stroke in 2012.^[16]
• James Langevin, current U.S. Representative from Rhode Island, was injured in an accidental shooting when 16 and is now a quadriplegic.^[17]
• John McCain, current U.S. Senator from Arizona, limited use of arms and "off-kilter gait" due to torture as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.^[18][19]
• David Paterson, former Governor of New York, legally blind from birth.^[20]
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, former President of the United States (paraplegic due to polio).^[21]
• John Swainson, former Governor of Michigan, lost both legs due to a landmine in World War II.^[22]
• Jon Tester, current US Senator from Montana, lost 3 fingers in a meat grinding accident.^[23]
• F. B. Teter, Member of the Washington House of Representatives (1919–1923), blind.^[24]
• Mo Udall, former U.S. Representative from Arizona, lost his right eye in a childhood accident.^[25]
• George Wallace, former Governor of Alabama, paraplegic due to a bullet wound sustained in a 1972 assassination attempt.^[26]
• Woodrow Wilson, former President of the United States, partially paralyzed due to a stroke.^[27]
• Tony Coelho, former U.S. Congressman from California, has epilepsy.^[28]

References