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About Helen Keller
Helen Keller was born on June 27th, 1880. She lost her hearing and sight at only 19 months old due to an illness at infancy. Immediately, the Keller family searched in pursuit of help at the Perkins Institute for the Blind. There, she met Anne Sullivan, a woman known as the “miracle worker” who was hired to be Helen Keller’s teacher. In 1887, Sullivan moved in with the family to give personal help to Helen. With the guidance of her teacher, Helen was taught to use braille and finger spelling in order to understand others. The two focused on this throughout Helen’s childhood, and her advancement brought upon a reputation defining her as an intelligent young woman towards her teen years. As time passed, Sullivan and Helen Keller’s work together started to gain popularity and news anchors were brought to surprise by the fact that Helen was thriving extraordinarily well with Anne. Soon enough, Helen was surfaced in news articles and other widespread media. Crowds were amazed by the speed to which Helen’s education progressed over time. She was known for her wide vocabulary and unanticipated reading at such a young age. Many were amazed by the idea that a little girl who was both blind and deaf could ever be able to comprehend the American language at such a young age solely with the guide of a young woman like Anne Sullivan.
By 1890, Helen was so knowledgeable of the English language that Anne had hope in her being able to learn speech. Helen found success in observing Anne’s lip movements when speaking by using her fingers to feel the vowels and sounds made by consonant blends. Helen was taught to speak by memorizing and modeling Anne Sullivan’s lip movements and mimicking each sound using her voice.
This was a new beginning for Helen Keller, especially for the fact that she was able to use this for her personal gain. Helen was now able to voice what she felt was unjust and fight for what’s right, something she admired in the books she read as a child. Throughout Helen’s childhood she found motivation in finding a way to communicate with people and ridding of the title “disabled person”.
In 1900, Helen was accepted into Radcliffe College, as she was an excelling student and was also well known for her intelligence considering her circumstances. Helen proved herself by communicating with those who didn’t think she was able to.Her success at the school and her newly found popularity inspired Helen to consider becoming a women’s suffragist and an advocate for disability rights towards adulthood. She finally was at the point where she had faith that she could make changes in society by delivering her beliefs, an ability she had all along. This encouraged Helen’s campaign for the Prevention of Blindness in 1910, a campaign started in efforts to push the distribution of a cure to Ophthalmia Neonatorum, an inflammation of the eyes which causes blindness in itself. From here on, Helen was known for her involvement in socialist politics, specifically women’s workers rights and disabled workers rights. Her compassion in helping people become articulate is one of the many inspiring things about Helen. She had faith in people that needed to find faith in themselves, in resemblance and gratitude of the fact that she was lifted by Anne and faith in herself as she was growing up. She passed away on June 1st, 1968. Although, this was not the end to Keller’s legacy, as it was just beginning.
By 1890, Helen was so knowledgeable of the English language that Anne had hope in her being able to learn speech. Helen found success in observing Anne’s lip movements when speaking by using her fingers to feel the vowels and sounds made by consonant blends. Helen was taught to speak by memorizing and modeling Anne Sullivan’s lip movements and mimicking each sound using her voice.
This was a new beginning for Helen Keller, especially for the fact that she was able to use this for her personal gain. Helen was now able to voice what she felt was unjust and fight for what’s right, something she admired in the books she read as a child. Throughout Helen’s childhood she found motivation in finding a way to communicate with people and ridding of the title “disabled person”.
In 1900, Helen was accepted into Radcliffe College, as she was an excelling student and was also well known for her intelligence considering her circumstances. Helen proved herself by communicating with those who didn’t think she was able to.Her success at the school and her newly found popularity inspired Helen to consider becoming a women’s suffragist and an advocate for disability rights towards adulthood. She finally was at the point where she had faith that she could make changes in society by delivering her beliefs, an ability she had all along. This encouraged Helen’s campaign for the Prevention of Blindness in 1910, a campaign started in efforts to push the distribution of a cure to Ophthalmia Neonatorum, an inflammation of the eyes which causes blindness in itself. From here on, Helen was known for her involvement in socialist politics, specifically women’s workers rights and disabled workers rights. Her compassion in helping people become articulate is one of the many inspiring things about Helen. She had faith in people that needed to find faith in themselves, in resemblance and gratitude of the fact that she was lifted by Anne and faith in herself as she was growing up. She passed away on June 1st, 1968. Although, this was not the end to Keller’s legacy, as it was just beginning.