Helen Keller

Helen Kellerbiography.comA little girl sat by herself in her bedroom. She lived in the darkness for year where no one was able to reach her. She couldn't talk, couldn't hear, nor could she see, but this did not stop her. The girl was Helen Keller, born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. When she was only eighteen months old, a sudden illness left her both blind and deaf. A hero is someone who never surrender to challenges and can make an impact to the world. By overcoming difficulties and working as a social activist for the blind, Helen Keller truly became a miracle worker.

Keller with Anne Sullivanperkins.orgBy overcoming difficulties, Keller changed the perception of the achievements of the disabled. One obstacle she had to overcome was to fully understand the meaning behind each word and sentence she spelled. “Helen quickly learned to form the letters correctly and in the correct order, but did not know she was spelling a word, or even that word existed” (AFB). Not many deafblind people had been educated before Keller, and made the learning process much harder. But with a passion for learning and the help from her teacher and companion, Anne Sullivan, Keller was able to fully understand and to pursue higher education. Her successful academic career proved that the deaf, blind, and even deafblind, were able to accomplish more than what people originally thought. She faced another challenge when she first started learning to speak. “When Keller was ten years old, Mary Swift Lamson, one of Laura Bridgman’s teachers, told Keller about Ragnhild Kaata, a deaf and blind Norwegian child who had been taught to speak. Keller immediately resolved to learn to speak” (Helen Keller). Before the illness, Keller was able to speak at only six months old, but learning to speak again was not easy. Children learn to speak by hearing and mimicking other people’s speech. Keller had to find another way. She was able to achieve speaking by feeling the position of another person’s lips and tongue, though never clearly. She proved that the deafblind were able to accomplish as much as any other people, and inspired many people to try their best and hardest. It was not just overcoming difficulties that made Keller a hero, her works as a social activist also had huge impacts.

Helen Kellerthoughtco.comKeller’s impacts as a social activist changed the view of the disabled in the United States. Her works were mostly for the blind. “Helen Keller joined the AFB in 1924 and worked for the organization for over 40 years” (AFB). The American Foundation for the Blind provided Keller the platform to speak out. As results of her travels across the United States, the lives of the blind improved. They were taken cared off and education became more accessible, and many lives were changed. For the rest of her life, Keller continued to work to improve and inspire. “She devoted the rest of her life to the promotion of social reforms aimed at bettering the education and treatment for the blind, the deaf, the mute, the in effect, all handicapped individuals” (Helen Keller). Keller used her influence to better educate people about various disabilities, especially blindness. She prevented many blind people from the being submitted into mental asylums, and her articles published in the Kansas City Star and Ladies Home Journal were among the first to discuss the relationships between various diseases and newborn blindness. Keller’s influence did not just stop in the United States, in 1915, she co founded the Helen Keller International to help the blind in many other countries.

Helen Keller conquered difficulties and changed the lives of many disabled. She changed the perception of of what disabled people could achieve and and view of the disabled. She inspired many people to live their lives to the fullest and make an impact to the world. Helen Keller impacted the world in many different ways, and thus, is a true hero.

Works Cited

“Helen Keller Biography.” Helen Keller Biography - American Foundation for the Blind, www.afb.org/info/about-us/helen-keller/biography-and-chronology/biography/1235.

"Helen Keller." Contemporary Heroes and Heroines, vol. 1, Gale, 1990. Biography In Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1607000147/BIC?u=powa9245&sid=BIC&xid=d919829b. Accessed 30 Mar. 2018.