For many disabled people, showing up at a protest requires planning. Will there be an ASL interpreter or will you need to find a volunteer? Will the space be wheelchair accessible? For me, as a Deafblind person, I need a seat or table for my Braille computer and keyboard. Organizers who share detailed accessibility information make it easier for disabled people to join.
Descriptive Transcript
Haben (voiceover): Braille helps me protest, allowing me to read signs that I’m not able to see. Advocate in any way you can, whether that’s standing, sitting, voicing, signing, online or offline.
The video shows Haben and her parents smiling and waving under a majestic redwood. A short wooden border circles the tree, and Haben is sitting on the border with one hand on her Braille computer and her Seeing Eye dog on the ground beside her. The video pans around the park showing hundreds of people of all ages—some sitting, some standing, and some holding signs that say: “Respect the dignity of every human being,” “Fight fascism,” “Hands off the rule of law,” “Don’t tread on our first amendment rights,” “Stop the big ugly betrayal bill,” “Dissent,” and more.
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!
I am excited to deliver a keynote at the University of Hartford on April 9th! The university has generously opened up this event to all, and captioning & ASL interpretation will be provided. Free registration: Spring 2025 Rogow Distinguished Visiting Lecturer – University of Hartford
Eric Dozier is a cultural activist skillfully weaving stories and music to bring people together. He taught me the fascinating history behind Bob Marley’s song, “War.” Back in 1963 Emperor Haile Selassie spoke before the United Nations calling for the end of apartheid. Bob Marley adapted the speech into a song people still play today. … Read more
Dosa cones with heavenly ice cream keep me coming back to Koolfi Creamery. They have Indian-inspired flavors like mango lassi, as well as classics like cookies and cream. Their delicious dosa cones are vegan and gluten-free. You can find Koolfi Creamery in San Francisco and San Leandro, California. Descriptive Transcript Haben and her Seeing Eye … Read more
Fighting discrimination from coast to coast, Deepa Goraya is a disability rights attorney. We met when she was a law student and I was in college wondering if I, too, could go to law school. Deepa generously answered my questions about law school as a blind student, sparking a wonderful friendship. She now lives in … Read more
Some sighted people assume screenreaders and other disability tech does all the work for blind people. Instead of saying “Carla wrote the report”, her manager simply says “she used a screenreader”, as if credit for the report rests with the screenreader. This kind of messaging impacts our hiring and advancement opportunities. When discussing disabled people … Read more
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.
Disabled people bring innovative thinking to organizations, and disabled-owned businesses spark unforgettable experiences. Ziryab hires Deaf and hearing employees, and one of the owners is Deaf. It’s an extremely popular restaurant in Barcelona. Why do you think that is? Descriptive Transcript Haben and her Seeing Eye dog walk along a flagstone, pedestrian street past a … Read more
