Helen Keller

Meet disability rights advocate Helen Keller.

Little Helen was curious and eager to learn about the world. After contracting an illness during childhood, she became deaf and blind at the age of one and was unable to talk. Helen and her family found ways to connect with each other, such as hand-signing.

But when Anne Sullivan, a teacher, came into her life, Helen discovered more ways to communicate with the wider world, learning finger-spelling and how to talk. This saw her become the first deaf-blind person to earn a university degree, and led her to tour the world advocating for the rights of disabled people.