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Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman | |
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| Born | December 21, 1829 |
| Died | May 24, 1889 (aged 59) |
| Resting place | Dana Cemetery, Hanover, New Hampshire |
| Education | Perkins School for the Blind |
Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman (December 21, 1829 – May 24, 1889) was the first deaf-blind American child to gain a significant education in the English language, forty-five years before the more famous Helen Keller; Laura's friend Anne Sullivan became Helen Keller's aide.[note 1] Bridgman was left deaf-blind at the age of two after contracting scarlet fever. She was educated at the Perkins Institution for the Blind where, under the direction of Samuel Gridley Howe, she learned to read and communicate using Braille and the manual alphabet developed by Charles-Michel de l'Épée.[3]
For several years, Bridgman gained celebrity status when Charles Dickens met her during his 1842 American tour and wrote about her accomplishments in his American Notes. Her fame was short-lived however, and she spent the remainder of her life in relative obscurity, most of it at the Perkins Institute, where she passed her time sewing and reading books in Braille.
- ^ Cader-Nascimento, Fátima Ali Abdalah Abdel; da Costa, Maria da Piedade Resende (October 2003). "A prática educacional com crianças surdocegas" [Educational practice with deafblind children]. Temas Em Psicologia. 11 (2). ISSN 1413-389X. Archived from the original on 2010-11-10. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
- ^ Collins, M. T. T. T. (1995). "History of Deaf-Blind Education". The Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness. 89 (3): 210–212. doi:10.1177/0145482X9508900304.
- ^ Mahoney, Rosemary (May 2014). "The Education of Laura Bridgman". Slate. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
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