The Story of My life
On the 29th and 30th of June, 1899, Helen took her final examinations for Radcliffe. Mr. Eugene C. Vining, an instructor at the Perkins Institution for the Blind, was employed to copy the papers for her in American Braille. The Braille worked well enough in the languages. It did not work well in the case of geometry and algebra. Helen was badly perplexed because she had used only the English Braille in her algebra. The symbols in the American Braille were different from those in the English Braille. Helen was not familiar with its signs. Mr. Keith had relied too much on her ability to solve problems mentally, so she was very slow in her work. She had to read the examples repeatedly to understand what she was required to do. She was not sure if she really read the signs correctly. Mr. Keith could not help her. Helen remained confused. The administrative board of Radcliffe made the examination very difficult for her, knowingly or unknowingly. However, she overcame all obstacles and cleared her exams.