Meet Haben Girma, the inspirational deafblind Harvard Law grad

Haben Girma is the first ever deafblind student to graduate from Harvard Law – and now she’s become a national inspiration.

Haben, the daughter of an Eritrean refugee, is a disability lawyer, accomplished salsa dancer and surfer. She’s also met Obama and was named a hero by the BBC for her amazing work.

We spoke to Haben about her time at Harvard and how she came to be one of America’s top lawyers.

How did you find Harvard Law School during your time there?

During my time there, the Dean of Students Office helped by converting materials into accessible formats. When materials were handed out in class they would convert into digital formats like Microsoft Word, which I would then read with my computer.

For blind students, it’s helpful when universities provide materials in accessible formats, and accessible means different things for different people, but there are online standards that explain what accessible means. For apps, the website is the BBC Standard Disability Guidelines.

There is also an app called Screen Reader, which converts digital information into synthesized speech and digital braille. All Apple devices have Screen Reader built in. Anyone can put their iPhone in Screen Reader Mode and you can navigate just by listening to the iPhone.

Tell us more about your work as a disability lawyer.

The vast majority of information online has access barriers, and those access barriers limit the disabled community’s ability to access information for employment, education, self-growth, so what I’m working is to have organizations make policies to ensure that their digital services are accessible.

One example of that is the Scribd case, which involves making a digital library accessible to the blind community.

How did the opportunity come about for you to meet Obama and what was it like?

I’m very connected in the disability community, and part of being a good advocate/leader is being very involved in the community, so through this involvement people hear about me, they see my TED Talk, and through that the White House knew about my work and invited me to speak.

So what was it liked to be named a hero by BBC?

Like everyone, it’s exciting and rewarding to have your work recognized. I’ve been advocating for the disability community for years, so it’s nice to get that recognition, and with that recognition comes a lot of education for the community.

So I saw many messages from people around the world expressing appreciation for learning about the BBC Global Accessible Standards and Guidelines, and becoming more aware that digital services should be made accessible.

The biggest barrier for people with disabilities is attitude, and a lot of the world treats disability as a principle problem. Disability is a social construct and it is shaped by the environment.

If we design an environment that is fully accessible, wheelchair accessible, accessible digital services, interpreters, closed captioning, then disability is no big deal, it won’t be a barrier.

Our principle focus should be on having the attitude to want to make our environment as inclusive as possible.

We read that you were involved in some active hobbies, can you tell us about that?

My disability or anybody’s disability is never a barrier. Disability is never a barrier, but a community can become a barrier.

The salsa dance community in San Francisco is very welcoming, so I am able to engage in salsa dancing and have fun (when I’m not working), but in other parts of the world, the dance community may not be as welcoming and inclusive, so it’s all about our community, and it’s our choice.

Do we want our community to be inclusive and welcome people, or not? And that’s really the big question.

Can you tell us about your current projects and what you’re doing to help foster inclusiveness?

My primary focus of work is access to digital information and inclusiveness in the digital community, but there are many other disability rights’ advocates who focus on physical spaces, such as buildings, or who focus on policies that preclude people with certain disabilities from participating in certain social groups. All of work supports each other and helps to make communities more inclusive.

What are the most common misconceptions people have towards you and what do you think they should know?

People often assume that disability is a barrier and find me inspirational because they subscribe to the story that I “overcame” my disability, when actually it’s the environment, the community, that can act as barriers.

I was fortunate to be in communities that were very inclusive, an education system, a university, an employment setting, even social settings like dancing that are very inclusive, so it’s all about the environment and community, and it’s up to all of us to make our community as accessible as possible.

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At the end of the interview, she switched roles and asked us a very thought-provoking question:

Do you guys have examples or experiences from your own lives that highlight barriers presented by community?

We see in our school system that certain students learn differently, and the school system seems to have a very one-size-fits-all approach.

Students who require more personalized, different ways of teachings don’t receive that, and they are often held back, not because of them, but because of the inability of the school system to adapt and to be more inclusive of various teaching styles.

Even in higher education we see this problem, and it just goes to show how widespread these issues really are.