Haben Girma

Love in the Lead: International Guide Dog Day

It’s International Guide Dog Day! Please share this video and encourage people to support The Seeing Eye. You can volunteer to help raise Seeing Eye puppies or make a donation by going to SeeingEye.org.

Descriptive Transcript

A German Shepherd dog on a big fluffy bed gazes toward the camera with his ears pointed. Beside him is a toy bone.

Haben (voiceover): Is this a guide dog or a Seeing Eye dog? Let’s learn the facts so we don’t step on any paws. 

Haben Girma, a Black woman in her thirties with long dark hair, wears a colorful dress. She stands in front of closed blue curtains, speaking to the camera.

Haben: There are schools all over the world that train dogs to guide blind people, but the oldest school is called The Seeing Eye, and it’s in Morristown, New Jersey. Only dogs from The Seeing Eye should be called Seeing Eye dogs.

Danielle Burton, a white woman in her thirties with long brown hair, wears a floral vest over a pink shirt, light-colored pants, and a backpack with an attached dog bowl. She walks while holding the leather harness connecting her to her Seeing Eye dog.

Danielle (voiceover): Danielle is walking down an unpaved road. She is being guided by her Seeing Eye dog Violet, who is a black Labrador Retriever. Violet is navigating various obstacles.

Violet steps cautiously on a forest trail covered in twigs and roots. Above them, the treetops glow golden in the evening sun.  

The video returns to Haben speaking.

Haben: Because of our civil rights laws, just about anywhere the public can go guide dogs can go. I was at a cafe the other day and they said no dogs allowed. But someone else in line saw this and they spoke up and said actually, you have to allow service dogs. This is a service dog. I love when bystanders become allies! You help make our world more accessible when you advocate for the people around you.

Kiran Kaja, a tall man in his forties with medium brown skin and short black hair, wears a blue shirt, light-colored pantss, and a backpack. He walks with a Golden Retriever Seeing Eye dog. 

Kiran (voiceover): My guide dog India is professionally trained by The Seeing Eye to help blind people like me independently navigate the world. Here he is confidently guiding me through a produce aisle in the grocery store without getting distracted by all the fresh food around him.

India walks beside open refrigerated shelves of vegetables. He continues past Haben and Mylo, her German Shepherd Seeing Eye dog, and India stays entirely focused on guiding Kiran.

The video cuts to a commuter train pulling into a station. Haben stands on the platform with her Seeing Eye dog Mylo.

Haben (voiceover): Lots of dogs can memorize routes, but Seeing Eye dogs are so well trained they can guide in places they’ve never been before. Seeing Eye dog Mylo takes cues from me. I need to know which train to take, and once it arrives then I can tell him to help us find the door.

When Haben gestures with her hand Mylo swiftly guides them to the nearest door. He waits for her to find the step, and then they both climb inside the train.

The video cuts to Haben speaking.

Haben: Thousands of hours and dollars go into training these amazing dogs. The Seeing Eye is a registered charity, and if you’d like to make a donation or volunteer your time, go to SeeingEye.org. It’s International Guide Dog Day, so please share this video and encourage people to support The Seeing Eye.

As cities embrace bicycles, let’s not forget pedestrians. Thousands of bikes parked on sidewalks in Amsterdam force pedestrians into streets where they face even more bikes. Seeing Eye dog Mylo rose to the challenge, and I felt safer having him by my side. It’s my hope city planners around the world design obstruction-free pedestrian pathways, and implement policies so they stay barrier-free.

Seeing Eye Dog Mylo Navigates Amsterdam

Descriptive Transcript

Seeing Eye dog Mylo and Haben, wearing a puffy purple coat, walk down a red brick sidewalk.

Haben: Amsterdam’s narrow, crowded streets energize my guide dog Mylo! He weaves through the people.

Mylo and Haben quickly approach a group of three people who part to let them through.

Haben: Vans half on the sidewalk, he glides past them.

Mylo navigates around a large delivery van that has two tires up on the sidewalk. 

Haben: The really hard part… all the bikes! 

Mylo pauses as three bikes zip past us. He cautiously maneuvers around parked bikes on the sidewalk. 

Haben: So many bikes! And they pop up quickly. From behind. From in front, from all directions!

Mylo looks over his shoulder, then swings his body protectively in front of Haben. A biker zooms by. After the bike passes, Mylo continues walking.

Haben: A lot of the paths where we were walking were shared with bikes. On one sidewalk, the street was on one side and on the other side the canal. But between us and the canal, is a railing, and hundreds of bikes were using that railing as their bike rack. 

A line of parked bikes face boats floating in the canal. On the street, a car – followed by a moped – makes a slow turn to avoid a group of people on bikes.

Haben: As we were walking down, a person coming towards us had to step into the street to go around because the sidewalk plus the bikes just didn’t have enough room. 

Mylo keeps Haben on the narrow sidewalk as people step into the street to get around.

Haben: Then Mylo stops. I reach down…

She touches his nose and he nudges her hand toward the object.

Haben: …and it’s a bike! Of course, it’s Amsterdam!

Haben Girma and Mychal Threets: The Mental Health and Disability Connection

Thank you to the Berkeley Public Library for hosting this conversation between Haben Girma and Mychal Threets! This clip is an excerpt from the library’s YouTube page.

Video description

Haben, Mychal, and an ASL interpreter sit in the front of a large room.

Haben, a black woman in her 30s, wears a colorful flowing dress. Her long black hair cascades over her shoulders. She reads from a braille computer on her lap as Mychal speaks. Mychal, a man in his 30s with brown skin and braids, smiles and speaks expressively. On the far right sits the interpreter, an older woman who is wearing a black shirt that contrasts with her light skin and hair.

