Helen Keller

Background

Helen Keller was known as one of the biggest advocates of disability rights, having fought for them for most of her life. The author was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her parents were Arthur Henley Keller and Catherine Everett Keller.

She was only 19 months old when she contracted an unknown disease that left her deaf and blind. Keller communicated through home signs until she was seven years old. In 1886, her parents were referred to the inventor Alexander Graham Bell who, at the time, was working with deaf children. Bell, in turn, told them to go contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind, whose director sent in Anne Sullivan, a visually impaired alumna of the school, to be young Keller’s teacher. Sullivan started by teaching her student how to communicate by spelling words, starting with tracing words into her hand. The first word she ever taught Keller was ‘doll.’ In 1888, Keller joined the Perkins Institute, later shifting schools and finally attending college at Radcliffe College, Harvard University in 1900. She graduated from college four years later and became the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Determined to learn to speak, Keller regularly gave lectures and speeches about her life and learned to effectively understand, read and communicate through different methods. She went on to become a celebrated author and speaker, and was an advocate for disability rights. She traveled to over 25 countries and gave speeches about the conditions of deaf people and the issues they go through on a daily basis. In 1915, she founded “Helen Keller International,” along with George A. Kessler, which was devoted to research in vision, health, and nutrition. She was already a part of the Socialist Party at the time and campaigned in the support of the working class until 1921. Most speeches that she gave and wrote spoke in favor of women’s suffrage and the effects of war. Keller went on to publish a total of 12 books and wrote many articles, among which was also her autobiography, “The Story of my Life.” (1903). The book spoke of Keller’s life up to the age of 21 and was written when she was in college. Five years later, she wrote “The World I Live in,” which chronicled her feelings about the world.

Sullivan remained Keller’s companion even after her education was complete, and remained so until 1914. Polly Thomson, a Scottish housekeeper, went on to become Keller’s companion and secretary later. The author almost eloped with her fiancé, Peter Fagan while in her thirties. She spent the final years of her life in her home, and on June 1, 1968, passed away in her sleep. Keller lived a full life, despite her disabilities.