Without Sullivan, Keller would have been walled into a dark and hopeless world. Her assistance, with utmost patience, gave Keller hope for a better and fuller life.
This had a transformative impact on young Keller, as it opened up a whole new world of opportunities for learning and human connection. Sullivan taught Keller how to communicate using sign language. Sullivan’s role in Helen’s life was to provide her with hope as her dedicated caretaker, teacher, defender, and life-long friend and companion. Sullivan was an extraordinary instructor and taught her reading and writing, and the two formed an intense and lasting relationship.
The arrival of Sullivan was a turning point in Keller’s life, for she helped Keller to “see things” by teaching her the correspondence between words and objects. Sullivan, herself partially blind, was a remarkable teacher and remained with Keller from March 1887 until her own death in October 1936. Examined by Alexander Graham Bell at this age, a 20-year-old female tutor, Anne Sullivan (Macy), from the Perkins Institution for the Blind (Boston), was arranged for her. Brought up by caring and anxious parents, she communicated mainly through home signs till the age of seven. She lived thereafter “at sea, in a dense fog”. Though born as a healthy child, Keller was afflicted at the age of 19 months with an illness (possibly scarlet fever) that left her blind and deaf. She is rightly described as “one of the twentieth century’s leading advocates for individuals with disabilities” and is known for “her personal triumph over the limitations of both blindness and deafness”. Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880–June 1, 1968) was an American author and educator.
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