Helen Keller & Talking Books

Helen with a little girl listening to the radio, 1938

With my recent hyper-interest in audiobooks, podcasting, Godcasting, eBooks and print books, imagine how jazzed I was to see the following caption!

"Did you know that 'Talking Books' were the very first audio versions of books? They were developed at [the American Foundation for the Blind] AFB in 1932. People who are blind can still get them for free from the Library of Congress. In 1935, Helen Keller went to a Senate hearing in Washington, D.C., to make sure that government funds were put aside for this and other programs. Even though Helen couldn't hear, she knew that sound could help educate other people."

This link gives a glimse of her unselfish character.

"The story of Helen Keller is the story of a child who, at the age of 19 months, suddenly lost her hearing and vision, and who, against overwhelming odds and with a great deal of persistence, grew into a highly intelligent and sensitive woman who wrote, spoke, and labored incessantly for the betterment of others. So powerful a symbol of triumph over adversity did she become that she has a definite place in the history of our time and of times to come."

Helen Keller: an amazing woman who wrote eleven books, and authored numerous articles, writes:

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail. I try to increase the power God has given me to see the best in everything and every one, and make that Best a part of my life."