Haben Girma: Access, Innovation and Disability Futures

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Haben Girma is hugely accomplished by any standards. She’s a Harvard Law School graduate. She’s been featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30. She’s been honoured by Barack Obama. She’s an attorney who, at 26, was part of a legal team that won a landmark federal anti-discrimination court case in the United States.

Girma is also deafblind – in fact, she is the first deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School. Girma communicates using a wireless typewriter and braille system she developed herself. And the landmark court case saw her representing the National Federation of the Blind against Scribd and forcing the e-book and audiobook subscription service to make its materials accessible to blind people. 

In conversation with Sally Warhaft, Girma will discuss her new memoir, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law. What are the new frontiers in disability law and technology? How can people without disabilities become smarter – more aware, more imaginative and more flexible – so that everyone can benefit more from the talents and knowledge of people with disabilities?

This event will be Auslan interpreted and live-captioned.