Those of us fortunate enough to have our sight and hearing probably couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live without either sense. Yet this is reality for around 2% of the world’s population – though, of course, there are variations in the severity of the disability, and it can be from birth or acquired later in life.
Ragnhild Tollefsdatter Kåta was born on 23rd May 1873 with five fully-functioning senses. She was the illegitimate child of Gjertrud Halstensdatter and Ole Kaataejet, though, for unknown reasons, the priest wrote down the name of Ole’s younger brother, Tollef, as her father, and he was as such for Ragnhild’s life. Her parents married in due course and the family, soon to be expanded with another daughter, Gjertrud, settled at Tollef’s family home, Kaata-Ejet, in the district of Valdres, Norway.
They lived in poverty, struggling with food and illness, and in late-1876/early-1877, a three-and-a-half year old Ragnhold caught scarlet fever. Valdres was mountainous and, in the dark months of winter, it was hard for the physician to tend to the district’s many sick children. By the time he was able to visit Ragnhild, the damage had already been done; though she fortunately would not die from the illness, she lost both her sight and her hearing, as well as her senses of smell and taste. Any progress towards speech she had made in her toddler years soon faded.
The family continued to struggle, with at least four other children joining Ragnhild and her sister. Tollef was often away at work, earning what little he could to feed his growing family, and the children had very little in the way of clothes; Ragnhild allegedly owned just one dress, which she wore inside out during the week to appear more presentable at church.
During this time, Ragnhild’s story was being spread by people who were invested in giving her an education. A piece written in 1887 by teacher and author Hallvard Bergh in the newspaper Verdens Gang caught particular attention and funds were raised for the family. Pioneer of deaf education Lars Havstad, himself deaf, read the article and advised Bergh to contact his brother-in-law, Elias Hofgaard, who was administrator of the Hamar Institute for the Deaf.
(Photo: Ukjent | Anno Domkirkeodden)
The state agreed to pay for Ragnhild’s education and she began school on 15th January 1888, aged 14. At the time, she was extremely cautious around strangers, to the point where she would react violently if they came close. It took time, but eventually Hofgaard managed to build a trusting relationship with her and he set to teaching her using the ‘speaking method’, currently known as oralism. This technique involves using lip reading and mimicking shapes and patterns of speech to educate deaf students. It was surprising to many that Hofgaard used this method, as there had never been a known case of someone with deafblindness learning how to speak. But, he reasoned, speech would be of more use to Ragnhild than, for example, fingerspelling.
Ragnhild learned through placing her fingers on Hofgaard’s lips and her thumb on his throat to feel the movements and vibrations as he spoke. Despite Ragnhild’s impatience to learn, Hofgaard took his time, focusing on perfecting each sound before they moved on.
It paid off and Ragnhild began to thrive. She came out of her shell, becoming an outgoing young woman, and, alongside learning to speak perfectly, she became skilled at knitting, embroidery, and dancing and she was later able to earn money through selling her crafts. She could also write, and read Braille, and she understood other people through placing her fingers on their lips.
This story of a girl from the mountains of Norway began to spread internationally, aided by the community in the US of people from Valdres who had emigrated in search of a better life. One such article (also written by Lars Havstad) reached deaf educator Mary Swift Lamson, who visited the Hamar school in the 1890s. Neither spoke the other’s language; nevertheless, Lamson was deeply impressed by Ragnhild and, upon her return to the US, visited another young deafblind girl – Helen Keller.
Keller was learning fingerspelling at the time, but after hearing Ragnhild’s story, she became determined to speak herself.
“Mrs. Lamson had scarcely finished telling me about this girl’s success before I was on fire with eagerness. I resolved that I, too, would learn to speak.”
Helen Keller, 1905
Ragnhild moved back to live with her mother and seven siblings (plus another on the way) when her father died. Hofgaard visited her regularly until he suffered a biking accident in 1904. He died two years later in a railway accident on 15th November 1906, aged 49.
As for Ragnhild, she lived with a sister for a while after her mother’s death, then spent her final ten years at a home for deaf and deafblind people in Hamar. She died on 12th February 1947, aged 73, after suffering a bout of bronchitis. Her legacy, however, lived on.
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