Quintus Pedius
Quintus Pedius was a Roman painter and the first deaf person in recorded history known by name. Pliny the Elder wrote of him as follows in his book on Natural History:
Q. Pedius ... had a grandson, who being dumb from his birth, the orator Messala, to whose family his grandmother belonged, recommended he should be brought up as a painter, a proposal which was also approved of by the late Emperor Augustus. He died, however, in his youth, after having made great progress in the art.
Quintus Pedius http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintus_Pedius_%28deaf_painter%29 Retrieved January 24, 2010.