| You may have heard of Helen Keller, a very famous | | | | audiences, although she never heard her own voice. |
| deaf-blind woman who overcame her handicaps. | | | | Helen Keller was born sighted and hearing. She was a |
| Possibly you read her story, or even saw the play | | | | "normal" child until the age of about 18 months. Then |
| "The Miracle Worker" in school. You may have seen it | | | | she fell ill with a high fever that left her totally blind |
| in one of its many forms on film. | | | | and deaf. Eighteen-month-olds understand quite a lot |
| Helen and her Teacher, Annie Sullivan, broke ground | | | | of what they hear, and many of them are very |
| for education for the handicapped and for disabled | | | | talkative. So, by the time Helen lost her hearing she |
| awareness in the early and middle parts of the | | | | already had a good grounding of language |
| twentieth century. Around 1902, Annie, aged 20 and | | | | development. This certainly served her well in her |
| herself visually impaired, was hired to live with the | | | | later endeavors. |
| Keller's just before Helen's 7th birthday, to assess if | | | | Sign language made possible a life of fulfillment, |
| Helen could be taught. Helen was then more like a | | | | success and fame for Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. |
| wild animal than a child: destructive, willful, | | | | Before Annie's breakthrough with Helen, the family |
| unmanageable, and totally unable to communicate | | | | had sadly discussed the possibility of "putting Helen |
| with anyone. Annie, however, saw the spark of an | | | | away" in an "asylum," and had even visited a few of |
| agile mind and a great intelligence in Helen. In a few | | | | them. Around 1900, asylums were terrible places, and |
| weeks' time, by isolating Helen from her codependent | | | | were certainly no place for a challenged child. Annie |
| family and immersing Helen in a rush of fingerspelled | | | | was newly graduated from the Perkins School for |
| words, Annie penetrated Helen's wall of ignorance | | | | the Blind at the time, but she had no other prospects |
| and helped her realize that words mean things. This | | | | for her own future. Annie and Helen were literally |
| was the breakthrough that reopened the world to | | | | each other's last and only chance. How differently so |
| Helen. | | | | many lives would have turned out, if not for sign |
| Helen became famous for her amazing achievements | | | | language! |
| despite her physical challenges. She graduated from | | | | Tidbit of the week: When Alexander Graham Bell |
| college, traveled all over the world with her beloved | | | | invented the telephone, what he was really trying to |
| Teacher, was a friend of Presidents - and even | | | | invent was a hearing aid. His wife was deaf. |
| learned to talk and to make speeches to large | | | | |