Helen Keller

Helen Keller

She could neither see nor hear, yet she could communicate, write, read and make friends. She even went to college, wrote nearly a dozen books, traveled all over the world, gave speeches, and even met 12 U.S. presidents.

She was Helen Keller, a woman from the small town of Tuscumbia, Alabama, who taught the world to respect people who are blind and deaf.

Born on 27 June 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, she was the first daughter of Captain Arthur Henley Keller and Kate Adams Keller. Helen was a normal baby. But it changed dramatically when she was 19 months old. In February 1882, she got extremely ill and lost her vision and hearing. She was very frustrated and became a difficult child. By the age of seven, her parents knew that they needed help, so they hired a tutor named Anne Sullivan.

At first it was not easy to teach the frustrated child, but Anne Sullivan was strict and had a lot of energy. After some time, Helen enjoyed living with Ms. Sullivan. Ms. Sullivan taught Helen to spell words with her hands (the manual alphabet, which is part of the sign language that deaf people use). The trouble was Helen did not understand what the words meant—until Ms. Sullivan let Helen touch the objects and then she spelled the words into Helen’s other hand. She told her that everything in the world had names and meanings. Finally Helen realized that if she knew the name of things, she could communicate with people. From then on, her mind raced ahead.

Ms. Sullivan brought Helen to Perkins School, a school for deaf/blind people. Helen liked being there and was having a good time with her friends. She also enjoyed studying geography, history, languages, mathematics, etc.

At the age of 10, Ms. Sullivan brought Helen to find Ms. Sarah, a teacher who taught in the deaf/blind school. Ms. Sarah taught Helen to speak. She learned it by feeling her teacher’s mouth when she talked. Other people found it hard to understand her, but she never gave up. Finally, Helen could speak properly and made her parents proud of her. She also learned to read French, German, Greek and Latin in Braille.

When she was 20, she entered Radcliffe College (the women’s branch of Harvard University), the university of her dreams. After four years of hard working, she graduated from the university with flying scores. During her study at the university, she wrote her first book, “The Story of My Life,” which was translated into 50 languages. She used two typewriters: one regular and one Braille. After that, she wrote 10 more books and some articles.

Helen did research, gave speeches about the experiences and rights of people who are blind, helped raised money for many organizations such as Helen Keller Worldwide, visited 39 countries on five different continents, inspired many works of arts including two Oscar-winning movies, and received dozens of awards.

Helen was an exceptional leader, once she saw the potential in her own mind. Meanwhile Anne Sullivan always accompanied her until she died. Helen lived until the age of 87 years.