Alabama installed the first statue honoring a disabled person in the U.S. Capitol on October 7, unveiling a bronze of a 7-year-old Helen Keller at her moment of epiphany when she solved "the mystery of language" without sight or hearing.

The statue — also the only one of a child in the Capitol collection — depicts Keller at her home in Tuscumbia, Ala., as her teacher Anne Sullivan spelled out the word "water" in her hand while pumping water over her other hand.

Keller said the moment "awakened (her) soul" to the potential for her life. She later became an internationally celebrated advocate for those with disabilities. She died in 1968.

To learn more about Helen Keller, please go to http://www.weeklyreader.com/featurezone/crhelenkeller/.

Photo credit: Natacha Pericles

Table of contents image credit: "The Miracle Worker" DVD cover, directed by Arthur Penn