Vision Loss

Whether by accidental stabbing or by pure fate, these historical icons – real and fictional – have carved themselves a permanent place in traditional and pop culture.

Stevie Wonder – 34 Top Ten hits, 22 Grammys, five words (”Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”). The most popular and possible explanation for his blindness is the excessive amount of oxygen that was pumped into his incubator as a premature infant, which led to retinoplasty of prematurity.

Louis Braille - A bit of an obvious choice, but the way the namesake of the “language of the blind” lost his sight is pretty gruesome. As a child, he poked himself in the eye with a sharp tool used to poke holes in leather; his eyes became infected and blindness ensued. However, he ended up creating the system of communication for millions of blind people. He even had an asteroid named after him.

Portrait of Louis Braille

Geordi LaForge was born blind, but his high-tech VISOR (Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement) provides a sense of sight. Rumor has it that, in addition to a knack for spaceship engineering, he’s also a huge fan of children’s books.

Cupid – Often depicted as blind or blindfolded, this cherubic deity’s lack of sight purportedly translates to blindness to a lover’s faults. It also explains the Liza Minelli – David Gest fiasco.