I have very few books shelved under "law," and I think most of them are memoirs! I'm sorry, but with the best will in the world I find a lot of legal writing to be very dry - albeit very important - so having it featured in memoirs is like a pill in jam... I can learn about it and appreciate the more consumable coating at the same time.

That coating, here, is a chatty and thoughtful memoir from a deafblind woman who attends Harvard Law School and ends up working as a disability advocate. I read Helen Keller's autobiography last year, I think, and the difference between the two books is profound, and a real argument for the improvements that technology can make in a person's life. The technical set-up described here, where a person can type into a wireless keyboard and have their words pop up in Braille on Haben's screen, is fascinating. What a great way to increase communication and accessibility! I'm strongly tempted to go to YouTube and see if there's a video that shows me how it works... which is getting a little off-track for a review, but there you go, I was interested. I think I was more interested in that than Maxine the guide dog, and considering how much I like animals that is saying something.

Anyway, back to the book: it's a very tightly focused account of living with disability, including the challenges and ways of perceiving the world that result. It's particularly accessible in the way that it talks about this; on the other hand the prose is competent but not terribly lyrical - which is why I'm giving it three and a half stars, rather than four. Still genuinely worth reading, though!