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Hellen Keller
Hellen Keller is a household name being a woman in the 19th century who championed for equality especially in how women were treated as well as the people with disability. Hellen Keller was born in 1980 as a normal healthy baby. At the age of 18 months she got an illness referred to as the Brain Fever that resulted in her becoming deaf, blind and mute. Because of her condition as she grew up, it became difficult to communicate and she thus created a basic form of sign language. At a tender age, Keller was able to forge a relationship with Anne Sullivan a woman wo was partially blind. Sullivan was able to teach Keller finger spellings and other ways that she would be able to communicate. Although Keller was blind and deaf, she was able to unlock her potential living an impact in the world.
June 27, 1880 Captain Arthur Keller and Kate Adams Keller welcomed a little girl whom they named Hellen Keller to this world. Like other babies, Keller was healthy both mentally and physically. However, when Keller turned 19, she got a scarlet fever that did not have a cure at that time (ShhagouRy, pg. 1-6). Many doctors’ had told Keller’s parents that she was going to die but Hellen Keller was able to survive although she did lose her hearing ability, her eyesight and could not talk. Her main form of communication with her parents and siblings was through signs but as she grew holder communication became more difficult. Because of her difficulty in communication, she would at times throw tantrums when her parents were not able to understand what she was saying. Her parents were desperate that they reached out to Alexander Graham Bell who was teaching different children. Bell recommended that the parents should contact Michael Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind and it is this way that they got Anne Sullivan.
Before Anne Sullivan, Keller had become friends with Martha Washington who was a younger daughter of their family cook. The two created sign languages and when Keller was seven she had already invented more than sixty sign languages that they were using to communicate with each other. Anne Sullivan did not have any experience on teaching the blind nor the deaf but she agreed that she would help Keller. She helped Keller improve her communication using signs as well as reading with braille and was Keller’s close companion till when she died in 1936. Sullivan is known for teaching Keller Finger spelling starting with the word doll. This was because Sullivan had brought Keller a doll as a gift and she needed her to understand the gift, later other words followed (Lash pg. 30). Teaching Keller was not easy as at first she was defiant and not cooperative. In order to help Keller and improve her concentration Sullivan asked that she and Keller be isolate from the family for a while. It is while at this cottage Keller learnt most words including water. Keller’s mother in her search to help her daughter read a book by Charles Dickens that talks of a successful blind and deaf child.
In 1890, Keller begun her classes and she attended Horace Mann School for the blind a school in Boston. For 25 years, Keller worked hard to speak so that other people would be able to understand her. Between 1894-1896, Keller attended Wright-Humanson School for deaf in New York where she improved her communication skill and she studied regular subjects. Gawith her progress, she had the determination and wanted to go to college. 1986, she went to Cambridge School a university for young women. Her story was already out there and she got to meet influential people including Mark Twain. Mark Twain introduced her to Henry Rogers who was impressed by her that he paid her college fee for her to attend Radcliffe College. Sullivan was still very fundamental in her academic education as she helped her interpret her lecture notes. By this time Keller was so good in touch-lip reading, typing and finger spelling which made communication for her easier.
Keller was able to graduate and in 1905 she wrote her first book The Story of My Life which covered her life since childhood to a 21-year-old college student. Keller became involved in social and political issues in 20th century. She would give lectures about the story of her life and push for better treatment and inclusion of other people who too were living with disabilities. In 1915 Keller together with George Kessler a city planner came together and founded Helen Keller International whose main objective was to combat the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition. In 1920, she founded the American Civil Liberties that was aimed at helping Americans protect their rights. Hellen Keller became the first blind person to earn a degree in Bachelors of Arts.
In 1921, American Federation for the Blind was founded and Keller would use this platform to champion for what she believed in. In 1924 she became a member and was part of campaigns that would help raise awareness and Finances to help blind people. After college, Keller joined the Socialist Part and she did write articles on socialism and had a series of these writings referred to as “Out of the Dark” which gave her views on socialism. After expressing her socialist views, she begun getting attacks because of her disabilities (Crow, pg. 845-859). In 1955 at age 75 Keller would transverse across Asia giving her story which inspired thousands.
Hellen Keller’s life story gave hope to many people. She moved to different parts of the world giving her story and letting people understand that disability is not inability. Her legacy will not only be remembered for her activism for both the deaf and the blind people but also for other people with disability and women.
Works Cited
Crow, Liz. “Helen Keller: Rethinking the problematic icon.” Disability & Society 15.6 (2000): 845-859.
Lash, Joseph P., and Catherine Byers. Helen and teacher: the story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy. New York: Delacorte Press, 1980.
ShagouRy, Ruth. “The truth about Helen Keller.” Zinn Education Project (2009): 1-6.
