Helen Keller was a deaf-blind American woman who became an author, political activist, and lecturer. She was well-traveled and outspoken in her convictions. She campaigned for women’s suffrage, labor rights, and other similar causes.
Helen Keller was born in Alabama on June 27th, 1880. At 19 months old, she became very ill, and the illness left her deaf and blind. Her inability to communicate with the outside world brought her great frustration. She threw terrible temper tantrums and was maliciously mischievous toward her family members. This behavior brought her family to a place of desperation.
Soon, she began to make attempts to communicate with a child of one of the family’s maids. She showed great signs of intelligence, though no one knew how to teach her. Her mother learned about a deaf-blind child who had successfully received an education. So the search was on, involving a number of people including Alexander Graham Bell, who was instrumental in the circumstances that brought Anne Sullivan to the Keller home.
Anne Sullivan was commissioned by the school that had successfully educated the aforementioned deaf-blind woman, and was herself partially blind. She was fluent in sign language and had been trained in a number of skills related to people who lacked full use of their senses. She quickly earned the trust of the family and helped Helen break through the great communication barriers that caused her so much frustration. Anne became Helen’s teacher and governess, and helped her to understand the world around her. Without Anne, it is difficult to say if Helen would have been able to cross those barriers.
After several more years of learning at home with Anne, Helen became a student at schools for the blind and also for the deaf, and eventually became the first ever deaf-blind person to receive a bachelor of arts degree. During her schooling years, she gained the admiration of Mark Twain, who paid for a great deal of her education.
After receiving her degree, Helen was determined to learn how to speak, after which she gave speeches and lectures frequently. She used her surprisingly enormous communication skills in a wide variety of roles including fundraising, political activism, and social reform. She was also a prolific author. Helen Keller died on June 1st, 1968 and has received a variety of awards and honors posthumously.