skip to main content

<< Learning Center

Media Accessibility Information, Guidelines and Research

Helen Keller

described and captioned educational media and other resources

brought to you by the Described and Captioned Media Program

Educational Videos About Helen Keller Available Now to Registered DCMP Members

Not registered for a DCMP account? Sign up now for free access to DCMP materials

  1. Helen Keller In Her Story

    View Lesson Guide

    Portrays all parts of Helen Keller’s life. Shows her early life, her education, and work. Also depicts her travel experiences, showing the notables she met. Ends with her speech lessons and daily living habits. 1955 Academy Award winner for best documentary. More » | Audio Described preview » | Captioned preview »

  2. The Miracle Worker

    Helen Keller’s loss of vision and hearing in infancy made comprehension of the outside world next to impossible. When teacher Anne Sullivan agreed to work with Keller, that world opened up, and they both learned essential life-altering lessons. More » | Captioned/Audio Described Preview »

  3. Tragedy to Triumph

    View Lesson Guide

    In this fictionalized account, 17-year-old Felix finds himself blind and sent back to 1935, where he meets Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. He lives with them and learns about blindness, “seeing” with his heart, and kindness. More » | Captioned Preview » | Audio Described Preview »

  4. Newsreel Footage

    Two clips containing actual footage of Helen Keller. In the first, Anne Sullivan describes the process by which Helen learned to speak (Watch on YouTube »). In the second, Helen and Anne meet First Lady Grace Coolidge at the White House in 1926 (Watch on YouTube »). More »

About Helen Keller: Biographical information and more

Quick Facts

Born
June 27, 1880
Died    
June 1, 1968
Became Deaf-Blind
At 19 months old
Met Anne Sullivan
March 1887
Schools Attended
Number of U.S. Presidents Met
13
  • Grover Cleveland
  • William McKinley
  • Theodore Roosevelt
  • William Howard Taft
  • Woodrow Wilson
  • Warren Harding
  • Calvin Coolidge
  • Herbert Hoover
  • FDR
  • Harry Truman
  • Dwight Eisenhower
  • JFK
  • LBJ
Memberships & Causes
Number of Books Authored
12


In-Depth Biography of Helen Keller

The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) provides a comprehensive Helen Keller Biography as well as a Chronology of Helen Keller’s Life that offers a year-by-year account of Helen’s life and accomplishments.

Biographical information about Helen is also available from the U.K.-based RNIB. Likewise, Perkins School for the Blind (where Helen Keller went to school prior to Radcliffe College) provides a Q & A-type biography about Helen Keller on its website.

For perhaps the most complete account of Helen’s life, read her acclaimed autobiography, The Story of My Life, available in its entirety on the AFB website.

Additional Helen Keller Resources: Links, Photos, Organizations, and More!

Links/Organizations related to Helen Keller

AFB, the organization to which Helen Keller devoted a great deal of work, provides a collection of information and other content about Helen, including:

Photos of Helen Keller

  • Young Helen and Annie Sullivan
  • Helen meets Mark Twain
  • Helen hoists a young boy on her shoulder
  • A portrait of Helen
  • Helen holds the reigns of a grazing horse
  • The Helen Keller Alabama quarter
  • 2009 unveiling of Helen Keller statue in the U.S. Capitol

Seven decades’ worth of photos chronicling Helen’s life and work (including some photos featuring other famous figures such as President Calvin Coolidge and Alexander Graham Bell) are available from AFB’s Helen Keller Archives. (AFB is currently raising funds to fully digitize the Archive—learn how you can help.)

Many photos of Helen are also available from the Library of Congress Photo Archive.

About the Described and Captioned Media Program: Free-loan accessible educational media

The Described and Captioned Media Program provides services designed to support and improve the academic achievement of students who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. These services include (1) a library of free-loan described and captioned educational media, (2) a clearinghouse of information related to educational media access, (3) a gateway to internet resources related to accessibility, and (4) training—via our Keys to Access guidelines—and evaluation of service providers desiring to appear on the DCMP’s approved lists of description and captioning service providers. There are no user-registration or service fees.

The DCMP is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and administered by the National Association of the Deaf.

Connect With Us!

Copyright ©2010 Described and Captioned Media Program.

educators