08/22/2026
Individuals who are DeafBlind are AMAZING!!!
For more than a decade, Alexandra Adams worked toward becoming a doctor while repeatedly being told that someone who is deafblind might not belong in medicine.
Then, on July 7, 2026, that long journey reached a historic milestone. Adams, 32, received her medical degree and became recognized as the United Kingdom’s first deafblind doctor. She also celebrated completing a master’s degree in creative writing at Northeastern University London.
Her reason for choosing medicine began years earlier. As a teenager, Adams had been training as a swimmer with hopes of reaching the 2012 Paralympics. But complications following surgery in 2010 left her hospitalized for about a year and a half and ended her competitive swimming career. During that difficult period, one junior doctor noticed she was frightened, stayed behind after the ward round, and simply asked whether she was okay. That small act of empathy stayed with Adams and helped shape the kind of doctor she wanted to become.
Getting there was far from straightforward. Adams has been registered deaf and blind since birth, and she has spoken openly about discrimination during her education. At one point, she had to step away from medical training for roughly two and a half years. She has said that other people’s assumptions about disability were often a bigger barrier than her disabilities themselves.
Today, she uses practical adaptations to work safely. A Bluetooth stethoscope connects directly to her hearing aids, while vibrating pagers, radio aids and phone alerts help with communication. For procedures such as inserting an IV, she relies heavily on touch and feel — skills she says are especially important when vision is limited.
Adams is considering geriatric or palliative medicine, while keeping her options open. Her story is not simply about proving that a deafblind person can become a doctor. It also asks a bigger question: how many capable people are held back because others decide what they can do before giving them the chance to show it?
