Thomas Alva Edison

Famous people with Hearing Impairment

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847-October 18, 1931) was an American inventor of Dutch origin and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and a long lasting light bulb. In school, the young Edison's mind often wandered. He was noted to be terrible at mathematics, unable to focus, and had difficulty with words and speech.What many people are not aware of, is the fact that Edison had had hearing problems from childhood on. This hearing loss caused him some difficulty in school. In addition, he reportedly lost more of his hearing, becoming technically deaf, in his early teens. While as an inventor Edison was involved with several things, ironically one of them was motion picture development. It is ironic that a person with hearing loss would have been so involved in the development of an entertainment mode that has largely been inaccessible to the deaf and hard of hearing for so many years.