Famous People
Many New Zealanders who are blind, deafblind or vision-impaired have achieved internationally. Snow skier Joanne Duffy was the first woman to win a gold medal at the 1994 Paralympics for disabled people in Norway. Marie Murphy led her New Zealand team to win a gold medal in the Second World Blind Sailing Regatta in Australia and Glen Putze won a gold medal at the 1993 World Disabled Waterskiing Championships in France.
Many other people achieve big and small goals - some in your local area.
Some, like Louis Braille and Helen Keller have invented ways of helping others who cannot see, or have inspired millions of people.
Louis Braille
Louis Braille was born in 1809 in France. He lost his sight at the age of three. While playing with a sharp tool in his father's workshop he pierced his eye. This resulted in an infection in both eyes and he lost all his sight.
When Louis was ten, he attended the National Institute for the Blind in Paris. Here he became very good at maths and science and learned to play the organ.
But Louis felt that there must be a way for people who were blind to read and write. For years he worked on developing a system that could be used and before he was 20 he had invented braille - the system which uses a combination of six raised dots to makes words, letters and numbers.
Louis did not leave the institute where he had been taught, but became a teacher and passed on his new reading and writing system to students.
Louis died in 1852 but braille wasn't recognised as a writing system until 1918. Now, it is used throughout the world and is taught to children as young as five.
Helen Keller
Helen Keller was born in the United States in 1880. She lost both her sight and her hearing at the age of two after she contracted a mystery disease. She could see and hear nothing and could not speak.
When Helen was seven her parents wrote to a school for blind children asking for help to teach her. The school sent a teacher who had worked with deaf and blind people. Her name was Annie Sullivan.
Annie taught Helen words by signing them into her hand. In six months Helen knew 300 words signed into her hand. Annie let Helen touch and smell things so that she learned what they were and eventually she helped her to talk.
At the age of 16 Helen attended a school with sighted and hearing children and took classes in German, English and French. When she left school she went to Radcliffe University, a women's university.
After graduating she decided to become a writer and wrote a very successful book on her life. She and Annie also lectured, telling people all around the world about their story and inspiring others. Helen helped other blind people too by holding lectures to raise money to educate children.
She helped raise awareness of the needs of people who were blind, deaf and disabled.
As well as writing about her own life, Helen also wrote about the life of her "teacher" Annie Sullivan. Helen became world famous for her courage in overcoming her disabilities and for her fight to help others.
In 1948 she visited the only organisation for the blind in New Zealand, the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind.
Helen died in 1968 at the age of 88.
You can find out more at Helen Keller Kids Museum Online.
Activities
A. Now you know a little about the work and achievements of Louis Braille and Helen Keller, why not find out more about their lives!
B. As you have learned people who are blind can do lots of things. You can help raise awareness of what they can achieve by designing a poster that says "VIPS Are Important" and shows some of the things vision impaired people can do.