Jean-Dominique Bauby (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ dɔminik bobi]; 23 April 1952 – 9 March 1997) was a well-known French journalist, author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE.

On 8 December 1995 at the age of 43, Bauby suffered a massive stroke. When he woke up twenty days later, he found he was entirely speechless; he could only blink his left eyelid. Called locked-in syndrome, this is a condition wherein the mental faculties remain intact but most of the body is paralyzed. In Bauby's case his mouth, arms, and legs were paralyzed, and he lost 60 pounds (27 kg) in the first 20 weeks after his stroke. He had two children with Céline Desmoulins.

Despite his condition, he wrote the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again using a system called partner assisted scanning. Bauby composed and edited the book entirely in his head, and dictated it one letter at a time. To make dictation more efficient, Bauby's interlocutor, Claude Mendibil, listed the letters in accordance with their frequency in the French language. The book was published in France on 7 March 1997. Bauby died suddenly from pneumonia 2 days after the French publication of his book, and is buried in a family grave at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France.

Jean Léopold Dominique (July 30, 1930 – April 3, 2000) was a noted Haïtian journalist who spoke out against successive dictatorships. He was one of the first people in Haïti to broadcast in Kreyòl, the language spoken by most of the populace. Despite fleeing the country twice when his life was under threat, he continued to return to his native Haïti, firmly believing in the cause of the Haitian plight. He was assassinated on April 3, 2000, a crime for which no one has ever been prosecuted.

Dominique was born into the elite of French society living in Haiti. His father, Leopold Dominique, moved the family there from France with a belief in the cause of the Haitian plight. After Jean completed his private schooling in both France and Haiti, he trained as an agronomist agriculturalist in Paris, France. He believed in educating and training the Haitian people so they could take care of themselves. Upon his return to Haiti, he began working with the poverty-stricken peasantry. Using his skills, Dominique helped rural farmers to better manage their land and stay out of debt of wealthy landowners. Some landowners, in an effort to maintain control over the farmers, convinced local authorities to jail Dominique for six months. After his release he emerged as one of the strongest critics of the militant regime of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier.