Day 198:Helen Keller: How Her Perspective Forever Influenced Mine

Photograph of Helen Keller at age 8 with her tutor Anne Sullivan on vacation in Brewster, Cape Cod, Massachusetts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I was still in grade school I saw a movie that would forever impact the way I dealt with my disability. After seeing The Miracle Worker I read everything I could find about her. Here was a disabled woman and her family who instead of listening to what modern convention of the time said they should do with her (leave her in an institution and wash their hands of her) they saw to it that she was taught to communicate. If her family was more than a bit skeptical that it could be done I’ll forgive them because at least they were willing to try.

She became the first deaf blind person to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts and eventually became a lecturer on many subjects, including socialism.

Helen Keller was my first disabled role model. She showed me that a disabled person could make their own life in spite the slings and arrows that circumstance and society put in the way and for that I will always be grateful.

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