Helen Keller Statue to be Unveiled at Capitol; First of Person with Disability

By Ashley Hayes - CNN

(CNN) — It was a moment vividly depicted in the movie about her life: 7-year-old Helen Keller, holding one hand under a water pump as her teacher spelled “W-A-T-E-R” into her other hand.

In that moment, Keller — an Alabama native who lost her sight and hearing to illness as a toddler — understood that there were meanings hidden in the manual alphabet shapes her teacher, Anne Sullivan, had taught her to make with her hands. The moment was shown in the play — later made into a movie — “The Miracle Worker.”

On Wednesday, a statue commemorating her 1887 breakthrough will be unveiled in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall — the first statue in the Capitol of a person with a disability, as well as the first of a child, according to the Alabama governor’s office.

“It’s always good to realize how much of an impact people with disabilities have made on the history and landscape of our country,” said Nancy Starnes, director of external affairs for the Washington-based National Organization on Disability. “I’m excited that they’re going to be doing this. I think it’s going to be a wonderful addition.”

Keller, born in Tuscumbia in northwest Alabama, learned to speak at the age of 10 by putting her hands on Sullivan’s mouth when she talked. She wound up graduating from Radcliffe College, then the women’s branch of Harvard University, and became a prolific author and speaker who was endowed with numerous honors including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She died in 1968.

http://www.enableamerica.org/disability-news-2009-10-06-helen-keller-statue.html


Source: cnn.com

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