Haben is Haben Girma’s memoir, she’s a disability rights advocate and the first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School. Girma is such a funny, thoughtful person and this book was a treat to read. I love that she tells her story in present tense, and from her childhood in Oakland, California and Eritrea through college, Harvard, and beyond in disability advocacy, I could not put this book down!⁣
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I learned so much, especially about alternative techniques that Deafblind (and Deaf and blind) people use to navigate the world and complete tasks. I admit that as much as I aim to not be ableist, it’s easy to assume that things I rely on vision and/or hearing for wouldn’t be possible without those senses. But that’s absolutely not the case. It’s my worldview and imagination that are limited here, and I relished all the ways I was challenged in my assumptions throughout my reading. ⁣
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Writing about Hellen Keller, Girma says “Helen’s disability didn’t hold her back, nor did her gender; it was the community at Harvard that chose to create barriers for women.” Throughout this book she successfully deconstructs the common notion that disabilities hold people back, arguing that barriers are caused by society refusing to accommodate alternative techniques, and people being unwilling or unable to envision disabled people as competent. This was such a powerful moment in the book for me, as she eloquently connects that concept to marginalization more broadly.⁣