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There's More Than One Way to Send a Message

And You Think You've Got it Rough in College

Although Helen Keller (1880-1968) lost her sight, hearing and ability to speak as a result of an illness when she was nineteen months old, she learned to speak and write six languages, wrote her own autobiography and graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College. Some of Helen's textbooks at Radcliffe were transcribed into Braille, but much of her assigned reading and all of the classroom lectures she attended had to be spelled out letter by letter in the palm of her hand by her life-long teacher, Anne Sullivan, who sat beside her. Keller also had a highly developed sense of smell. She could distinguish the colors of lilacs and roses by their scent and said she could smell doctors, painters, sculptors, masons, carpenters, druggists and cooks because of the distinct odors associated with their professions. She was also able to identify some of her friends by their scent. William Gibson's play The Miracle Worker chronicles the work of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan.

The Language No One In America Speaks

No one speaks the fourth most commonly used language in America. The language is Ameslan or ASL. ASL, which is short for American Sign Language, allows hearing-impaired people to communicate. Between 300,000 and 500,000 hearing-impaired and hearing people in America use ASL. At any given time, 100,000 more people are learning ASL. Only English, Spanish and French are used by more American communicators.

The Dots and Dashes of Wedded Bliss

Thomas Edison suffered from progressive deafness most of his life. Edison learned Morse Code well enough to be put in charge of a telegraph office by age fifteen. According to Mrs. Edison, the couple often communicated in Morse Code. Edison taught his wife-to-be Morse Code during their courtship. He proposed marriage by tapping a Morse Code message on her hand. She accepted in Morse Code. In later life, she would place her hand on her nearly deaf husband's knee and tap out the dialogue for him when they attended the theatre.

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