27th June Helen Keller Day

Helen Keller was an American deaf-blind activist, a well-known writer, and a lecturer who advocated for laws to protect and help people with disabilities. 

We celebrate Helen Keller Day as part of Deaf-Blind Awareness Week (the last week in June). The 27th June was Helen Keller's birthday.

Helen Keller was born in Alabama in 1880 and lost her hearing and sight due to a disease before the age of two. At seven, her parents sought help from the Perkins School for The Blind. Anne Sullivan was asked to work with Helen. She was also visually impaired and became nearly as famous as Helen. 

Sullivan used “touch teaching” techniques and her skilled guidance calmed the seemingly uncontrollable Keller. Keller learned how to read and write in Braille thanks to Sullivan’s own experiences that gave her a deeper understanding of her student’s struggles. Keller also used hand signals of the deaf-mute, which she understood by touch. 

The school library has these biographies, but there are many others: