Lagenda Pekak

Photo © Library of Congress
One of the most inspiring deaf or deafblind women is Helen Keller. Even today, her story fascinates people.

Helen Keller's Early Childhood

Helen Keller was born June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. An unidentified illness took her hearing and sight when she was only 19 months old. After losing both, she became wild and uncontrollable due to her inability to communicate and learn.
Anne Sullivan Comes Into Helen's Life
Almost as well known as Helen Keller is the work of Anne Sullivan, who became her teacher in 1887, working in a role that today is known as an intervenor. Helen finally learned that things have names when Sullivan had the famous "water" breakthrough, fingerspelling "water" into Helen's hand and pumping water for Helen to feel.

Helen Keller's Further Progress

After that breakthrough, there was no stopping Helen Keller. She went on to attend a school for the blind and other schools, learned how to talk, learned how to lipread with her fingers, and graduated from Radcliffe College.

Helen Keller's Adulthood

Helen Keller never lived independently (unlike today where many deafblind people live independently). She always lived with either Anne Sullivan (and for a few years, Anne Sullivan's husband too), or Polly Thompson who joined the household in the 1930s and stayed on after Sullivan passed away in 1936. Among the many things that Helen Keller was famous for saying was her statement that deafness was a "greater affliction" than blindness. Helen Keller passed away on June 1, 1968.