American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
Future Reflections Special Issue on Ethnic and Cultural Diversity REVIEWS
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law
by Haben Girma
Reviewed by Marilyn Green
From the Editor: Marilyn Green is a library associate with the Chicago Public Library system. She serves as second vice president of the NFB of Illinois.
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law
by Haben Girma
Grand Central Publishing, 2019, 288 pages
ISBN: 9781549181702
Available in paperback, Kindle, and Audible editions
Available on Bookshare and from NLS/BARD as DB96188
Deaf and blind, female, and Ethiopian—these are a few characteristics of Haben Girma, author of Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law. In vignette-style chapters, Girma captivates the reader with narrative scenes of loving parents, travel adventures, and academic hardship and success.
Themes of self-advocacy and daring expeditions run through the pages of this memoir. Born female and deafblind to immigrants from Eritrea and Ethiopia, Girma challenges her parents to trust her instincts and support her quest for independence. Guided by curiosity and an eagerness to prove her full capacity, Girma attempts to demonstrate her bravery by confronting a bull in Asmara, Eritrea; works with high school students to build a school in Mali, West Africa; and sharpens her blindness skills at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. These experiences instill a positive attitude about blindness and build a sense of confidence that ultimately serves Girma as she meets ablist thinking and navigates what it means to be deafblind in spaces that cater to the sighted and hearing population.
Girma peppers her autobiography with memories of confronting ablism on her college campus. From social settings to workplaces and places of public accommodation, Girma presents meaningful accounts of the subtle and sometimes overt biases that complicate equal access and opportunity for the blind. Girma employs persuasive arguments, a polite demeanor, and an appreciation and understanding of the Americans with Disabilities Act in her efforts to achieve equality, opportunity, and security.
Readers are taken on a series of journeys, international and domestic, daring and conventional, academic and social in Haben Girma's memoir. The challenges of navigating hearing and sighted spaces and her successes with self-advocacy fill the pages of this memoir, which connects its readers to four communities through the journey of one.
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