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Helen Keller

By M.Q.

The work of Helen Keller definitely changed the perspective of many people concerning the disabled. Her work to help the blind and deaf would not have been possible had she not been one.

Who is Helen Keller?

Keller became blind and deaf when she was nineteen months old due to catching scarlet fever. She was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880 to Kate and a Confederate Captain named Arthur Keller. Due to her illness her parents didn’t set behavioral boundaries for her; this caused her to be wild child. It was this wild behavior that caused her parents to take her to a doctor, who like all the others stated that her vision could never be fixed, but he also told the Kellers to take her to Alexander Graham Bell. Bell had done quite some work for the deaf at this point. Graham’s advice to the Kellers was to hire a tutor from Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. This was where Helen’s life would change.

How her life changed.

The Perkins Institute send over a young lady named Annie Sullivan, who would later become a best friend of Helen‘s, to treat Helen. Helen was a quick learner and in a very short time Sullivan had taught her the relationship between the symbols put in her hands to things they were related to. This was the first time in Helen’s life when she didn’t feel lonely. In an article written by Keller printed in Dennis Wepman’s book, Helen Keller, Keller says:

The world I see with my fingers is alive, ruddy, and satisfying. Touch brings the blind many sweet certainties which our more fortunate fellows mess, because their sense of touch is uncultivated. When they look at things, they put their hands in their pockets (Wepman 44).

It is this image of the world that allowed her to see herself as a person and not as a disabled. She now admired her talent rather than feeling agitated about it. At this point people also started to call her Miracle because she was able to make such a connection. Not only had she become a favorite of the people but also for men like Alexander Graham Bell, Mark Twain, and even Albert Einstein. Einstein ones said:

Your work, Mrs. Macy (the married name of Annie Sullivan), has interested me more than any other achievement in modern education. You not only imparted language to Helen Keller but you unfolded her personality, and such work has in it an element of the superhuman (Wepman 84).

She also made a great impact on the director of the Perkins Institute, Michael Anagonos. They formed a great friendship, which unfortunately ended when Helen was twelve because Anagonos believed that Helen copied parts of a story and passed it as hers. To these charges Helen had a "trial" in front of eight school representatives. Four of these representatives, including Anagonos, voted her guilty, while the other four considered her not guilty. Keller didn’t deny this but was latter quoted as saying: "Long after I had forgotten it, it came back to me so naturally that I never suspected that it was the child of another mind (Wepman 50)." Even at the young tender age of twelve she had started to make an impact. A little after this scandalous issue, Helen wrote a autobiography wondering if this work was hers or someone else’s, the people proved to her that this was her work by never relating the two issues with each other.

Helen’s wanting to help others was very great not only as an adult but also as a child. In 1890, at just 10 years of age, she started raising funds for a little boy named Tommy Stringer. "Tommy Stringer, who, like her , was deaf and blind (Hunter 19)." She eventually raised sixteen hundred dollars for him. This money help send little Tommy to Perkins Institute. Not only did she help here, but she also helped Alexander Graham Bell’s campaign to teach the deaf to speak (19). In 1932, Keller worked to set a standardized Braille form. She thought it was unnecessary for people to go through the trouble of learning so many different forms when one could be standardized (Wepman 81).

American Foundation for the Blind.

In 1928, Helen began her work with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). In this foundation Helen and Annie had to travel to many different countries and give speeches to help raise money for the blind (Lawlor 139). They traveled to 123 different cities just in the United states and raised more than $1 million. Due to her efforts, men like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and Cowboy comedian Will Rogers donated millions of dollars to the American Foundation for the Blind. After Sullivan’s death in 1936, Helen went on with her work for the blind. Her and her new assistant, Polly Thomson, went to Japan to raise money for their blind. By this time Keller had come to be admired by all of the world for her efforts, so the Japanese were no different in admiring her. They also came to all her ninety-seven lectures in thirty- nine cities. She managed to raise thirty-five million yen for them. Helen was also one of the only people to be invited to the imperial castle of the Japanese Emperor (Beckwith).

How she changed the lives of others.

Keller also worked for women’s rights. While she was attending Radcliffe College, she joined the Women's Education and Industrial Union in Boston. In this group she helped to promote welfare of the adult blind. She along with many others pleaded with the legislature that blind, like everyone else, needed work. This group also wanted a state commission set up for blind (Lawlor 104). She later also worked for child labor laws and the right for women to vote. She tried to bring up the amendment that allowed women to vote to the attention of Congress. She also worked on the Controversial subjects such as that of birth control. Keller thought it was an important idea for women's freedom (Lawlor 119).

The impact of Helen Keller's work can still be witnessed today.

The Helen Keller Foundation still works to help the blind, along with doing research to prevent blindness. Due to her work, and many others, women are finally allowed to vote and birth control is available to all women. Her help in standardizing the Braille form was also very important, now all the blind have one writing style they have to learn.

A few highlights of Keller's life:

• June 27, 1880: Helen Keller is born in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
• Helen's teacher was the young Annie Sullivan.
• 1932: Helen worked at making a standardized Braille form.
• 1928: Helen begins her work with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB).
• 1936: Sullivan dies, but Keller keeps working for the blind.
• 1968: Helen dies.

Work Cited

Becwith, Laura. "Helen Keller Foundation." The Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education, 1995. January 24, 2003.

Hunter, Nigel. Helen Keller. New York: The Book Wright Press, 1986.

Lawlor, Laurie.Helen Keller: Rebellious Spirit. New York: Holiday House, 2001.

Wepman, Dennis. Helen Keller: Humanitarian. New York: Chelsea A House Publishers, 1987.

This webpage created by M.Q. for History and Thought of Western Man, Rich East High School, Park Forest, IL 60466. Last update, 27 May 2003.

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