Helen Keller: A Hero

Helen Keller is a hero to many people around the world and especially the disabled community. She was a fighter and did not let her blindness or deafness get in the way of her life and success. She worked hard to overcome her obstacles and then also became an activist. As an activist she helped and influenced disabled people to be courageous like her. She made effort to change the system for disabled people, socially and politically. She proved to the world that being disabled does not mean being dumb or slower than a “normal” person. Helen Keller is a hero for fighting her disabilities in revolutionary ways and positively impacting the disabled community everyday. Helen Keller was born in Alabama in 1880 (Tuttle). When she was just a baby, …show more content…
In a book she wrote, Optimism: An Essay, she writes about how optimism is very important to her and how it should be important to other people too. In it she says, “Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the world at a standstill. The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation is the same as in the life of the individual. Pessimism kills the instinct that urges men to struggle against poverty, ignorance and crime, and dries up all the fountains of joy in the world” (Keller 63-64). Here, she is talking about how her optimism has helped her to overcome obstacles of her deafness and blindness. She did not let her handicaps make a downfall to life. Another influential writing is her book, The Story of My Life. She again gives hope to others and writes, “There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.” (The Story of My Life Chapter IV). Continually, with the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller worked very hard everyday to overcome her struggle (Tuttle). According to Tuttle, “With Annie as her interpreter, in 1888 Helen attended Perkins Institute for the Blind and in 1894 the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York. She received a B.A. cum laude in 1904 from Radcliffe College. She thus became the first deaf-blind person to graduate from college.” Isn’t that simply amazing? As the first deaf and blind …show more content…
For example, there is the nonprofit organization called Helen Keller International, which takes care of various things for developing the system for disabled people. On their website, it says, “Part of our work is focused on preventing blindness and vision loss by providing better access to basic eye care services like prescription eyeglasses and cataract surgery;… We are also dedicated to reducing malnutrition, especially for women and children” (“Our Impact”). Most importantly, the organization focuses on fighting against blindness and poor ways of handling disabilities. More in detail, the website also says, “Through our work, we provide access to resources and education for underserved communities, professional training for doctors and health workers, and a voice for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged through advocacy at the government level” (“Our Impact”). And another foundation that is based on Helen Keller’s life and accomplishments is Helen Keller National Center. Recently they had a 50th anniversary year that celebrates their success for helping deaf and blind people and improving conditions (The Island Now). There are many organizations and foundations like these, thanks to Helen Keller’s positive influence on the people who need