helen's life was full of struggle and hardships. comment

Rendered blind and deaf from an illness during her infancy, Helen Keller had to overcome many obstacles on her journey to become an author, activist, and advocate for the disabled. One might argue that two of the most important obstacles she first had to overcome were her own emotions and her family’s reaction to her disabilities.
Since she was only about a year old when disease robbed her of two of her senses, Helen could not communicate the way a normal infant does. Her lack of hearing, which made it impossible for her to learn to speak, caused her a great deal of anger and frustration. Having no other way to make her needs known, Helen resorted to acting out at home. Although her parents loved her, they also found it difficult to communicate effectively with her and as such, were reluctant to discipline her. Their decision to overlook her frequent outbursts out of pity only made matters worse. Through Anne Sullivan’s intervention, Helen’s family was persuaded to treat her differently, and then Helen was eventually able to cultivate the discipline she needed to begin the long process of learning to read, write, and eventually, speak.
Helen also had to overcome the pervasive public attitude towards people with disabilities. Remember, she was born in 1880, during a time when people with mental or physical defects were frequently institutionalized. Few schools existed exclusively for the blind and deaf at this time. Viewed as incapable of being educated or trained in any vocation, many with disabilities were simply locked away in asylums and received no rehabilitative treatment. Helen helped change that view by receiving an education and eventually earning a degree from Radcliffe.