Haben Girma: Access, Innovation and Disability Futures

Event and Ticketing Details

Dates & Times

Tuesday 21 April
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM

Location

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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This event has been cancelled as part of our preventative measures to stem the spread of coronavirus COVID-19. If you have tickets for this event, we’ll be in touch with you directly via email.

Find out more about our response to the coronavirus situation here.

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.