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For Helen Keller, born on June 27th, 1880, the world she could recall was always dark and silent. At only 19 months old Helen Keller was rendered blind and deaf by an unknown illness, and spent her early years as a frustrated, lost, and temper-prone child. At age six, Helen’s parents in desperation, hired Anne Sullivan as a teacher for Helen. Anne Sullivan began teaching her pupil by signing word after word into Helen’s hand. After several months, the idea that words are connected to real-world objects finally clicked into Helen’s head. This happened specifically when Sullivan was refilling a jug of water at the family water pump. Keller later wrote in her autobiography, “As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. … That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.” And soon enough, barriers crumbled as Anne Sullivan devoted all her time to her eager pupil.
With her teacher Anne Sullivan and friend Polly Thomson by her side, Helen Keller accomplished more in her exceptional life than many non-handicapped people could even dream of. Her indomitable spirit, love of life and her fellow human has inspired millions over the last century, as she proved to the world that the barriers facing handicapped people can be broken with time and effort. Keller was a life-long learner, prolific writer and world-wide lecturer. She eliminated obstacles through education and enabled real change in many humanitarian and political problems of the time, the impacts of which are still felt today. But most importantly, Keller was an advocate for humanity, specifically the handicapped, and represented the underrepresented when no one else did.
With Anne Sullivan’s constant guidance, Helen learned to read Braille, write, use a typewriter, and she became fluent in five languages. Keller learned to “hear” by feeling vibrations and feeling the lips for the shape of the sounds. At age 24, Helen graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College (the women’s counterpart of the men-only Harvard college) with a bachelor’s degree. She was the first deafblind person to graduate from college, blazing the first of many trails for others to follow. Over 100 years later in 2013, Haben Girma became at age 23 the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School. She said; video; “Many people reduce the story of Helen Keller to one thing, a woman who succeeded despite her disabilities. Disability never holds anyone back. Disability is never the barrier. The barrier is society and expectations.” Last year Girma published an op-ed in the Washington Post imploring the Texas Board of Education not to remove the measly 40 minutes required to teach 3rd graders about Helen Keller. Girma, who has been deaf-blind from birth, said that her own experience learning about Keller in second grade helped to influence her eventual career choice as a Harvard Law School graduate and disability rights attorney. (The Texas Board later reinstated Keller in the curriculum.)
It was primarily through the medium of the typewritten word that Helen communicated with Americans and ultimately with millions across the globe. From an early age, she championed the rights of the “underdog” and used her skills as a writer to speak out, with the help of her teacher and many important political figures. (In her lifetime, she had met all twelve presidents since Grover Cleveland and also formed meaningful friendships with other influential people such as mentors Mark Twain and Alexander Graham Bell.) She penned over 12 books and 475 essays and speeches on countless humanitarian and political topics, continually cracking the impediments of prejudice against the disabled. One of Keller’s early causes was preventable infant blindness which called for utilizing silver nitrate eyedrops in newborns’ eyes. By publishing articles in the Ladies’ Home Journal, Keller reached 1.6 million women, creating positive barriers to infant blindness by spreading the word and ultimately helping the treatment gain acceptance in the medical field. Although the application solution has evolved with the advancement of the science, this treatment still continues today.
Helen joined the American Foundation for the Blind in 1924 and worked for the organization for over 40 years. Over fifty years later, Keller is still lauded as its most famous ambassador. Today the AFB is a national nonprofit, working to expand the horizons for 25 million Americans living with vision loss. Helen Keller International, co-founded by Keller in 1915, began as blind relief efforts for European soldiers. Today it is an international nonprofit organization active in 22 countries, giving 85 cents of every dollar it receives towards preventing blindness and reducing malnutrition. Both organizations gave Keller opportunities to advocate for the rights and needs of people around the globe, which she took full advantage of. Because of her worldwide efforts, schools for the disabled were built, and deaf and blind people were treated fairer due to knowledge about their lives and struggles becoming more public. Visiting over 39 countries, she personified everything a deaf-blind individual could attain and brought encouragement to millions of people. Her tireless efforts dismantled countless constraints facing the disabled by educating leaders and the general public as to the needs and abilities of the handicapped population.
While Keller is well-known for her disabilities and work on behalf of the blind, what is less known is her commitment to pacifism, equality, women’s rights and suffrage, and labor and workers’ rights. As a pacifist, she protested U.S. involvement in World War I, exemplified by her “Strike Against War” speech in 1916. Quote: ‘I cannot but say a word and look my disapproval when I hear that my country is spending millions for war and war engines—more, I have heard, than twice as much as the entire public school system costs the nation.’ She was a tireless advocate for women’s suffrage, and she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920. Although she often faced criticism because of her controversial political standpoints, she continued to support what she believed in; Helen Keller was a woman who thought for herself. She became a member of the Socialist Party in 1909 and by 1912, she had become a national voice for socialism and the working class in America.
Keller visited many factories and industrial areas and was appalled at the horrible working conditions. She concluded that the main causes of disability in the U.S. were workplace accidents and sicknesses from owners placing profits above worker safety. In her writings, Keller indicated commercialism and capitalism for such incidents. Her 1911 speech “Social Causes of Blindness” endeavored to bring public awareness to the needless cruelty of preventable workplace injuries. However, one of her greatest contributions to the socialist movement was her 1913 “Out of the Dark: Essays, Letters, and Addresses on Physical and Social Vision”, which contains her most political writings. By bringing social awareness on a national level to these humanitarian causes, Helen Keller was able to address the barriers of ignorance and sow the seeds of change. Four years before her death, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Keller the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civil honor for peacetime service.
In 1960, Keller suffered a stroke and retired to her home in Westport, Connecticut. There she resided peacefully until her death on June 1, 1968, a few weeks short of her 88th birthday. Her ashes were placed next to her beloved teacher Anne Sullivan Macy in St. Joseph’s Chapel of Washington Cathedral.
Helen Keller, a blind visionary, truly showed us that no matter who you are, if you work hard and defy expectations, you will achieve great things. She impacted society immeasurably during her lifetime, and still has a huge significance today, inspiring millions to continue to chip away at the walls of prejudice and unequal treatment of the disabled. According to Girma, video “Disability is not something that people need to overcome. The barriers that exist are created by society. And it’s up to every single one of us to work together to remove those barriers.” Keller lived her life in the public eye as a server of mankind and a champion of the oppressed, unapologetically fighting for what she believed in — unheard of for a woman and especially a disabled person in the 19th century. When Helen Keller tore down barriers that handicapped humanity, she caused a waterfall of positive change in the world that is still flowing today.
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