In Spite of All the Obstacles Created by Mother Nature Herself

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to the memory of famous engineer and teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing Irina Zuckerman and her remarkable parents Veniamin Zuckerman and Zinaida Azarkh, who have done so much not only for their daughter, who lost her hearing at the age of nine, but also for Russian science and special education. Their life story stands as example of fortitude, familial and fellow solidarity, and as example of creativity that carried out victory over blindness and deafness. Venjamin Zuckerman was a famous physicist, collaborated with the most famous scientist of the world. From early childhood he suffered from a rare form of slowly progressive retinitis pigmentosa, which led to blindness at 40 years. Zinaida Azarkh is an architect by education, devoted her life to her family and her visually impaired husband, became his secretary and co-author, a loving and faithful companion for the rest of his life.

Keywords

• tuberculous meningitis
• streptomycin
• Retinitis pigmentosa
• acquired deafness or blindness
• physics
• telephone communication with deaf and deafblind people