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

See also 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)

• Click here to read the FBI files on Helen Keller.

• "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

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