Helen Keller: Victories Over Disabilities

Imagine waking up after a long recovery from an illness, hearing nothing, and seeing nothing but black. This is what happened to Helen Keller when she was over a year old. This left her frightened and afraid. After receiving a few years of education, she went on to be the first blind/deaf person to graduate college. She realized that it was unfair for people to leave blind and deaf people uneducated and that everyone deserves the same level of education. She worked hard and accomplished many great things to prove that anyone can achieve anything, disabilities or not. Helen Keller represents a powerful woman with great historical significance because she fought for education for blind/deaf people, she started the American Foundation for the Blind to raise money for children like her, and she helped make braille the standard system for teaching the blind/deaf.

Helen Keller was born as a normal baby with sight and hearing. When she was about one year old, she was diagnosed with an unknown illness that was predicted to kill her. “Helen didn’t die, though, and the high fever went away as suddenly as it had come. But the disease had damaged her eyesight and hearing. In a few weeks, she couldn’t see or hear anymore” (Shichtman). Because Keller could not see or hear her parents, she could not be disciplined. Once she realized this, she started acting up and misbehaving on purpose. Left with no way to communicate, there was no way for her to behave or be educated.

At some point, Helen Keller’s parents were contacted by Alexander Graham Bell, who recommended they contact Perkins Institute for the Blind for education for Keller. Soon, Perkins had chosen Anne Sullivan to be her personal teacher. Sullivan almost went blind when she was a child, but a surgery restored her eyesight and she could still see. She was the right fit for the job because she knew how to help Keller. As soon as Sullivan arrived at the Keller’s home, she began educating her. “Anne gave Helen a doll that the students at the Perkins Institution had sent to her… While she was playing, Anne took Helen’s hand and finger-spelled the letters d-o-l-l into Helen’s palm”. Keller did not understand what it had meant, but she liked to imitate people, so she walked around spelling d-o-l-l into the air.

One day, Anne Sullivan took Keller out to a water pump, took her hand, and held it underneath running water. At the same time, Sullivan spelled out w-a-t-e-r into her other hand. “Finally, Helen’s face lit up with understanding. She remembered that she had learned to say ‘wah-wah’ for ‘water’ when she was a baby. Now she knew that there was a word for everything and that Anne could teach her to finger-spell those words”. After realizing this, she wanted to know the words for everything she touched. Sullivan followed her around the house and spelled out the words into her hands.

Soon, Anne Sullivan began to teach Keller how to read in braille. She brought her books from Perkins that were written in braille. She read these books over and over and soon she had grown tired of them. The books were returned to Perkins, and more were sent back. “Within six months Anne was again running out of books for her student. She asked the Kellers if she could take Helen to Perkins. There would be many more books for Helen to read… The Kellers agreed that Helen should go, and in May 1888, Mrs. Keller took Helen and Anne to the School”. At Perkins, Keller learned much more than braille, she also learned history, math, French, and Greek.

After attending Perkins, Helen Keller started attending the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf. Soon, Keller began learning to speak. She and Sullivan realized that she needed to be able to communicate with other people who do not know how to fingerspell. Keller began learning to speak by placing her fingers in her teacher’s mouth and on her lips. This helped her learn how she is supposed to position her own mouth to speak. “Keller entered the Cambridge School on October 1, 1896… Because the Cambridge School was not set up for people with disabilities, none of Keller’s teachers had experience teaching the deaf or blind and only a few learned the manual language. Sullivan attended all of Keller’s classes with her and spelled the teachers’ lectures into her hands. That year, Keller took exams in elementary and advanced German, French, Latin, English, and Greek and Roman history”. Keller passed every single exam she took.

After a few years, Keller began attending Radcliffe College. “While still a student at Radcliffe she authored her autobiography, The Story of My Life… Keller's notoriety combined with her vivid descriptions of the process of experiencing the world primarily through the sense of touch eventually made the book not only a bestseller but also a classic work of American literature. She would write 13 books in total, although none of the dozen that followed The Story of My Life would garner similar public acclaim… In 1957, the play The Miracle Worker, yet another retelling of Keller's early recognition of language and her relationship with Sullivan, was first released, appearing on Broadway in 1959. A motion picture of the same title was released in 1962”. Keller graduated from Radcliffe College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. She is said to have been the first-ever blind/deaf person to have graduated from college.

After graduating from college, Helen Keller became very passionate about educating the blind/deaf. “Her success showed that people who are blind and deaf can learn to read and write just like everyone else. Helen wrote many articles on educating and treating the special problems of those with disabilities”. Keller also raised money for the American Foundation for the Blind to help blind children and adults. She also helped braille become the standard system of teaching the blind. Since she was often invited to the White House, she eventually encouraged the government to pass the Social Security Act to help assist the disabled.

At the same time, Keller was becoming more politically active, and she supported a woman’s right to vote. She also supported the Socialist Party, which was not approved by many, and lost her popularity with some people. “Helen Keller traveled across the world making appearances and giving motivational speeches. She not only spoke for the rights of people with disabilities but also for other unprivileged sections of society. Keller made seven trips across the world visiting 35 countries on five continents and meeting with world leaders including Winston Churchill, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Golda Meir”. She also campaigned for equal rights for black and disabled people.

Helen Keller went from being a helpless blind/deaf little girl to being an inspiration to millions of people around the world. Anne Sullivan, her mentor and friend, guided Keller through every step of learning to read, write, and speak to large crowds of people. Despite her disabilities, Keller worked devotedly to voice her opinion on various problems in the world. For example, she protested the United States’ involvement in World War I. Because of the rough start to her childhood, Keller worked hard to influence people and earn more rights for those worse off than others. Helen Keller strived to make a difference in the lives of the blind and deaf by sharing the story of her life, the speeches she gave, and the achievements she earned to prove that disabled people deserve a chance to be educated like everyone else.