Feature

Let us remember Helen Keller:
An Icon of Inspiration

Farooque Hossain Kamrul

In a small rural town, Tuscumbia, in Northwest Alabama, USA, a beautiful kid was born in 1880. Her birth had made her parents overwhelmed with sheer joy and extreme pleasure. But happiness does not last long, so did happen to her parents. It was nineteen month of age that she come down with a freak ailment, the doctor of the time called it brain fever, that had left her complete blind and deaf. You might be puzzled at the identity of this girl. No surprised, this is Hellen Keller who, despite having triple disability, later became role model and inspiration to the humankind. On the occasion of her birthday, the Helen Kller Day, I would like to reflect here some parts of her life and deed.

Helen's father had served in Confederate Army during the American Civil War and her mother Kate Keller was a homemaker. Anyway, whatever the illness, Helen was, for many days, expected to die. When, eventually, the fever subsided, Helen's family rejoiced believing their daughter to be well again. Unexpectedly, Helen's mother soon noticed how her daughter was failing to respond when the dinner bell was rang or when she passed her hand in front of her daughter's eyes. It thus became apparent that Helen's ailment had left her both blind and deaf.

At the age of six, Helen's mother Kate Keller traveled to a specialist doctor, who worked with another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, in Baltimore for advice. They were given surety that Helen would never gain sight and hearing again but were not told to abandon hope. The doctor believed Helen could be taught and he advised them to visit a local expert on the problems of deaf children. Interestingly, this expert was Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of telephone. Bell was now concentrating on what he considered his true vocation, the teaching of deaf children. He suggested that the Kellers write to Michael Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, and request that he try and find a teacher for Helen. Michael Anagnos considered Helen's case and immediately recommended a former pupil of the institution, that woman was Anne Sullivan, who was a virtually blind of 20 year old. It is worth mentioning that Anne Sullivan had lost the majority of her sight at the age of ten and during her stay at the Perkins Institution she had two operations on her eyes which led to her regaining enough sight to be able to read normal print for short periods of time.

Anne graduated from Perkins in 1886 and begun to search for work. Due to her poor eyesight finding work was terribly difficult and when she received the offer from Michael Anagnos to work as the teacher of Helen Keller, she accepted it without second question although she had no experience in this area.

Learning difficulty for a deaf-blind touches everyone. However, as a part of learning process, one day Anne led Helen to a water pump on April 1887. As Anne pumped the water over Helen's hand, Anne spelled out the word 'water' in the girl's free hand. Something about this explained the meaning of words within Helen, and Anne could immediately see in her face that she finally understood. Helen later recounted the incident: "We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of honey-suckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly, I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten, a thrill of returning thought, and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me."

Helen's mission for learning went on and in 1894 she and Anne met John D Wright and Dr. Thomas Humason who were planning to set up to teach speech to the deaf in New York city.

Helen was very delighted by this and the assurances of the two men that Helen's speech could be improved excited her further. Helen thus agreed to attend the Wright Humason School for the Deaf. Unfortunately though, Helen's speech never really improved beyond the sounds that only Anne and others very close to her could understand.

In 1896, Helen moved on to the Cambridge School for Young Ladies and in the autumn of 1900 entered Radcliffe College, becoming the first deaf blind person to have ever enrolled at an institution of higher learning. On 28 June 1904, Helen graduated from the same college, becoming the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

John Macy became good friends with Helen and Anne and in May 1905 John marred Anne. During this time John Macy introduced Helen to a new and revolutionary way of viewing the world. And in 1909 she became a member of the Socialist Party of Massachusetts. In 1913 a series of essays by her named "Out of the Dark" on Socialism and its impact was published, which created her immense public image. Through this writing everyone now knew her political views.

Helen and Anne filled the following years with lecture tours, speaking of her experiences and beliefs to enthralled crowds. Her talks were interpreted sentence by sentence by Anne Sullivan, and were followed by question and answer sessions. In 1918 Helen, Anne and John moved to Forest Hills in New York. Helen used their new home as a base for her extensive fundraising tours for the American Foundation for the Blind. She not only collected money, but also campaigned tirelessly to alleviate the living and working conditions of blind people, who at that time were usually badly educated and living in asylums. Her endeavors were a major factor in changing these conditions.

Helen's mother Kate died in 1921 from an unknown illness, and this left Anne as the sole constant in Helen's life. Regretfully, that the same year Anne fell ill and this was followed in 1922 by a severe bout of bronchitis which left her unable to speak above a whisper and thus unable to work with Helen anymore. At this point Polly Thomson, who had started working for Helen and Anne in 1914 as a secretary, took the charge of Helen going public. They spent a lot of time touring the world rising money for the blind. In 1931 they met King George and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace, who were said to be deeply impressed by Helen's ability to understand what people said through touch. On 20 October 1936 when Anne died, Helen and Polly moved to Archan Ridge in Westport, Connecticut, which would be Helen's home for the rest of her life. After World War II, Helen and Polly spent years traveling the world fundraising for the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind. They visited Japan, Australia, South America, Europe and Africa.

In 1953 a documentary film "The Unconquered" was made about Helen's life, this was to win Academy Award as the best feature length documentary. It was at the same time that Helen begun work again on her book "Teacher", some seven years after the original had been destroyed by the fire. The book was finally published in 1955. However, After Polly Thomson's death on March 21, 1960 it was the nurse who had been brought in to care for Polly in her last years, Winnie Corbally, who was to take care of Helen in her remaining years.

In October 1961, Helen suffered the first of a series of strokes, and her public life was to draw to a close. She was to spend her twinkle years of life being cared for at her home in Arcan Ridge. However, her last years were not without excitement, and in 1964 Helen was awarded the Presidential Medal at Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, by Lyndon Johnson. A year later she was elected to the Women's Hall of Fame at the New York World's Fair. Helen breathed her last on Jun 1, 1968, passing away 26 days before her 88th birthday, in her Easton, Connecticut home. In 2003, the state of Alabama honored Keller-a native of the state on its quarter. The Helen Keller Hospital is also dedicated to her. This week (on June 27) was Helen Keller's birthday and the world celebrated the day as Helen Keller Day.

However, India and Bangladesh observed the day through remembering her contribution to uphold right and dignity of the disable people. We need to recognize them properly for their proper rehabilitation to minimize the plight of their life. Most of them can reach their potential towards self-sustainability and dignified living with a little support and education. Sense International is working exclusively in India for the deafblind and in our country, though no specialized organization to work with this unique disability, YPSA, ActionAid, Sightsaver International, ADD and CDD are trying their best to do something in this regard to bring back some relief to their life.

Helen Keller went on to become one of the most influential women of the 20th century and continues to be an inspiration for many. Her unending willpower, strong determination and utmost dedication to fight for the right of people teach us, especially the disabled, many things to love one's life to lead.

(B.Sc and M.Sc in CSE, IU, Kushtia.)