Pete Denman

The designer of Stephen Hawking's speech software, Pete Denman, didn’t let his dyslexia impede his success.

After being diagnosed with dyslexia in the eighth grade, Denman struggled with his confidence as a student. He developed low expectations of his abilities as a student and believed college was out of the question for him. However, a major turning point in Denman’s life was a diving accident that paralyzed him. While the accident at first lowered his confidence even more, it eventually led him to auditing an art history course that changed his perspective. Because of his newfound accommodations, he was able to pass the exam for the course with “flying colors.” Due to his physical disability, he was finally able to get the help he needed for his learning disabilities. Because of his perseverance and perspective change, he now shares his groundbreaking work at Intel with people all over the world as well as advocates for those with both physical and learning disabilities. One of his most known works includes designing Stephen Hawking’s speech software.