Helen Keller: A Legacy

In some cases, challenges and hardships may destroy a person’s life and completely demotivate them. While in other exceptional cases, these challenges may become a driver force for success and achievement. That is Helen Keller: a true “miracle worker” who advocated for the rights of women and individuals with disabilities.

At the age of 19 months, Helen Keller's journey of challenges started early when she lost her sight and hearing after severe febrile illness - illness with fever symptoms. In her first years she relied on home signs for communication until she met her first teacher and lifelong companion “Anne Sullivan” -at the age of 7 years- who taught her how to read and write. Remarkably, she also taught her how to communicate with others and deliver speeches with her own voice.

Helen Keller holds another amazing achievement as she attended Radcliffe College, Harvard University where she became the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Another extraordinary academic achievement was that she learnt 5 languages including: Latin, German and French.

Furthermore, Helen Keller wrote 12 published books and several articles including her autobiography named “The Story of My Life” which was translated to 50 languages and is still printed to this date.

As a speaker, she had a huge impact on the deaf and blind society and was an effective figure in advocating for the rights of disabled people. She was a major fundraiser for “The American Foundation for the Blind”, for nearly 45 years in which she travelled to 39 countries advocating for the rights of the blind.

In her speeches, Keller portrayed exceptional attributes of bravery as she was not afraid to say the truth for the sake of defending the rights of the people. Stunningly, history has recorded that Helen Keller delivered hundreds of speeches - which had a huge impact on the deaf blind society. One impact was that Helen Keller campaigned and pushed the US government to supply the blind with more support. Due to her ‘hard work, blind people were included in the category of "disabled," which meant they could apply for financial help’.

Helen Keller left behind a legacy of achievements and a surge of motivation to all the disabled people when she passed away in her sleep on the 1st of June 1968. She is remembered for encouraging blind and deaf to learn and be productive individuals. Helen Keller is a “legend” that is considered as a role model for all blind people and her life is a set of lessons that we all should learn from. Her inspiring activism exhibits notable entrepreneurial skills and reminds all to stand up for what we believe in, always.

By Ahmed Mansoor 12F