Five Lessons from Helen Keller
Helen Keller (1880-1968) : We are fortunate enough to live in an era in which disability is not stigmatised. Some might argue that disability is considered a badge of honour, or that there is a trend towards recognising – perhaps even creating ‘disability’ – where previously there was none. One of the pioneering advocates for the mindshift towards acceptance of disability was Helen Keller. In a different era, no doubt millions of people were disregarded, undermined incarcerated or even quietly euthanised for the heinous ‘crime’ of being disabled. The ‘one size fits all’ mentality of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries had little tolerance desire or resources to accommodate difference. Often the highest ideal of certain societies was to make everyone feel, think and act the same. And woe betide any transgressors. Helen Keller (1880-1968) was an outstanding example of that other side of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in which individual endeavour, ...