Helen Keller was born in 1880 in Alabama and became deaf and blind at 19 months old due to illness. She was taught to communicate by her teacher Anne Sullivan using sign language and braille. With Anne's help, Helen learned to read, write, and graduate from Radcliffe College, becoming a world-famous author and advocate for people with disabilities. Her story of overcoming adversity through education was dramatized in the play and film The Miracle Worker.
2. Helen Keller
• The name of Helen Keller is known world wide as a
symbol of courage.
• Helen was an intelligent and ambitious person.
• She also devoted her life to helping others.
5. Helen’s Illness
• When Helen was 19 months old she suffered from a disease “an acute
congestion of the stomach and brain” and it left her deaf and blind.
• Her parents contacted the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston.
• Perkins Provided Keller with a teacher. Her name was Anne Sullivan.
6. Helen and Anne
• Anne worked out an alphabet that she spelled out words in her
hand.
• With Anne teaching Helen, She was able to pass the admissions
exam for Radcliffe College at the age of 16.
• Anne began her task with a doll that a child made at Perkins for
Helen.
• By spell “d-o-l-l” into Helen’s hand she hoped she would learn to
connect the letters with the object.
• Helen quickly learned how to form all the letter correctly with her
hands and in the correct order.
7. • Helen had written a little story called The Frost King which she had sent to Mr. Anagnos of
the Perkins Institution for the Blind. The latter was delighted with it and published the story
in one of the institutional reports. However, it was discovered that a story similar to her The
Frost King called The Frost Fairies by Miss. Margaret T. Canby had appeared before Helen
was born in a book called Birdie and His Friends. The two stories were so much alike in
thought and language that it was evident Miss Canby story had been read to Helen and that
her story was a case of plagiarism. A court of investigation was constituted which consisted
of eight people, four blind, four people with vision and votes were cast to arrive at a decision.
Mr. Anagnos who had supported Helen initially, changed tack and cast his vote against her.
The incident scarred Helen in such a way that for a very long time she could not produce any
creative work after this episode. She became excessively scrupulous about everything she
wrote and the thought tormented her that what she wrote was not her original work. Miss
Sullivan had to console her and allay her fears to in every which way possible in order to
restore the confidence that Helen had lost. Eventually, Helen resumed her writing, urged on
by her teacher.
8. Helen visited the world's fair in 1893 with Ms. Anne Sullivan and Dr.
Graham Bell. She witnessed entire world under her fingertips. She visited
India, Egypt, Venice and Africa at the fair. She shares her joy of examining
a ship which was modeled after Columbus' ship. At the exhibit of Cape of
good hope she witnessed the process of diamond cutting and washing.
She encapsulates her journey of beholding the sights of Shivas ,
Ganeshas and the majestic Pyramids as event taken from "Arabian
Nights"
Visit To World Fair
9. In the autumn of the year 1896, Helen "entered the Cambridge School
for Young Ladies, to be prepared for Radcliffe [College]." She quickly
discovered that school was quite an adjustment. The teachers there
were not used to teaching blind or deaf students. Helen needed many
accommodations to complete her coursework. Her teacher, Annie
Sullivan, assisted Helen by fingerspelling the lectures and readings into
her hand. The only other way that Helen could communicate with her
instructors was to press her fingers against their mouths as they spoke.
Helen studied many subjects at school. These subjects ranged from
literature to history. There was a great amount of work required for her
classes. Helen was assigned large sections of reading. It was too
much for Ms. Sullivan to spell into Helen's hand, and there were not
many books with raised print at that time.
10. • Miss Sullivan taught Helen how to communicate and learn.
• Helen was able to go to school. She attended school beginning in 1894.
• Helen studied mathematics, literature, history, and many other subjects.
• She learned to write using a special typewriter.
• Helen also made attempts to learn how to speak. Helen even went to
college.
11. Graduation
• When Helen graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904 she had
mastered 5 different languages.
• On Helen’s 50th anniversary of graduating from Radcliffe College,
She was awarded the Alumnac Achievement Award.
• They also showed pride in her by dedicating the Helen Keller Garden
in her Honor.
12.
13. The Miracle Worker
• Helen Keller’s childhood education became a film called The Miracle
Worker.
• First it as a play by William Gibson and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960
• The film won an Oscar in 1962.
14. The Story of My Life
• While at college Helen had wrote the 1st volume of her autobiography.
• Her autobiography was published in the Ladies’ Home Journal.
• In 1902 it became a book.