Helen Keller: Activist For The Blind And Deaf

Helen Keller was not only blind and deaf but also the first person to learn to communicate and graduate from a college. Anne Sullivan was Helen Keller’s Teacher, she was able to break through and teach Helen Keller the once thought impossible. Helen Keller was and is an inspiration till this day; she was an author that spoke out on her beliefs. She campaigned for women's suffrage, workers' rights and socialism. She was an activist for the deaf & blind and the founder of the American Foundation for the Blind.

On June 27, 1880, Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was the daughter of Arthur and Katherine Keller. Helens Father was an officer in the Confederate Army and served during the Civil War. She was the oldest between her
“In 1886, Keller's mother came across a travelogue by Charles Dickens, American Notes. She read of the successful education of another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, and soon dispatched Keller and her father to Baltimore, Maryland to see specialist Dr. J. Julian Chisolm. After examining Keller, Chisolm recommended that she see Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell met with Keller and her parents, and suggested that they travel to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts. There, the family met with the school's director, Michael Anaganos. He suggested Helen work with one of the institute's most recent graduates, Anne Sullivan.” This was the start of long relationship between the two. Anne went to Alabama to meet Helen and to begin working with her immediately. Anne started her teachings by showing Helen how to learn to finger spell. Anne gave her a doll to better understand the gift and how to spell the word. It took a while for Helen to understand, she would be eager to learn one day and resistant towards Anne’s’ lessons the next day. When Helen did want to work along with Anne and follow her instructions. Anne could see the struggle Helen was having but she not want to give up and kept teaching her until she understood. Helen became more irritated at this point and threw even more fits. Anne was disappointed with how the family would just cave in letting Helen get away with her tantrums. Therefore, She enforced that they go to the families’ cottage away from them all. This gave Anne a better vantage point and Helen would not be confused by the different treatment around her. Anne took Helen to a water pump as the water ran over Helens hands; she then spelled the word on Helens hands. This was just the start to Anne’s learning’s. She was able to spell the