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---
title: The Helen Keller You Didn't Learn About in School
description: Students learn about Helen Keller learning to communicate as a child and not about her achievements as an adult, like co-founding the ACLU.
canonical: https://time.com/5918660/helen-keller-disability-history/
author: Olivia B. Waxman
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article:content_tier: free
article:published_time: 2020-12-15T15:43:23.000Z
article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T11:11:48.000Z
article:section: History
og:title: The Helen Keller You Didn't Learn About in School
og:description: Limited education on Keller's life has implications for how students perceive people with disabilities
og:url: https://time.com/5918660/helen-keller-disability-history/
og:site_name: TIME
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og:image:width: 1024
og:image:height: 576
og:image:alt: Helen Keller visits President John F. Kennedy, April 8, 1961.
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twitter:title: The Helen Keller You Didn't Learn About in School
twitter:description: Limited education on Keller's life has implications for how students perceive people with disabilities
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![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte3187e3cc8719e2c/698a14f509208f50a841770b/helen-keller-jfk.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)


# Co-Founding the ACLU, Fighting for Labor Rights and Other Helen Keller Accomplishments Students Don't Learn in School

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2FBbidBE.m3u8" -->
## Video: The History You Didn't Learn: The Full Story of Helen Keller

[Watch (HLS stream): The History You Didn't Learn: The Full Story of Helen Keller](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2FBbidBE.m3u8) (9:43)

![The History You Didn't Learn: The Full Story of Helen Keller](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/2FBbidBE/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2020-12-15. The History You Didn't Learn is a series that sheds light on past events that may have been omitted, misleading, or just downright wrong in our history education in school._


by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/) and [Video by Arpita Aneja](https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/)

Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:11 AM UTCPublished: Dec 15, 2020 3:43 PM UTC

by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/) and [Video by Arpita Aneja](https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/)

Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:11 AM UTCPublished: Dec 15, 2020 3:43 PM UTC

While the world marked [International Day of Persons with Disabilities](https://www.un.org/en/observances/day-of-persons-with-disabilities) on Dec. 3, the history of [people with disabilities](https://time.com/5168472/disability-activism-trump/) is still not fully taught in schools. In the U.S., if American schoolchildren learn about any person with disabilities, they learn that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once had [polio](https://time.com/3340831/polio-fdr-roosevelt-burns/) and used a [wheelchair](https://time.com/5325424/video-president-roosevelt-walking/) in office, and they learn about Deafblind activist Helen Keller.

Most students learn that Keller, born June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Ala., was left deaf and blind after contracting a high fever at 19 months, and that her teacher [Anne Sullivan](https://www.perkins.org/history/people/anne-sullivan) taught her braille, lip-reading, finger spelling and eventually,[ how to speak](https://www.afb.org/about-afb/history/online-museums/anne-sullivan-miracle-worker/anne-teacher/teaching-helen-speak). Students may watch the Oscar-winning [1962 movie ](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2022639,00.html)_The Miracle Worker,_ which depicts these milestones as miraculous. Keller has become a worldwide symbol for children to [overcome any obstacle](https://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/07/HELEN.KELLER.STATUE/). At the U.S. Capitol, there is even a [bronze statue](https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/helen-keller) of 7-year-old Keller at a water pump, inspired by the movie’s depiction of a real milestone in Keller’s life in which she recognizes water coming out of the pump after Sullivan spells the word [“water”](https://www.afb.org/about-afb/history/helen-keller/biography-and-chronology/biography) into the youngster’s hand. However, there is still a great deal about her life and her accomplishments that many people don’t know.


What scholars of disability point out is that when students learn about Helen Keller, they often learn about her efforts to communicate as a child, and not about the work she did as an adult. This limited instruction has implications for how students perceive [people with disabilities](https://time.com/5622652/disability-voter-turnout-2020/). 

If students learn about any of Keller’s accomplishments as an adult, they learn that she became the first Deafblind graduate of Radcliffe College (now Harvard University) in 1904, and worked for American Foundation for the Blind from the mid-1920s until her death in 1968, advocating for schools for the blind and braille reading materials.

