Disability is not a liability – Helen Keller The Conqueror of Physical Handicaps

“Disability is not a liability” This adage is proved by many in the time immemorial.  Yes, History is filled with such people who conquered physical handicaps through their life.  Among such wonderful and great people “Helen Keller”  tops the list.  She is an outstanding personality who lived a life worth the living.

Helen Keller was born as Helen Adams Keller on 27 June 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA.   She lost here sight and hearing at the age of 2 years due to a disease called “acute congestion of the stomach and brain”  She was unable to speak but by her sheer hard work and firm determination, she achieved great things in her life.

At the age of 5, her father took her to Dr. Alexander Graham Bell and he advised him to write to the Perkins Institution for the blind in Boston.  At the age of 7, Anne Sullivan arrived from Boston to teach her.  Sullivan herself has been nearly blind, during childhood.  A surgery partially restored her sight and she married John A Macy but she stayed with Keller until her death.   Anne played a vital role in Helen’s life and the rest is history.

Keller learned to write and speak until 10 years she could talk only with the sign language of the deaf-mute.  And she decided to learn to speak and took lessons from a teacher of the deaf at the age of 16 she could communicate well enough to go to the preparatory school and to college and from Radcliffe, in the year  1904 she graduated with honors.  She was very much concerned with her fellow beings who are deaf and dump and later she become the staff of the American Foundation for the blind and the American Foundation of the overseas blind.  Later she gave lectures to the legislators and wrote books and articles.  She started Helen KellerEndowment Fund.  She fully surrounded her life to the blind and underdeveloped people.  She was an enthusiastic and untiring traveler and traveled more than 25 countries in the 5 major continents.  She received many awards great distinction for her relentless service for the underprivileged.  Her books have been translated into more than 50 languages.

There are a good number of people followed her steps in helping and giving service to the people around even in spite of their deformities or disabilities.   Such people’s lives will always be an encouragement even to the physically able one.

Disability is not a liability

Thoughts for this wonderful day

1880 – Helen Keller was born on 27 June

1886 – Helen was sent by her mother while being accompanied by her father to seek the help of Dr. J. Julian Chisolm, an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist in Baltimore, for advice

1887 – Anne Sullivan started teaching Helen by arriving at Helen’s home in March.

1888 – From May, Helen started attending Perkins Institute for the Blind.

1891 – One of the earliest known Helen’s written piece was when she was eleven years old The Frost King.

1894 – Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan moved to New York to get a special education from the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf and educate under Sarah Fuller at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf.

1896 – Keller and Sullivan moved back to Massachusetts and Helen entered The Cambridge School for Young Ladies.

1900 – Helen was admitted to Radcliffe College, where she lived in Briggs Hall, South House.

1903 – Keller was 22 years old when her autobiography, “The Story of My Life” was published which received help from Sullivan and Sullivan’s husband, John Macy.

1904 – Keller received her graduation from Radcliffe College at the age of 24. With this Helen became the first deaf and blind person ever to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

1905 – Anne Sullivan married John Macy.

1908 – Keller wrote “The World I Live In” which talked about her feelings of the world she felt living inside.

1909 to 1921 – Keller remained a Socialist Party member for which she actively campaigned and wrote many pieces in support of the working class.

1912 – Keller joined the Industrial Workers of the World known as the IWW or the Wobblies.

1913 – A series of essays on socialism, “Out of the Dark” was published.

1914 – Anne’s health declined somewhere around 1914.

1915 – She found the Helen Keller International (HKI) organization along with George Kessler which devoted its work and research in the areas of vision, health, and nutrition.

1916 to 1918 – She regularly wrote for IWW.

1919 – She appeared in a silent film, “Deliverance” which told the story of her life in a melodramatic and allegorical style.

1920 – Helen greatly helped founding the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
1927 – Keller’s spiritual autobiography “My Religion” was published.

1961 – Helen Keller was attacked by several strokes which confined her to her home in the final years of her life.

1964 – On 14 September President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded her with the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom which is regarded as one of the United States’ highest two civilian honors

1968 – Keller died in her sleep on 1 June

Source:
The World Book
The World Famous People.com

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