http://www.thebetterindia.com/74792/haben-girma-america-harvard-law-school-advocate/
Story of Grit & Grace: Haben Girma, First Deaf-Blind Student to
Graduate from Harvard Law School
Tanaya Singh
November 12, 2016
Disability, Education
>From being the first deaf-blind student to graduate from Harvard Law
School to becoming an internationally acclaimed accessibility leader
and lawyer, Haben Girma’s journey exemplifies grit, grace, and
gravity.
Haben Girma’s story begins in Eritrea, Africa, where her mother Saba
Gebreyesus grew up amidst the country’s war for independence from
Ethiopia. Saba fled to America as a teenager seeking a better life and
Haben was born in the year 1988 in California. Today, she is a
28-year-old deaf-blind advocate, full of gratitude for receiving the
chance of growing up in the US. In this country she has found numerous
opportunities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990
that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities and
protects their rights.
These opportunities included access to education and technology –
things that her elder brother, also born deaf-blind, didn’t get in
Africa.
“When my grandmother took my brother to a school in East Africa, they
told her that deaf-blind children can’t go to school. There was simply
no chance. When my family moved to the US, and I was also born
deaf-blind, they were amazed by the opportunities afforded by ADA…for
my grandmother back in Africa, my success seemed like magic. For all
of us here, we know that people will disabilities succeed not by magic
but through opportunities,” Haben said in her speech at the White
House during her introductory remarks for the 25th anniversary of ADA.
She attended mainstream public schools in Oakland and used to leave
her classes for an hour every day to learn Braille. Later, Haben went
on to do B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology from Lewis & Clark College in
Portland. “The schools I attended as a child practiced inclusion.
These were mainstream public schools with a diverse population. The
teachers provided Braille instruction and all other accommodations I
needed. All students deserve access. But a lot of schools today choose
not to practise inclusion. We need to change this,” she says.
Speaking about her motivation to work in the field of law, Haben says
her personal experiences of facing discrimination inspired her.
She wanted to equip herself with the power to take action. And one of
the many things that propelled her towards advocacy was an incident
that happened at the Lewis & Clark cafeteria.
“The cafeteria had about five different food stations and there was a
menu at the door. People would read the menu and choose what they
wanted to eat. The staff at the cafeteria offered to read me the menu
but I couldn’t hear it. As a blind student, my first choice would be
to read the menu in Braille. That takes time to produce, so we
compromised. The staff agreed to email me the menu at the start of
each meal, and I would be able to read it on my computer using a
screen reader. It was a great idea, but the cafeteria constantly
forgot to email the menus,” she narrated in a TEDx talk in Baltimore.
Instead of ignoring this as just another problem in a world that
favoured people who can hear and see, Haben decided to do something.
She put across her point of view to the manager and talked about her
right to gain access to choices like any other student who was paying
to eat there. But he didn’t pay heed to her requests, asked her to
stop complaining, and told her to be more appreciative. “I don’t know
about you, but if there is chocolate cake at station four and no one
tells me, I don’t feel very appreciative. So, after several incidences
of missed chocolate cake, I had had enough and tried something new.”
Haben exercised her rights under ADA, which states that businesses
should make reasonable accommodations for individuals with
disabilities.
Once she told the manager that she would sue if he didn’t send emails,
he agreed. Other blind students who came to college the year after
that, also benefitted from her fight.
This episode helped Haben realise the importance of enforcing civil
rights laws. She applied for admission to Harvard Law School because
she wanted access to the best resources and training. Today, she uses
a digital Braille display device and a laptop screen reading software
to communicate.
The wireless keyboard sends data via Bluetooth to the Braille display
device and Braille characters form on the display that Haben reads
using her fingers.
“The US government has a programme where they help people with
disabilities prepare for employment. Technology was critical to my
success, so the programme provided this equipment,” she says.
Haben is now working as an attorney at Disability Rights Advocates, a
California-based disability civil rights law firm.
She is trying to help more people with disabilities gain access to
technology by offering accessibility and diversity training,
consulting, and professional speaking services. She also advises
software and technology development companies to help them make their
services more accessible.
Her first and most memorable case as a lawyer was to increase access
to books for blind readers.
She considers it to be a rewarding experience because she was able to
convince a digital library to make their content accessible –
something that she yearned for as a student. “I’m working on making
the world a better place. There are many ways for us to do this –
teaching organizations that disability can also be a valuable asset,
helping increase access to Braille, etc.,” she says.
Haben was also named a White House Champion of Change in 2013. Aside
from her brilliant work as an advocate, she is an avid salsa dancer
and also loves to surf and travel.
While she agrees that technology facilitates greater access to
information, education, and employment, Haben is concerned that it is
not the complete answer for people with disabilities. She feels the
world also needs communities to practise inclusion. Even with the best
technology, people will face discrimination as long as mindsets don’t
change, she says.
She concludes with a message for the many students with disabilities
in India who do not have access to advanced technology and are
fighting to fulfil their dreams, “You have the power to influence your
future. Keep learning, keep developing new ways to engage with the
world, and keep believing that you have talents to share with the
world.”
Haben will be speaking at the India Inclusion Summit to be held in
Bengaluru on November 19. Register here to attend the event.
Received on Sat Nov 12 2016 - 15:42:05 EST