For many the name Helen Keller conveys the idea of a woman of mythical status ("angel-child", "Eighth Wonder of the World" and "Twentieth-century Joan of Arc") but it also ignores her as an individual struggling against many odds not only to overcome her disability but to question the very societal structures that imposed those restrictions. Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama to Captain Arthur Keller, a former officer in the Confederate Army, and Kate Keller, a cousin of Robert E. Lee. Helen was not born blind and deaf and it was not until she was nineteen months old that she came down with an illness thought now to have been either scarlet fever or meningitis. The illness did not last long but left her deaf and blind.

The reactions of her family were mixed. They struggled to communicate with each other and Helen became increasingly "wild and destructive". Her uncle wanted her shut away in an institution for being "defective and not very pleasant to see". In the late nineteenth century this was the fate of many disabled children, most of whom subsequently died. At the time, her only communication partner was the six-year-old daughter of the family cook with whom she created a basic sign language. It is believed that this early friendship and teaching was crucial for her later developments.

In 1886 her parents, inspired by an account in Charles Dickens' American Notes of the successful education of Laura Bridgman, sent Helen to see an eye, ear, and nose specialist in Baltimore. He subsequently put them in touch with Alexander Graham Bell, a leading figure in the oralism campaign that argued that deaf children should be taught to lip read and speak. Bell advised them to contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind where Bridgman had been educated. This school was one of the first to help the blind to learn rather then making them charity cases. The school delegated a former pupil, Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired and only 20-years-old, to become Helen's instructor. Sullivan's teaching methods, set against the Victorian education system, were progressive and inspired.

This was the beginning of a 49-year-long relationship evolving into governess and companion. Sullivan instilled discipline in Helen and the big breakthrough came with the realization that the motions her teacher was making on her palm, while running water over her hand, symbolized the idea of "water".

Helen, from an early age, knew she wanted to spend her life working to improve social conditions and to do so she needed to communicate effectively. Sign language, a predominantly visual language was not readily available to her and the deaf blind manual alphabet (which entails spelling each word letter-by-letter) made communication very slow. Unfortunately she could never speak clearly enough to be understood by strangers so always needed a "translator". She learned Braille and used it to read not only English, but also French, German, Greek, and Latin.

At eighteen she passed the entrance exams to Radcliffe College (sister college to Harvard, but women at that time were not permitted to attend Harvard). She was the first deafblind student in the United States and the last for half a century. She was introduced at college to socialism and became a member of the Socialist Party, subsequently leaving it for the more radical Industrial Workers of the World.

She campaigned for birth control, supported the civil rights movement, defended militant women's suffrage, campaigned with leading pacifists against the United States' preparations for war, protested at the deportation of immigrants for their political beliefs, and co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union. For Helen the root of all these campaigns lay in a fundamental desire for justice and social equality.

She understood the connection between poverty and blindness and fought to be accepted as a human being no different from those who could see and hear. Her struggle to be seen and heard as a whole and capable human being was a challenge she had to take on for her whole life.

In 1933 her book of political essays was burned by the Nazis. From the 1930s and throughout the tide of anti-Communism into the 1950s, to the dismay of the American Foundation for the Blind (she was their spokesperson for many years), she was kept under FBI surveillance.

Early on she publicly linked her work on women's suffrage and anti-poverty with the rights of blind people. To most people her disability rights work appeared to be in keeping with the saintly public image created by the press so they were open to her ideas without realizing how radical they could be.

Towards the end of her life, a film biography, The Unconquered, was made recounting the water pump story and her charity work: the great achiever against scenes of domesticity leaving the audience with the idea of Helen as a mild, docile old lady who once inspired the world.

The myth of personal striving that anyone determined enough can achieve anything keeps the focus on the individual. They are responsible for their own destiny. This prevents the very questioning of society's structures that Keller was intent on doing.

Her legacy among deaf and deaf/blind people today is one of opposition to their native language rights - for the dominance of spoken English over American Sign Language. This is partly due to her family's early contact with Bell and his campaign in favour of the oral education of the deaf over manual communication. (There are two opposing philosophies regarding the education of the deaf - manualism is the education of deaf students using sign language and oralism is the education of deaf students using spoken language.)

When her father died in 1896 as a means of overcoming the grief Helen turned to a new religious philosophy expounded by Emmanual Swedeborg. He wrote extensively about a universal brotherhood of mankind and the immediate presence of a living God. What was especially appealing to Helen was his view of a spiritual life free of all bodily limitations.

Keller's life has been interpreted many times besides the number of articles and books she published herself. Her autobiography, written at the age of 23, The Story of My Life, is the basis for The Miracle Worker by William Gibson. He also used Sullivan's letters written during the early part of her stay with the Keller's. Originally a teleplay it was adapted for a Broadway production in 1959 and an Oscar-winning feature film in 1962.

Very few of the earlier portrayals mention her political activism and as she herself wrote: "My work for the blind has never occupied a center in my personality. My sympathies are with all who struggle for justice." Keller and her friend Mark Twain (who was responsible for the title "miracle worker") were both considered radicals in the socio-political context present in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century, and as a consequence, their political views have been glossed over in popular perception.

Click Here to watch an amazing video of how Helen Keller, a deaf, blind and mute child, learned to speak.

Visit the Helen Keller Kids Museum Online, featuring photos, videos, and letters that bring Helen's remarkable story to life.

"We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others."
Helen Keller

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart."
Helen Keller, 1891

"If I, deaf, blind, find life rich and interesting, how much more can you gain by the use of your five senses!"
Helen Keller, 1928

"What a strange life I lead-a kind of Cinderella-life-half-glitter in crystal shoes, half mice and cinders!"
Helen Keller, 1933

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
Helen Keller, 1941