What Are Some Important Events in Helen Keller’s Life?
The most important events in Helen Keller’s life were in her early years when she contracted meningitis as a baby and became deafblind, but another important event in her life was her graduation from Radcliffe college in 1904. She was the first deafblind student to graduate from college.
In fact, after Keller, it would be more than 50 years before another deafblind student, Robert Smithdas, would graduate from college. Keller’s life was filled with many memorable and important moments as she helped to redefine the way that the world saw people with disabilities. She proved that people with disabilities could go to college, speak intelligently and participate in society.
Keller wrote her first book, of 14 she would write through the years, as an autobiography titled “The Story of My Life” in 1902. She was the first deafblind person to write a book. She also toured on the vaudeville circuit and was quite popular among the audience members. She was a founding member of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, which was America’s first agency to offer services to adults that are blind. It still operates today.
Keller also was influential in getting the United States to adopt braille as an official writing system for blind people in 1918. She was an advocate for people with disabilities and help secure blind people’s rights to education, employment and citizenship responsibilities throughout her life.
