Many people in the disability community in Nigeria would have certainly heard about Helen Keller before now, but very few of us know about the extraordinary life of this woman and her remarkable contribution to our ‘humanity’ as people with disabilities. Helen Keller isn’t just so famous in the disabled community; Ms. Keller was a global legend. One of world’s best for generations. A true woman.
Her incredible spirit has continued to live in the hearts of all people all around the world.
If you are the compassionate and empathetic type who deeply cares about the dignity of everyone, particularly people with disabilities, then Helen Keller ought to be your very best friend today.
Let it be told from the onset: Helen Adams Keller was a deaf-blind American woman. She was a prolific author, educator, activist, writer, speaker, and deaf advocate. Perhaps, well-known as “the American woman who was born deaf and blind”, Helen Keller— was beset with very great personal obstacles–through determination, smarts, and the support of a loving family, Helen did overcome and rose to become one of the 20th century’s most prolific author.
Ms. Keller was a great humanitarian, a great educator, and a rousing speaker who inspired the entire world. She had a chance to meet with every single US president from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson and was friends with many illustrious figures, including Alexander Graham Bell (world-famous Scottish inventor of the telephone), Charlie Chaplin (an English comic actor and filmmaker), and Mark Twain (an American writer and homourist).
Helen Adams Keller was a tremendous woman with co-morbidities and multiple disabilities. But she made the world a better place.
Early Life
Helen Adams Keller was born June 27, 1880- with grossly normal organs. Helen was born with the facility to see objects ad persons and hear sounds and speech. Keller was born with her senses of sight and hearing and had begun to speak when she was just 6 months old. She started walking at the age of 1.
So, Ms. Keller was just like a normal child, but with perhaps high ability personal characteristics.
A series of life-changing events would dramatically change the course of little Helen’s life.
Loss of Sight and Hearing
In 1882, when Keller was just 19 months old, however, she contracted an illness which at the time had no name or recognition. Called “brain fever” by the family doctor because the condition produced a pretty high body temperature, within a few days after the fever occurred, Keller’s mom noticed that her daughter didn’t show any reaction when the dinner bell was rung, nor did she respond to a wave of the hand in front of her face.
At one year and 7 months old, Keller had ceased to hear and see.
At just 19 months old, Keller had lost both her sight and hearing. That event devastated the family a great deal. But it might just be the beginning of a lifetime of immensity for the tod.
Making it ‘work’
With inabilities to speak, hear and see, Keller, together with her friend had to develop a limited method of communication They had created a type of sign language, and by the time Keller was 7, they had made up over 60 signs to communicate with each other. But Keller had grown very wild and rowdy during this time. Helen Keller would kick and scream every time she was angry or when she could not get what she wanted.
The disabilities of Keller were causing some behavioural issues for the child.
She tormented her friend, Martha, and drove her parents crazy. Many family relatives thought Helen should be placed in a mental institution.
But when Helen was happy, she would giggle wild and break up uncontrollably
Educator Anne Sullivan
Looking for answers and inspiration, Keller’s mother looked around for professional assistance and eventually made a trip to Maryland, United States to see a specialist. The specialist looked at the deafblind young woman and immediately recommended that she see Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. Graham Bell was working with deaf children at the time. After a series of meetings with other specialists and special schools on the advice of Mr. Bell, it was suggested that Helen work with one of the institute’s most recent graduates, Anne Sullivan.
And so began a 49-year relationship between teacher and pupil.
The relationship with Ann Sullivan would change the destiny of Helen Keller forever.
With a present in her hand, teacher Sullivan got to Keller’s house in March 1887 and instantly started to teach Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, starting with “d-o-l-l” for the doll that she had brought Keller as a present.
But at first, the young woman was frustrated, because she had no idea that every object had a name that identified it. For example, Helen Keller did not understand that there was a word for bird, doll, kite, tin, and book. She did not understand that there was a name for everything available.
Soon, she did understand what teacher Sullivan was trying to teach her.
Everything became pretty clear to Helen Keller when, one day during training, as the water was running over her right hand, her teacher was making on the palm of her hand, showing the idea of “water”. Now curious Helen Keller would begin to drive her teacher hard by demanding to know the names of all the other names of the objects around her.
Helen’s curiosity took an unprecedented turn, and then—then–the life of Helen Keller began to change forever.
Prepare to see the final word on Helen Keller, the inspiring deafblind who changed the world forever.