This week we tell about Helen Keller. She was blind and deaf but she became a famous writer and teacher.

VOA: special.2009.11.08

That measure freed the slaves in the rebel states of the South, though Lincoln's words fell on deaf ears.

VOA: special.2009.10.15

She never forgot these days. Later in life, she wrote: "No deaf child can ever forget the excitement of his first word.

VOA: special.2009.11.08

Alexander Graham Bell believed one day machines would be invented to help deaf people hear and speak.

VOA: special.2010.05.14

It shows the deaf and blind activist and writer Helen Keller as a young child.

VOA: special.2010.01.27

Only the deaf can understand how I felt when my dog obeyed my spoken command."

VOA: special.2009.11.08

The next year Bell moved to Boston,Massachusetts, to teach at a school for the deaf.

VOA: special.2010.05.14

But it was painful to her family to see their deaf and blind child punished.

VOA: special.2009.11.08

It was a strange sickness that made her completely blind and deaf.

VOA: special.2009.11.08

She helped millions of people who,like her,were blind and deaf.

VOA: special.2009.11.15

For most of his life, Bell worked with deaf people.

VOA: special.2010.05.14

It made her completely blind and deaf.

VOA: special.2009.11.15

Most students at Gallaudet are deaf;

VOA: special.2011.04.13

Considered a hero in the deaf community, Parkin is competing in road cycling at the Taipei Deaflympics.

VOA: standard.2009.09.10

Despite extensive training, few deaf athletes make a name for themselves outside of deaf sporting competition.

VOA: standard.2009.09.10

A bullhorn sounds indicating timeouts. But because the players are deaf, backboard-mounted lights also flash to insure the players knew what was going on.

VOA: standard.2009.09.10

To ensure good communication with the competitors, officials and referees must also be deaf.

VOA: standard.2009.09.10

That helps as the athletes meet deaf people from other countries;

VOA: standard.2009.09.10

An exception is Terence Parkin, a deaf swimmer from South Africa.

VOA: standard.2009.09.10

Green is go. And for example, in taekwondo or judo, when the referee calls a foul, all the lights will start shining" Despite the adaptations, deaf athletes do face additional hurdles.

VOA: standard.2009.09.10

"You have to talk to them." They especially want answers about then Cardinal Ratzinger and his involvement in the transfer of a priest who abused some 200 deaf American children 30 years ago.

VOA: standard.2010.04.01