Alice Betteridge

Who was Alice Betteridge?

Alice Betteridge is known as the first deafblind child to be educated in Australia.

Born in the Hunter Region to parents George and Emily, Betteridge became blind at the age of two from suspected meningitis. Her mother took her to the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in 1904, but she was thought to be too young, and was sent home after a few months. She returned to the school in 1908, aged 7, to begin her education as the school's first deafblind student.

In a story that echoes that of Helen Keller, Betteridge's teacher Roberta Reid fingerspelled words into her pupil's hand, until Betteridge made the connection between the words spelled and the objects she was touching. The breakthrough came when Reid spelled the word "shoe" while placing a shoe in Alice's hand. Her education then progressed rapidly, and in a few short months she knew 200 nouns and several verbs, including "run," "jump," and "laugh," and soon began learning to read braille. In 1920 when she graduated, she was dux of the school. After graduating she remained at the school as a teacher for 9 years, before leaving Darlinghurst and returning to the family farm in Denman.