is taken under consideration to become
housing projects for the underprivileged
Ronnel del Rio is a broadcast
journalist. He is also blind. A radio
journalist for almost a decade now,
Ronnel first became known in 1996
because of his radio program, "Good
Morning Southern Luzon." A voice of
reason and awareness, he discussed
national issues as well as issues that
the community of PWDs in the
Philippines faced. Striving to be a voice
for the unheard PWDs in the
Philippines, Ronnel pushed for
accessible services not only in his area
but in the rest of the country.His resume
is equally impressive. Ronnel is the
president of the Philippine Chamber of
Massage Industry for Visually Impaired,
is part of the Philippine Coalition on the
United Nations Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a
board member of the Philippine Mental
Health Association, president of the
Federation of Disabled Persons in Lipa,
and is the chief executive officer of
Punlaka — a PWD advocacy group
based in Region IV. A man with much
vision for everyone, not just his fellow
PWDs, he also works as a Housing and
Homesite Regulatory Affairs Officer for
the government of Batangas. There, he
pushed for the Viable Socialized
Resettlement Program wherein idle land
in Batangas. Del Rio is also the first
blind person to earn a Master's degree
in the Philippines, having studied
Management Technology in De La Salle
University in 2003.
Ana Kristina Arce without a sound, she
is able to communicate passion and
hope in her speeches. Deaf since she
was born, Ana's hearing disability didn't
stop her from unstoppable yearning to
learn. She was awarded class
valedictorian at the Philippine School for
the Deaf and her success in the
academe went on from there. In 2009,
she graduated magna cum laude from
the De La Salle - College of Saint
Benilde (CSB) with a degree in Applied
Deaf studies. Her focus was on the
multimedia arts and she went on to
become a graphic artist at her alma
mater, CSB. Blazing the trail, she
continued on to study abroad to pursue
a Master's Degree. She earned her MA
in Deaf Studies from the Gallaudet
University, Washington D.C., one of the
world's most prominent universities in
the field of deaf studies. She is the first
Filipino to be sent to Gallaudet
University with a World Deaf Leadership
Scholarship. Why all the studying? Ana
says she wants to give back. On the
New Internationalist Blog she said: "I
hope to not only help them (the deaf) go
through college, but also make them
good researchers, and active advocates
in their respective communities. In my
advocacy, I’m looking at opportunities to
bring the needs of the Deaf into the
consciousness of society, especially the
hearing people. I aim to help integrate
the Deaf and the hearing together in
unity, bridge the communication gap,
increase awareness of the Deaf culture,
and raise the respect for the natural sign
language of the Filipino Deaf – the
Filipino Sign Language."
Frida Kahlo suffered polio during her
childhood and, according to some
sources, also had spina bifida, which
caused dysmetria in her right leg. In
addition, her spinal problems were
aggravated by an accident suffered in
her adolescence, which left her with
physical issues for her entire life.
Frida spent much of her life in bed
suffering from severe pain. Even so, she
became one of the most famous artists
of all time and an icon of the twentieth
Perhaps the streak that makes her work
so vibrant in our world of art is that she
is so up front about everything, and yet
a curtain remains pulled. The viewer is
given an often harsh and shocking look
at Frida and her life, sometimes
bordering on the grotesque, but is also
given a definite mystique when they look
at her works. The combination of clarity
and shadow provides a sense of
intrigue, and tragedy often also
becomes laced in her works. A brooding
quality remains, making me wonder if it
would ever be possible to be
comfortable with a conclusion regarding
one of her works.
Stephen Hawking A theoretical
physicist, astrophysicist, cosmologist,
and eminent scientist, Stephen Hawking
was diagnosed with ALS at age 21: he
was given 2 more years to live. He lived
until he was 76-years-old.
He had been paralysed from head to toe
for over thirty years and used a voice
synthesiser to be able to communicate,
and a wheelchair that he operated
through slight movements of the head
and eyes.None of this prevented him
from developing his activity as an
exemplary researcher and professor,
and intense personal life that allowed
him to make his illness known to the
world. Becoming one of the most
recognisable celebrities of our time, his
story was taken to the cinema in the film
"The Theory of Everything".