Helen Keller first had to overcome her obstacles of learning and obtaining an education herself.  Helen developed a passion for helping others because her teacher, Ms. Sullivan, first helped her.  Ms. Sullivan taught Helen to communicate using the manual alphabet.  She spelled individual letters into Helen's palm to create each word.  Helen received assistance when she was in college using this method.  In addition, Helen learned to speak with special instruction and to write using a special typewriter.  She was able to do more and reach more people through her writing.

Later in life, Helen did fundraising for AFB, the American Foundation for the Blind.  Helen helped to raise money so that organization could assist blind individuals.  Helen also advocated for the United States government to do more to assist the visually impaired.  In part because of Helen's advocacy, blindness became a disability recognized by the government.  This allowed blind people to receive government assistance.  

Helen was also an advocate for Braille.  During Helen's lifetime, there were several different "system[s] of reading and writing for people with vision loss."  Due to Helen's work, Braille became the standard system in 1932.