But they don’t learn that she co-founded the [American Civil Liberties Union](https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field%5Fdocument/facts.pdf) in 1920; that she was an early supporter of the [NAACP,](https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-03-B056-F11-003.1.1&e=-------en-20--1--txt--emma+goldman------3-7-6-5-3-------Keller%2c+Helen-------0-1) and an [opponent of lynchings](https://www.afb.org/about-afb/history/helen-keller/helen-keller-quotes); that she was an early proponent of [birth control.](https://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/articles/keller.php#:~:text=Keller%20continued%20to%20advocate%20for,no%20longer%20a%20radical%20pursuit.) 

Sascha Cohen, who teaches American Studies at Brandeis University, and wrote the 2015 TIME article [“Helen Keller’s Forgotten Radicalism”](https://time.com/3923213/helen-keller-radicalism/), argues that Keller’s involvement in workers’ rights can help students understand the roots of the workers’ rights and inequality issues that persist today: “The Progressive Era when she was sort of working politically in different organizations was a period of rapid industrialization and so there were these new conditions in which workers were subjected to this sort of heightened inequality and even danger and risk physically. So she pointed out that a lot of times people went blind from accidents on the shop floor. She saw this real kind of imbalance in power between the workers…and the sort of what we would call the 1% or the very few owners and managers at the top who were exploiting the workers.”


Some of the reason schools don’t teach much about Keller’s adult life is because she was involved in groups that have been perceived as too radical throughout American history. She was a member of the [Socialist Party](https://time.com/5422714/what-is-democratic-socialism/), and corresponded with [Eugene Debs](https://time.com/5762312/bernie-sanders-socialism-america/), the party’s most prominent member and a [five-time presidential candidate](https://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell?a=d&d=CDS19261021.2.9). She also read Marx, and her associations with all of these far-left groups landed her on the radar of [the FBI](https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-02-B033-F02-012), which monitored her for ties to the Communist Party. 

However, to some Black disability rights activists, like Anita Cameron, Helen Keller is not radical at all, “just another, despite disabilities, privileged white person,” and yet another example of history telling the story of privileged white Americans. Critics of Helen Keller cite [her writings](https://watermark.silverchair.com/enh049.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW%5FErcy7Dm3ZL%5F9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAqAwggKcBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKNMIICiQIBADCCAoIGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMUSsQ59AKz2ZXbrjcAgEQgIICU07TTx2SYtejzNoGKYM6FJ0KfNVlAlS3AwmPZNuc8u5lAKrhKvyMvSBU66IJFSA2pAciCi8PumTL2Cdy4Z-0DNnC2ZS8ge7sgyF6TX5HsmBFlI7JoVavfZPFEFA6fJ%5FKFyRa828GLgnDgdIwZtQTfiP3LDEsIDGMa7QayEMxaCfccrw-LedPa3GdeXDuhlLTq5xCplziyjgSNj92NDeJTclzDDj5NQGr0zALuUxmAnVqnKHUN9%5F%5Fsmup0WHc30SJltOOyTEtlFLobOCJkKw5LXhQoOiMCNgVOjjCfiy%5FGYtLyDWK9SSGugH8NPqkNwfcDvh7Q8I2ASNxv8ac-92VVe-xLkJ8g3wVzqQa5yvfPQPxcnPwpKzurc1QtDTnX%5F7BxF5%5FEGPUGvNq5xFGmdmKWrfHk8PxykWDtUJwK5ZDJR12vP1aCdJf47yN2zsB5w-1xWqDmGKcQjOE%5FC9ShebG8yZCrvtWxjU1A-GZADvS8ngjMR8pygFtYFBTtNNfcvgEtRuHD4jhsvLlO7Q676B30vgA8TAEp0wlFhkjNx99fGBgzO8wEt6uQRRHxvRD0P4DKGLte%5FcAKGKL-VupRUA2%5FN3fQHkgXI6u8WBvp0lkznMST2KwSdWNG944H4GZgI1Iko5eUegiK0HbUjztZ2x3IDtH3df3sKLmLDIa-pYSIMtNNb01zhfrH0xefquA2rEr1lxoUD3pW5o52sHayDqAfQqcUX18SmCNZBb6rEkw8X%5FpDAKUC1%5FE7qM5LvP2GmP%5F-phjTstWgdk1mpgByJw2qrcbHkc) that reflected the popularity of now-dated eugenics theories and her friendship with one of the movement’s supporters [Alexander Graham Bell](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Disability/pdtiNw3QedQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=helen+keller+alexander+graham+bell+eugenics&pg=PA35&printsec=frontcover). The American Foundation for the Blind archivist Helen Selsdon says Keller “moved away from that position.” 

