Who Is Helen Keller?

By jamie

Article Sources

Medical Expert

More About Us

Helen Keller is a name that many people are familiar with, but just who was she? Keller was born in Alabama, United States, in 1880. At a young age she lost her hearing and her sight, leaving her deaf and blind for the rest of her life. Keller refused to let her disabilities hold her back and she went on to become one of the most influential people of her time.

Keller was an author, lecturer, and a political activist. She campaigned for workers’ rights and socialism and was a fierce women’s rights activist. She achieved international recognition and met, and even befriended, some important figures of the time. Keller died in her sleep in 1968 after suffering a series of strokes.

1. Illness Made Her Blind

Many deaf-blind people were born that way, while others became blind at some point later due to certain unfortunate events. Helen Keller fell into the latter category. She was born with no health complications but she fell quite ill when she was just 19 months old. We can’t be sure of what the illness was as medicine wasn’t as advanced back then as it is today, but it was likely to be meningitis or scarlet fever that caused her condition. In a sense, Helen was quite lucky because such illnesses were often deadly at the time, especially to somebody so young.

Related Articles