Mychal: So someone has asked, “Do you think mental health and disabilities have a connection?”

Haben: Absolutely! One of the things I advocate for is teaching people that psychiatric disabilities are also protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And if you need accommodations due to psychiatric disabilities, mental health, you have a legal right to them, and you can ask for them.

And another piece of this is that ableism creates exhaustion, stress. It can trigger depression, it can create anxiety. For example, I get denied rides by taxis, Lyft and Uber regularly. And when I call one I’m nervous that there might be another denial.

So ableism, again, which is the belief and practice of treating disabled people as inferior to nondisabled people, that can definitely trigger and exacerbate mental health issues. So when we are working to remove ableism from our communities and make our communities more accessible, we’re also supporting the mental health of our communities.

Mychal: So I suffer from a great deal of mental health things. I suffer from depression. I suffer from anxiety. I suffer from panic attacks. I suffer from nightmares…nightmare disorders, and I suffer from PTSD. And I’m also currently on my own journey to discover if I’m diagnosed with autism and/or ADHD. So I deal with mental health for quite a bit. I’ve dealt with it since I was – now I know since I was eight years old, so I’ve had a long journey with mental health. And I mentioned all that to say I didn’t realize that a lot of people consider mental health to be a disability until I met Haben at the White House.

I was lucky enough. It was, it was Haben’s birthday. When we were at the White House. And I got to go to her birthday party, which is the unofficial bucket list item to go to Haben Girma’s birthday party. And I met her, I met her brilliant friends, which Haben is a brilliant person, and her friends are equally brilliant. We were talking about mental health, and they were emphatic in saying mental health is a disability, can be a disability. It is Disabled. And I think that’s a connection that we don’t often talk about.

Sensory Gardens: Ireland Versus Sweden

Dreaming of a garden oasis? Allow me to share my experiences visiting the Garden for the Blind in Dublin, Ireland, and a sensory garden in Lund, Sweden. Each one teaches an accessibility feature communities can add to create beautiful, multisensory gardens.  

Descriptive Transcript

Haben wears a short-sleeved navy blue dress, with her elbow resting on a smooth stone wall. Her hair and the vibrant green plants behind her sway gently in the wind.

Haben: This is the first time I’ve found Braille labels in a garden. And we have a metal plaque here with Braille: English, scientific name, and then the common name. 

She turns to face the rock wall and places her hands on the metal plaque. A photo of the metal plaque appears on screen. Along the top is a row of Braille, and below that are the scientific and common names in large print.

Haben: And this one is… Rock Rose.

We cut back to the video of Haben facing the camera.

Haben: And the flowers are right behind me.

She gestures to a shrub with thin green leaves and small flowers with delicate pink petals surrounding a yellow center.

Haben: There are about 30 different plants with labels here. We are in St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, Ireland.

The camera pans over a tall garden bed. Plaques line the top of the rock wall, each one with a different plant behind it. Beyond the garden stretches an expansive lawn enjoyed by many people. Some sit on the grass while others soak up the sun from the benches.

Haben: They call it the Garden for the Blind. But when I visited, there were about four people sitting on benches reading books with their eyes. When we design spaces for disabled people, oftentimes nondisabled  people are enjoying them, too!

The scene changes to Haben standing in front of a black curtain wearing a sleeveless navy blue dress.

Haben: If you’re wondering, I did not ask the sighted people to leave the garden. I’m happy to have an accessible garden that’s shared with everyone! Blind people, sighted people… And a few weeks later, I actually found another garden with Braille.

She sits on the wooden frame of a raised garden bed full of small plants. She has Mylo’s leash in one hand and gestures with the other as she talks.

Haben: We found a sensory garden in Lund, Sweden. So there are labels with print and Braille. The print is also raised, so if you can’t read Braille, you can feel the print. And some of these are here because they have an amazing scent. Or in the case of one, an unpleasant scent. And then some of them are here because they have a really cool texture like lamb ears. The labels are in Braille and it’s Swedish Braille. But sometimes you can kind of guess, even if you’re not a Swedish speaker, what’s happening here. So I’m going to read one of these.

She reaches out to a small sign attached to a stick partially submerged in the dirt beside a plant.

Haben: So the label is C-H-O-K-L-A-D M-Y-N-T-A. Chokladmynta? Chocolate mint!

She stands in front of the black curtain, speaking to the camera.

Haben: I want to point out a few differences. The Irish garden had higher garden beds. And that means someone doesn’t have to bend down as much to reach out, to reach the plants or read the sign.

The video shows the tall Irish garden beds with metal plaques secured to the stone walls. The garden beds are about four feet tall.

Haben: But it also means it’s going to be more challenging for people who are shorter, use wheelchairs, or kids. Whereas the Swedish garden also has raised planters, but it’s lower down.

The camera sweeps over one of the Swedish garden beds, showing the low wooden borders, small plants, and their signs that stick up from the soil. The beds are about two feet tall.

Haben: So you’re not completely down on the ground. But it’s at a point where if you’re lower down because you’re a little kid or you’re coming by on a wheelchair, you still are able to reach over and touch a plant or read the Braille sign.

She speaks from the room with the black curtain.

Haben: Another difference is that the signage in the Irish garden is metal, and that’s more durable.

The image of the metal Rock Rose sign appears on screen. It’s followed by a zoomed-in video of Haben’s hand resting on the sign, ready to read.

Haben: So when I was reading the signs, all the dots were there. But in Sweden, some of the dots were missing. I know the Swedish winters are really tough, especially on gardens and on Braille signs. So if you’re not using something as durable as metal, you have to maintain the signs regularly or switch over to something that’s more durable.

She smiles.

Haben: I love traveling because I get to see… or FEEL the different strategies people use all over the world!