People with disabilities and activists are pushing for more education on important contributions to U.S. history by [people of disabilities](https://time.com/5826098/coronavirus-people-with-disabilities/), such as the [Capitol Crawl.](https://share.america.gov/crawling-up-steps-demand-their-rights/) On Mar. 12, 1990, Cameron and dozens of disabled people climbed up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to urge the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It was considered a moment that raised awareness and helped get the law passed four months later, but one rarely included in public school education.

Thirty years later, [one in four Americans have a disability.](https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html#:~:text=61%20million%20adults%20in%20the,is%20highest%20in%20the%20South.) At least three other states have made efforts to incorporate disability history into school curricula. It’s the law in California and New Jersey to teach the contributions of people with disabilities, and Massachusetts guidelines urge state educators to do the same.

In Sep. 2018, the Texas Board of Education approved [a draft of changes](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/us/texas-slavery-social-studies-curriculum.html) to state social studies standards, which included the removal of some historical figures, such as Helen Keller. Shortly after the board opened the draft for public comment, Haben Girma, a Black disability rights lawyer and the first Deafblind Harvard Law School graduate, was one of many who [spoke out](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hey-texas-students-need-to-learn-about-helen-keller-dont-remove-her/2018/09/19/e8b85d3a-bb76-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d%5Fstory.html) on the importance of teaching Helen Keller. Girma argued that if Keller’s life is not taught, students might not learn about any history-makers with disabilities. Two months later, the [Texas Board of Education approved a revised draft with Keller’s name back in the standards](https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/us/texas-curriculum-hillary-clinton-helen-keller-trnd/index.html).


Girma agrees that more should be done to teach the full life and career of Helen Keller, and encourages students to read more of her writings to learn more about who she was as an adult. Keller [wrote 14 books and more than 475 speeches and essays.](https://www.afb.org/about-afb/history/helen-keller/books-essays-speeches)

“Since society only portrays Helen Keller as a little girl, a lot of people subconsciously learn to infantilize disabled adults. And I’ve been treated like a child. Many disabled adults have been treated like children,” Girma says. “That makes it difficult to get a job, to be treated with respect, to get good quality education and healthcare as an adult.”

Or just look back at what Keller herself articulated in her 1926 memoir _My Key of Life_ about the impact of inclusive education: “The highest result of education is tolerance.”

**TRANSCRIPT**

---

> “”

---


## Transcript

Kind: captions Language: en Helen Keller's image is on the Alabama State quarter. It's an image taken from a photograph of her reading a braille book and there's a motto that says "spirit of courage." in some sense so you know you have a woman reading a book and that's understood to represent courage and this is not to say that Helen Keller wasn't a courageous person but it's kind of a safe message without any sort of controversial overtones to it. It's like Helen Keller worked hard and she got educated and that's all we need to know. Pretty much everyone learns about Helen Keller in school from picture books to the movie The Miracle Worker she's a staple in children's education but we only learn about one aspect of a multi-faceted and complicated person.

The dominant story about Helen Keller is not by Helen Keller it's by sighted hearing people putting forth Helen Keller's story. Haben Girma is a disability rights lawyer who is also deaf-blind. For Girma, getting Helen Keller's story right is personal. The story focuses on her being six seven years old and things happening to her. People teaching her, people giving her water she comes across as very passive but if you learn about her life from her own words you realize she was an agent of change. She advocated for women, people of color. Disability rights mattered to her but the dominant story doesn't focus on that.

