Helen Keller was born deaf and blind in 1880 in Alabama. At age 19 months, she became ill and lost her sight and hearing. In 1887, Anne Sullivan became her teacher and helped Keller learn to communicate through finger spelling and sign language. Keller went on to graduate from Radcliffe College and authored several books, advocating for the blind and disabled. She received numerous honors for her work before passing away in 1968.

1. 

2. 
BORN: June 27, 1880
BORN IN: Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA
FAMOUS: American Author & Educator
DISEASES AND DISABILITIES:
Visual Impairment
QUICK FACTS

3. 
 At the age of 19 months old she was
afflicted by an illness(scarlet
fever/meningitis) that left her blind and
deaf.
 When Helen was 6 years old, she was
examined by Alexander Graham Bell who
was the local expert on the problems of
children who are deaf.
EARLY LIFE

4. 
Alexander Graham Bell and
Hellen Keller

5. 
He sent to her a 20-year-
old teacher, Anne Sullivan
(Macy) from the Perkins
Institution for the Blind in
Boston, which Bell’s son-
in-law directed.
Sullivan, a remarkable
teacher, remained with
Keller from March 1887
until her own death in
October 1936.
EARLY LIFE

6. 
On March 3, 1887, Sullivan went to Keller's home
in Alabama and immediately went to work. She
began by teaching six-year-old Keller finger
spelling, starting with the word "doll," to help
Keller understand the gift of a doll she had
brought along. Other words would follow.
HELEN’S TEACHER

7. 
At first, Keller was curious, then defiant,
refusing to cooperate with Sullivan's
instruction. When Keller did cooperate,
Sullivan could tell that she wasn't making the
connection between the objects and the letters
spelled out in her hand.
Sullivan kept working at it, forcing Keller to go
through the regimen.
STRUGGLES DURING
STUDYING

8. 
As Keller's frustration grew, the tantrums
increased.
Finally, Sullivan demanded that she and
Keller be isolated from the rest of the family
for a time, so that Keller could concentrate
only on Sullivan's instruction. They moved
to a cottage on the plantation.
STRUGGLES DURING
STUDYING

9. 
In a dramatic struggle, Sullivan taught Keller
the word "water"; she helped her make the
connection between the object and the letters
by taking Keller out to the water pump, and
placing Keller's hand under the spout.
HELEN’S CONNECTION
BETWEEN OBJECTS

10. While Sullivan moved the lever to flush cool water over
Keller's hand, she spelled out the word w-a-t-e-r
on Keller's other hand. Keller understood and repeated
the word in Sullivan's hand. She then pounded the
ground, demanding to know its "letter name." Sullivan
followed her, spelling out the word into her hand. Keller
moved to other objects with Sullivan in tow. By nightfall,
she had learned 30 words.

11. 
In 1890, Keller began speech classes at
the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in
Boston. She would toil for 25 years to learn to
speak so that others could understand her.
From 1894 to 1896, Keller attended the Wright-
Humason School for the Deaf in New York
City. There, she worked on improving her
communication skills and studied regular
academic subjects.
EDUCATION

12. 
Around this time, Keller became determined
to attend college. In 1896, she attended the
Cambridge School for Young Ladies, a
preparatory school for women.
As her story became known to the general
public, Keller began to meet famous and
influential people. One of them was the
writer Mark Twain, who was very impressed
with her. They became friends. Twain
introduced her to his friend Henry H. Rogers,
a Standard Oil executive.
EDUCATION

13. 
Rogers was so impressed with Keller's talent,
drive and determination that he agreed to pay
for her to attend Radcliffe College. There, she
was accompanied by Sullivan, who sat by her
side to interpret lectures and texts. By this
time, Keller had mastered several methods of
communication, including touch-lip reading,
Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling.
Keller graduated, cum laude, from Radcliffe
College in 1904, at the age of 24.
EDUCATION

14. 
Helen became concerned about all the
blind, especially those blinded in World
War I or by poor working conditions.
PASSION
She received numerous
international honors for
her efforts to help the
blind.

15. 
Helen Keller learned to
type on a Braille
typewriter and wrote
many books between 1903
and 1941, including:
The Story of My Life, 1903;
Optimism, 1903;
The World I Live In, 1908;
The Song of the Stone Wall, 1910;
Out of the Dark, 1913;
My Religion, 1927;
Midstream, 1930;
Let Us Have Faith, 1941; and
The Open Door, 1957.
WRITINGS

16. 
Helen Keller stated:
"I thank God for my
handicaps, for, through
them, I have found
myself, my work, and
my God."
WRITINGS

17. In the film documentary of her life, The
Unconquered, Helen Keller responded to
the question, "Can you see the world?":
"I can see, and that is why I can be so
happy, in what you call the dark, but
which to me is golden.
I can see a God-made world, not a man-
made world."

18. 
She met President
Eisenhower in 1953.
She received letters
from eight U.S.
presidents-from
Theodore Roosevelt in
1903 to Lyndon B.
Johnson in 1965.
AWARDS AND HONORS

19. 
In 1961, Helen Keller
met President John F.
Kennedy. She received
the French Legion of
Honor and the U.S.
Presidential Medal of
Freedom.
AWARDS AND HONORS

20. A statue of Helen Keller as a
young girl, learning the
sense of touch at a water
pump, is in the U.S. Capitol
from the State of Alabama.
Helen Keller concluded:
"Four things to learn in life:
To think clearly without hurry
or confusion;
To love everybody sincerely;
To act in everything with the
highest motives;
To trust God unhesitatingly."

21. 
Keller died in her sleep on June 1, 1968,
just a few weeks before her 88th
birthday. Keller suffered a series of
strokes in 1961 and spent the remaining
years of her life at her home in
Connecticut.
DEATH

22. During her remarkable life, Keller stood
as a powerful example of how
determination, hard work, and
imagination can allow an individual to
triumph over adversity. By overcoming
difficult conditions with a great deal of
persistence, she grew into a respected
and world-renowned activist who
labored for the betterment of others.