Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller (English: Helen Adams Keller, June 27, 1880 - June 1, 1968) was a writer, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, United States. She lost her vision and hearing during an illness when she was 19 months old. Then, she mainly communicated using Home sign/Kitchen sign, which refers to the spontaneous gestural communication system of hearing-impaired children. At age 7, she met teacher and lifelong companion Anne Sullivan, who taught her how to use language, including reading and writing. Sullivan's first lesson was to spell words on Keller's hands, showing her the names of objects around her. She also learned how to communicate and understand what others were saying using the Tadoma method. After being educated in junior colleges and mainstream schools, she attended Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute and became the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. From 1924 to 1968, she worked for the American Foundation for the Blind; during this time she traveled throughout the United States and to 35 countries around the world, providing assistance to people with vision loss. She was a prolific author, authoring 14 books and hundreds of speeches and essays on topics ranging from animals to key figures. She campaigned for people with disabilities, women's suffrage, labor rights and world peace issues. She joined the Socialist Party of America in 1909. She was a supporter of the NAACP and a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1933, when her book How I Became a Socialist was burned by the Hitler Youth, she wrote an open letter to the Student Body of Germany denouncing censorship and prejudice in Nazi Germany. Her story with Sullivan was made famous throughout the world in her autobiography, My Life, and in the film and stage play The Miracle Worker, based on the work.