Since society only frames her as a little girl a lot of people subconsciously learn to infantilize disabled adults. That makes it difficult to get a job, to be treated with respect, to get good quality education and health care. That's not right. Because we are so focused on Keller as a child we often miss out on her long life of activism. One of her passions was really the rights of workers and unionists the progressive era when she was working politically in different organizations was a period of rapid industrialization. There were these new conditions in which workers were subjected to heightened inequality and even danger and risk physically.

She pointed out that a lot of times people went blind from accidents on the shop floor. She saw this exploitation of employees by industrialists, factory owners, corporations and so she became involved with the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World. She read Marx, she corresponded with Eugene Debs who was a major socialist at the time and she helped co-found the ACLU which we now sort of associate with freedom of speech. She had a spirit of wanting to help the collective good rather than individuals on their own. She found the American Foundation for the Blind which is an advocacy and education organization.

She spent her life from 1925 onward as a spokesperson and as a fundraiser for that cause. She was an early member of the NAACP. She's condemned lynching, she condemns the racism perpetrated against African Americans. Many people like to think of them as opposed to racism today it was not so typical to be opposed to racism in 1916 if you're a privileged white woman. It just wasn't and she was. People would often ask her stop talking about racism and women's rights. Just talk about the blind and inspire us about the blind. She found that frustrating and continued to talk anyway. When we talk about oppression and prejudice, disability is always sort of off to one side but for Helen Keller it was all of a piece.

You can't advocate for disability rights if you're not also advocating for racial justice and gender equality. Critics of Helen Keller point to one notable exception in her advocacy for people with disabilities. She was once a supporter of eugenics a now reviled school of thought that sought to improve human populations by breeding out certain traits like for example certain disabilities. That's absolutely true she did write about eugenics and she was concerned that children with disabilities who with severe disabilities would not be able to function in society. I think it was part of that zeitgeist at the time I think it's very easy to take history out of context very early on she moved away from that position and I think she would herself be heartbroken to think that she did not value every life because she absolutely did.

People need time to grow and learn. We need to forgive people when they acknowledge they've made mistakes. Still Helen Keller's prominence is another reminder of how our American history often focuses on the stories of wealthy white people. I don't have a perspective you know on Helen Keller she's just another just like despite disabilities privileged white person. I am a black disabled lesbian who happens to be poor you know you want to talk about intersectionalities and marginalization you know I'm looking up from the bottom and I'm just out here trying to not only fight for the rights of all disabled but wanting to highlight even among disabled there are those of us whose stories don't get told.

Anita Cameron herself was part of history in 1990 when she and several other activists from the disability rights group ADAPT crawled up the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building to demand the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the law that now requires public buildings to have ramps and other accessibility features. On a sunny hot morning we gathered up to do our crawl that was the only way that we could get there and we were trying to highlight the fact that people with disabilities we live in second class citizenship. We kind of went in stealth, started out as a tour and when we got into the rotunda we just took it over.

When it all was said and done 104 of us were arrested. I was number 81. I was in the center of a knot of people who had chained ourselves together the combination of the crawl and the takeover of the rotunda is what got the ADA passed so quickly. The fight for disability rights is far from over but the ADA was a milestone achievement. It completely changed the way people with disabilities lived and recognized people with disabilities as people with civil rights. Helen Keller is certainly not the only disability rights champion we should be learning about but learning about her work and her activism more fully is a step towards understanding the contributions so many other disabled Americans have made and continue to make to our shared history.

She was born in 1880 she died in 1968 it was a very long life. So I think when we forget about the causes that she supported it does damage to our understanding about disability some people have a complicated relationship with Helen Keller because she's been forced on us as a role model to never complain which is not true. She complained when it was the right thing to do 'cause sometimes when things are wrong you have to complain to create change.

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