8 Hellen Keller Facts For Kids

Helen Keller may be one of the most inspirational people that have ever lived on our planet so far. She was born deaf and blind, which meant that she couldn’t hear anyone or see anyone at all. This didn’t stop her from being able to learn how to communicate or appreciate things like music. Instead of hearing the music through her ears, Helen Keller could feel the vibrations of the sounds and enjoy them.

At one point in her life, she even learned how to talk! Her accomplishments would be amazing for anyone, let alone someone who had to overcome a disability in order to achieve them. This fun facts will help us all get to know this incredible woman a little bit better.

1. A Hot Dog, Anyone?

One of Helen Keller’s most favorite foods was the hot dog. She would eat them as often as she could! Considering her sense of taste must have been incredible because it would be enhanced through the reduction of two other “normal” human senses, one might say that her love for this food item was a reflection of her life’s philosophy: life can either become a daring adventure or it can become nothing at all.

The next time you eat a hot dog, try to enjoy it like Helen Keller would. Close your eyes, block out the sounds of the world around you, and taste each flavor that hits your tongue. Maybe you’ll like hot dogs even more too!

2. Dogs Were More Than Food

Helen Keller loved animals, but she loved dogs most of all. Throughout her entire life, she was known for owning a wide variety of different breeds. She was even given the gift of an Akita, which is a Japanese dog, and it became the first of its kind to come to the United States when Helen returned home later in the year. She often owned more than one dog at a time and those who saw her with her dogs say that they loved her as much as she loved them.

3. She Saw the World

Helen Keller believed that people are never really happy unless they get the chance to brighten the life of someone else. To fulfill that personal principle, she traveled the world to meet many different people and share her experiences with others. Many of her visits, especially during World War II, were to recovering soldiers in the hospital. When these injured soldiers could see how much Helen Keller could accomplish with her deafness and blindness, it gave them a great inspiration to find their own path of success.

“The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness,” she would say, “but the attitude of seeing people towards them.”

4. Imagine If She Had a Computer

Helen Keller spent a long time learning how to read. She could understand Braille, but also could understand other forms of communication as well so that it was possible to carry on a conversation. These efforts also led her to being able to be a great typist. Helen Keller was even better than her two constant companions at typing. Now imagine what she could have accomplished if she would have had access to a computer!

Her intelligence also led her towards a very important accomplishment: she became the first blind and deaf person to be able to earn a college degree. Helen Keller graduated with honors in 1904 and then used what she learned to inspire others. “The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen,” she would say. “They are only just felt in the heart.”

5. There Were Lots of Famous Friends

Many of the famous names from the late 1800′s and early 1900′s are associated with Helen Keller because they all wanted to be her friend. Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell, and even Franklin D. Roosevelt all called Helen Keller their friend. Part of the reason for this was that Helen Keller was just as famous in her own way. After all, she won an Oscar award for the documentary that was made about her life and she even starred in a film about herself once.

Yet even though many people knew her name, Helen Keller remained humble, optimistic, but also forthright. “What good is faith if it does not teach us that we are able to build a more complete and beautiful world?” She would challenge people to be more and do more and that’s why many people wanted her to be their friend.

6. Her Father Seceded

You could say that a certain sense of rebellion was placed within Helen Keller from the very start. Her family was from the South and her father was an officer in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Instead of being told she couldn’t do anything, Helen Keller would prove them wrong by doing it anyway – and doing it better than most people could. She was the first person who was both deaf and blind to write a book and she wrote 14 of them during her life. She also toured in a vaudeville show and would field questions from the audience.

7. She Changed the World

Later on in her life, the reason why Helen Keller traveled a lot was to advocate for others who had similar disabilities. Many countries in the world at that time had no system of education or support for individuals with blindness or deafness as their disability. Helen would visit with these governments and work with them to establish schools and other needed supports and many of the places she visited now have educational and support programs for people with disabilities because of her extensive work.

8. She Met Every President

Over the course of her life, Helen Keller was able to meet every US President that served in office, starting with Grover Cleveland. This is because each leader wanted to get her perspective about what life was like and what the United States needed at the time to support every citizen in their pursuit of happiness – not just those who were born with a “normal” set of circumstances. The last President that she met before she died was John F. Kennedy.

These facts show that Helen Keller was an incredible woman. She fought for equal rights and advocated for people with disabilities. Because of this, she will always be remembered.