Haben Girma facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Haben Girma
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Girma in December 2019.
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| Born | July 29, 1988 Oakland, California, U.S.
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| Education | Lewis & Clark College (BA) Harvard University (JD) |
| Occupation | Lawyer Disability rights advocate |
Haben Girma (born July 29, 1988) is an American lawyer and a champion for disability rights. She is the first deafblind person to graduate from the famous Harvard Law School. She works to make the world more accessible for everyone.
Contents
Haben Girma: A Champion for Disability Rights
Early Life and Education
Haben Girma was born in Oakland, California in 1988. Her parents came to the U.S. from Eritrea, a country in Africa. Her mother had to leave Eritrea during a war in 1983. Haben's parents speak three languages: Tigrinya, Amharic, and English.
Growing Up Deafblind
Haben started losing her sight and hearing when she was very young. This was due to a condition that doctors still don't fully understand. She has shared that sometimes she felt left out because the world didn't always remember she was there. Today, she can still see about 1% of what most people see.
School Days and Advocacy
Growing up in the United States, Haben benefited from important laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This law helps make sure people with disabilities have equal opportunities. She also had access to helpful technology, like a special digital Braille device. Her older brother, Mussie, who is also deafblind, did not have this kind of technology when he was in Eritrea.
Haben went to Skyline High School, a regular public school, and finished in 2006. When she was 15, she traveled to Mali in Africa to volunteer. She helped build schools there with an organization called buildOn.
Haben then went to Lewis & Clark College. While there, she successfully argued for her right to have special help in the school cafeteria. She graduated with high honors in 2010. After that, she made history by becoming the first deafblind student to attend and graduate from Harvard Law School in 2013. She has said that many schools didn't know how to teach her, and some even told her she wouldn't succeed. But she proved them wrong!
Her Career as a Lawyer
In 2013, Haben joined an organization called Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) in California. She worked there as a lawyer, helping people with disabilities.
Fighting for Digital Access
Haben became a lawyer partly because she wanted to help more people with disabilities get access to books and other digital information. She believes that digital information, which is just computer code, can be changed into many forms. She hopes that people who create websites and apps will make them easy for everyone to use, including those with disabilities.
One important case she worked on was against a company called Scribd in 2014. Scribd is a digital library. Haben represented a group that said Scribd wasn't accessible for blind readers, which went against the Americans with Disabilities Act. Scribd argued that the ADA only applied to physical places, not online businesses. However, a court ruled in 2015 that the ADA *does* cover online businesses. Scribd then agreed to make its content accessible for blind readers. Haben says, "I found my voice when I was given the tools to learn."
Meeting President Obama
Haben has given many talks to share her message. In 2014, she gave a TEDx talk in Baltimore. She even spoke up to TED itself because not all of their videos had captions for deaf people.
In 2015, Haben was asked to join the board of trustees for the Helen Keller Services for the Blind. On July 20, 2015, she met with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House. She spoke about how important accessible technology is. This meeting was to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In 2016, Haben left her job at DRA to focus full-time on her advocacy work. She also gave a talk about accessible design at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. In 2018, she wrote an article for The Washington Post about a decision to remove Helen Keller from a school curriculum. The decision was later changed.
In August 2019, Haben wrote a book about her life called Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law.
Personal Interests
Haben Girma loves to be active! She enjoys many physical activities like surfing, rock climbing, kayaking, cycling, and dancing.
Awards and Recognition
Haben Girma has received many awards for her important work:
- 2013 – Recognized by the Obama administration as a Champion of Change.
- 2016 – Named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Law & Policy.
- 2016 – Named one of the Top 30 Thinkers Under 30 by Pacific Standard magazine.
- 2017 – Cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine.
