Helen Keller was born in America in 1880 and had a normal childhood until, at the age of 19 months, she suddenly lost her sight and her hearing from an illness. All that was left were her abilities to feel, to smell and to taste. This was a terrible disability, especially as a young child in those times, because it meant that she had no way of learning, speaking or interacting in any but the most basic ways with her family. As she got older, it became more obvious that Helen would need someone incredibly skilled, clever and patient, to have a hope of teaching her how to behave and how to communicate. Luckily, God had a plan for such a person to come and be Helen’s teacher: the young woman Anne Sullivan.


Anne devised a way to teach Helen sign language by making the signs onto Helen’s hand so that she could feel the different finger movements. One day she began to understand that these signs had meanings, for example the sign for ‘water’ meant the cool, wet substance she could drink or feel with her hands. This was the beginning of her ability to communicate and to learn. As she grew older, she learnt to fully communicate with sign language, to read and write Braille, and even to speak, all without being able to see and hear. It was a huge effort to achieve as much as she did with her disabilities, but Helen was enormously determined. She had a passion for learning and her education took her all the way to university, which was very uncommon for women at the time, let alone a woman who was deaf and blind. Her incredible achievements made her famous, and she gladly took on the role of being an inspiration for others to strive and reach their full potential.