How a courageous deafblind woman became a Lawyer

When you think of someone who is deaf you probably think how challenging it is for them to communicate with people who cannot use sign language and can only communicate through the use of some type of translation service. When you think of someone who is blind you may well think unless they have someone that can describe what is in front of them they will not be able to have a full understanding of what is in front of them as opposed to someone with good eyesight. Now when you think of someone who is deaf and blind can you imagine they would someday graduate from one of the most prestigious and competitive law schools in the world, even more become a lawyer and be recognised by the president of the United States? Well this is exactly what an inspiring lady called Haben Girma has achieved.

To understand Habenn Girma’s story you first need to understand the term deafblindness. It is a condition where a person has little to no sight and little to no hearing. Different types of deafblindness exist and people affected by this use different tools/technology to communicate, for example someone who is born deaf and later in life develops blindness are most likely to use communication methods such as interpreting services including sign language interpreters. Other deafblindness forms of communication include braille equipment such as telebraille and graphic braille. With the continued advancement in technology for the deafblind Habenn manages to communicate effectively with the use of a digital braille device.

Haben was born in the US after her mother moved from Eritrea as a refugee with her brother who is also deafblind. Haben graduated from college in 2010 after studying a BA in Sociology/Anthropology. She then went on to study at the sought after Harvard Law School where she became the first deafblind student to graduate from the institution. Haben is now an attorney for the disabilities rights advocated in Berkeley California representing people with mobility disabilities and “Representing the National Federation of the Blind in an action seeking to render Scribd’s reading subscription service accessible”. Outside her work as an attorney Haben often attends speaking events as a guest speaker and has presented keynote speaches for Google and also delivered a TED speech at the TEDxBaltimore 2014. Haben is a keen surfer and was recently featured in the Washington post.