History of deafblindness

Helen Keller

Helen Keller is the most famous deafblind person in history. The deafblind American author, campaigner and lecturer, was born on 27 June 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was born with full sight and hearing, but lost both when she was 19 months old as the result of a fever. Unable to communicate, she became a very difficult child and her parents had problems controlling her behaviour. However, all of this was to change when Helen, now six years old was introduced to Annie Sullivan, her tutor.

Annie had lost most of her sight when she was five and was a graduate of the Perkin’s Institute, a school for the blind. By the time she met Helen though, much of her vision had been restored as a result of surgery. Annie could empathise with Helen’s disability and began to teach her to finger spell. She tried to encourage her to make the association between an object and the word. The breakthrough was to come one day at a water pump, when Annie placed one of Helen’s hands under the running water, and spelt out ‘water’ on the other. Helen suddenly understood and could now learn via this means of communication.

Helen was a fast learner and Annie was soon able to teach her to read, using Braille, and to write with an ordinary and Braille typewriter. With Annie’s assistance Helen became the first deafblind person to go onto higher education, graduating from the prestigious Radcliffe College in Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She wrote books about her life and political views, gave lectures throughout the world and raised money for the blind. Helen also campaigned for better living and working conditions for blind people and there were dramatic improvements as a result. Both a documentary and movie were made about Helen’s life, which ended peacefully on 1st June 1968, when she died in her sleep.

Helen Keller is still remembered today, but she was not the only deafblind woman to be educated successfully. The American public were already familiar with the achievements of Laura Bridgman, who was born half a century before Helen Keller in 1829. Laura was the first deaf and blind person to learn language and under the guidance of Dr S.G. Howe at the Perkin’s Institute, learned to read and write. Like Helen, Laura became one of the most famous women in the world and was hailed a ‘miracle’ in newspapers and magazines. However, her fame was later eclipsed by Helen’