[Colorado-Talk] Helen Keller Video

[Cerridwyn Nordstrom]

Hi All,

I hope you all are well after the Convention this weekend. I mostly just
lurk in the forum, however, a viral video with 1.3 million views has been
brought to my attention. I am going to tag the video below, but I also want
to put a trigger warning here for ableism, particularly towards the Deaf
Blind community.

Here is the link to the video:
https://www.tiktok.com/@immadisonnn/video/7290734183389957418?_r=1&_t=8gwoYAbTBxG


The video is a family discussing Helen Keller and how there is no way that
she can be real. They talk about how there is no way she could have written
books, flown a plane or done any of the other great things she did.
Basically, this video just reinforces the the idea Deaf Blind people can't
achieve the great things that Helen Keller achieved, that her sighted
teacher was really the one doing everything, and just generally reinforces
low standards. The ablism in the video is so blatant. I am not sure what,
if anything we can do it combat the impact of this video which has over a
million views, but this is not the first time I have heard the sentiment
online that Helen Keller is not "real" and the idea seems to be becoming
more mainstream.

I hope you all are keeping warm in the snow, and I would love to hear
y'all's thoughts.

Take care,

*Cerridwyn Nordstrom* (She, her, hers)

*“‘No’ has fueled many a revolution.”*
                                                      - Cheryl Marie Wade

Member of the National Federation of the Blind and the National Assocaition
of Blind Lawyers
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/colorado-talk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20231030/310ba349/attachment.html>