Tanya Zaricor
05/10/2007
Helen Keller
Helen
Keller was born in 1880 in Tuscumbia Alabama. She suffered from
a very high fever when she was two years old that left her blind
and deaf. A remarkable teacher came to help her when she was
seven years old named Annie Sullivan. They became family from
that year on and they were with each other at the end of their
lives. With the help of Annie, Helen had made up more than sixty
signs that her family could understand (Biography of Helen
Keller, 2007, paragraph 2).
Annie continued to teach Helen how to use sign to understand the
world around her. She even taught her how to talk with the
Tadoma method. The Tadoma method is a method that practices
feeling the throat and lips of other people as they are talking
and mimicking that movement. She also learned Greek, Latin,
French and German in Braille
(American
Foundation for the Blind, 2007, paragraph 4).
Helen was accepted to Radcliff College in 1900 and graduated in
1904. This made her the first Deaf and blind person to graduate
from college. After college she became more and more famous
based on her work as an author and as an advocate for people
with disabilities. She was a strong supporter of the suffrage
movement, advocated for birth control and was a pacifist. At the
end of her life in 1968 when she was 87 she had completed twelve
books (Biography of Helen Keller, 2007, paragraph 3 &
4).
References
American Foundation for the Blind.
(2007) “Helen Keller Biography”, [Online]. Available: http://www.afb.org/braillebug/helen_keller_bio.asp
(May 3, 2007).
Crouch, Barry A. & SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Van
Cleve, John V. (1989). A Place of Their Own: Creating the
Deaf Community in America. Washington, D.C. Gallaudet
University Press.
Foster, Ray. (2001). “Laurent Clerc”,
[Online]. Available: http://www.famousamericans.net (May, 3
2007).
HKSB: Biography of Helen Keller,
[Online]. Available: http://www.helenkeller.org (April 19,
2007).
IMDB. (1990-2007). “Biography of
Marlee Matlin”. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com (May
31, 2007).
Marlee Matlin “Biography &
Filmography”, [Online]. Available: www.marleeonline.com/lifebio/printbio.html
(May 10, 2007).