30 pages • 1 hour read
Margaret DavidsonHelen Keller
Nonfiction | Biography | Middle Grade | Published in 1969A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Historical Context: The Development of American Sign Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is a unique language with its own vocabulary, grammar, and syntax rules. One uses their hands to communicate, rather than speaking with their voice. The language’s origin dates to 1814, when a minister in Connecticut, Dr. Thomas Hopkins Galluadet, desired to communicate with a deaf neighbor, a nine-year-old girl. He traveled to France, where deaf education—which was nonexistent in the United States—was underway at the National Institute for Deaf Mutes. After studying there, Galluadet returned to the US, bringing instructor Laurent Clerc with him. In 1817, they established the American School for the Deaf, a free institute in Hartford, Connecticut. The students who arrived at the school brought with them a variety of signs that were understood only by their family members or by other small communities. ASL would evolve out of these various languages as well as the unique sign languages of European countries, such as France and England (Jay, Michelle. “History of American Sign Language.” Start ASL, 14 July 2023).
Today, ASL involves not just physical hand signals but also eye contact, facial expressions, and other body language. Like spoken language, ASL has regional dialects, where terms vary. In this way, ASL is not a universal language and is very much dependent on grammar, idioms, and other formal rules, just as a spoken language would be (“Learning American Sign Language.” National Association of the Deaf). As with spoken languages, too, ASL evolves. New words are added to the lexicon, and adjustments are made as technology changes (a change in the sign for “phone” was needed in the 2000s as cellular phones replaced landline phones) and as social changes develop that impact language, such as with gender norms (Leonhardt, David. “A Language Changed.” The New York Times, 27 July 2022).
Historical Context: The Invention of Braille
Braille is a writing system that allows blind individuals to read. It utilizes raised dots that represent letters, words, and punctuation. One reads by feeling the dots with their fingertips. The system was invented by Louis Braille, who was born near Paris, France, in 1809. Braille became completely blind at age three after an accident caused him to lose one eye and acquire an infection in the second one. As an adolescent, he received a scholarship to attend the National Institute of the Blind. He began to develop the written code for the blind after learning of a technique used by the military: Soldiers were given documents with raised dots so that coded information could be read at night. By 1829, he completed and published the code.
Braille operates on a cell of six dots arranged in a square. From this cell, 36 different combinations of dots can be made. The use of the six-dot cell allows readers to move quickly through the letters and words, allowing most readers to process 125 words per minute, though some are able to read as much as 200 words per minute (“About Braille.” National Library Service). The invention of computers made braille much easier to produce, thus increasing access to braille books for readers in need of them. Similarly, this advent allowed braille users to type, as computers are able to receive input from braille keyboards. Though the advent of audiobooks and similar technologies such as voice to text has made braille less essential for some people, others still rely on braille as their primary or only method of reading (“Four Reasons Why Braille Still Matters in the Age of Alexa and iPhone.” Perkins School for the Blind).
