As a child I was captivated by the story of Helen Keller, the deaf and blind little girl who learned how to read and speak. There was an edition of her story that was popular in the 1980s, whose back cover included the Braille alphabet. I remember being amazed that my grandmother, Miriam Goldberg, had lived at the same time as Keller. But the book that really fuelled my interest was Helen Keller’s Teacher, about Annie Sullivan. She herself was partially blind, was illiterate and raised in poverty as an orphan. Yet she became the person who discovered a way to communicate with Keller. Hers is a remarkable story of perseverance, tenacity and ingenuity.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Keller and Sullivan as I recently discovered a very bingeable TV show, “Switched at Birth.” This is one, however, that you can’t watch passively because it features deaf characters who use ASL to communicate (with subtitles for us hearing viewers). While the show is relatively trite, its focus on deafness is eye-opening and educational, spurring regular Wikipedia searches. One example: I knew nothing about the controversy around cochlear implants and even less about their technology.
Though I’ve done a lot of internet searches and even spent time on deaf message boards, I still have so many questions. One area I would love to learn more about is how deaf people learn to read. How does a person who is unable to hear learn to read lips and the written language? Does it go back to Sullivan’s use of the tactile?
If you are deaf or hard of hearing, or part of a deaf family, and you’re open to picking up this conversation, please reach out to me! I want to learn more but I don’t want to approach the one deaf person I may know and treat him or her like a spokesperson.
Earlier this week, as I was driving to work, I passed a woman walking on 8th Ave. with her seeing eye dog. Stopped at the red light at Colorado Blvd., I marveled at this woman’s courage. How confident would I feel approaching a busy intersection without being able to see? To exist in a world where one cannot see, or hear, or fill-in-the-blank, and still pursue life to its fullest, takes a remarkable kind of bravery that I will probably never know.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
© IJN 2025
