Blind-deaf author Sally Hobart Alexander stands at a podium at Lenape Elementary yesterday afternoon and engages them in the area of disabilities and self-esteem.
by David Croyle
Students at Lenape Elementary learned first-hand about interacting with someone who is deaf and blind at a special assembly yesterday.
Sally Hobart Alexander’s world was normal until the age of 26 when she became blind and lost much of her hearing. She was an elementary teacher by profession, but now would have to leave California and come to Pittsburgh to return to school and learn to live in the sightless world. Now at age 72, Alexander continues to inspire young audiences and has become a treasured author of eight books. Her latest title, “She Touched the World, tells the story of a deaf-blind pioneer.
Years before Helen Keller drew attention to the need for education of the blind and deaf, Laura Bridgman was touching her own world in the mid-1800’s. Bridgman, who was blind, deaf, non-speaking, and had no sense of taste or smell, found a way to become educated and led a movement so strong that she was a modern day icon for overcoming adversity in one’s life. Alexander said Bridgman’s influence later inspire hope in Helen Keller’s mother.
“She met Charles Dickens. And he wrote about her because she was one of the most fascinating things he found in the United States. And Helen Keller’s mother was reading that book and thought ‘Helen can be helped!’ That’s how that all happened.”
“Gracie” (right) pretends to be Laura Bridgman by holding her ears and eyes shut, while students “Wyatt” and “Angela” stomp with their feet so Gracie can figure out from the vibrations who is doing the stomping.
With the aid of her German Shepherd companion dog “Dave,” Alexander made her way to the podium and addressed students at Lenape Elementary - not to just talk about a blind person living in a sighted world, but to encourage them to excel regardless of the setbacks of life.
“You can’t go through something like that without an enormous re-evaluation of self. It’s not a small thing in any way. But saying all that, it changed me in all kinds of ways, but I say it improved me! My life is definitely harder as a disabled person, but it’s richer… it’s a better life.”
Alexander said she identified very intimately with Laura Bridgman and it is reflected throughout her book.
“I had always admired her. I consider myself deaf-blind. She was not helped by any listening devices and I definitely am, and she did not have speech and I do. So I definitely identified with her in a lot of ways. In the final chapter of the book, I tell how I got interested in her and how life would be for her now - how much better with all the attitudinal differences and technological differences.”
Alexander, who lives with her husband, Bob, in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh, teaches at Chatham University in their Master of Fine Arts program in Children and Adolescent Writing. She holds day classes at various elementary schools throughout the country.