laura_bridgman

Everyone should already know Helen Keller, but do you know Laura Bridgman? Laura Bridgman, who preceded Keller by almost 50 years, was the first deaf-blind person to learn how to read and write. Born in New Hampshire, Bridgman, at age 2, got scarlet fever, losing her sight and hearing. She went to the Perkins Institution for the Blind taught by Samuel Howe. She was taught Braille, fingerspelling and English. She passed away at the age 59 at Perkins in 1889.

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Laura Dewey Bridgman