Helen Keller, 1912 from Library of Congress

Helen Keller spelled in Braille

Topics on the Page

Biography Resources

Primary Sources

Multimedia Sources

Helen Keller as a Political Activist

Learning Plans 

 For a biography, link to Helen Keller from the American Foundation for the Blind

Helen Keller Kids Online Museum

• Deaf and blind at birth, she supported progressive causes and women's rights as well as opposing discrimination against people with disabilities.

• She advocated for women's suffrage, birth control, and pacifism. 

• Became a socialist and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) 

• Traveled the world inspiring millions of people with disabilities

• In 2009, a statute of Helen Keller was opened at the U. S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Anne Sullivan—Helen Keller Memorial, Tewksbury, Massachusetts

Helen Keller's Vaudeville Q & A, Perkins School for the Blind

• Background on Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy's 1920s vaudeville routine

• Watch to learn more on how Helen Keller learned to speak 

Primary Sources

• The Story of My Life (1905), an autobiography she began writing when she was 22 years-old, published as an e-book by the University of Pennsylvania

• See also her essay, How I Became a Socialist (November 3, 1912)

• "What is the IWW?" and "Why I Became an IWW" speeches by Helen Keller

• Click here for "I Must Speak" by Helen Keller

A-S-L in American Sign Language

 Multimedia Resources

Helen Keller Speech, a re-enactment of a speech given by Keller at the 1925 Lions Clubs International Convention, on YouTube with the text included.

Helen Keller & Anne Sullivan, 1930s newsreel footage on YouTube

Helen Keller Tribute Film from the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame

For more materials, including historic photographs, see Helen Keller: An Introduction from the American Association for the Blind.

See the Facebook page for the film Becoming Helen Keller

Helen Keller as a Political Activist

Link here to read the FBI files on Helen Keller.

"After the Miracle: The Political Crusades of Helen Keller -- An Interview with Max Wallace. Northeast Public Radio (May 11, 2023)

The Radical Dissent of Helen Keller from Yes! Magazine (July 12, 2012).

The Politics of Helen Keller, International Socialist Review

Learning Plans

Exploring Disability using Multimedia and the B-D-A Reading Strategy from ReadWriteThink

See Helen Keller resources from the Disability History Museum