Featured News Home

After eleven years of tapping words into my fingertips and helping me have conversations with people around the world, my braille computer has died. They no longer make this machine, so this is truly farewell. RIP, BrailleNote Apex. I’m planning to send it to the Obama Foundation’s museum. As for me, I’m dealing with the awkward and frustrating process of learning to use a different braille device.

Transcript

My braille computer passed away. It was very sudden and unexpected. I’m going to hold it up. It’s a BrailleNote Apex, for those of you who, who are familiar with braille technology. So QWERTY keyboard at the top. Along the bottom would be braille dots that would come up, but there are no braille dots right now because it passed away.

This thing was with me for eleven years. The last year of college, all through Harvard law school, working at a law firm, speaking, traveling around the world, working on my book. It’s actually amazing it lasted this long. A lot of blind people have teased me for using such an old computer. Cause since 2010, so many new braille computers have come on the market. But all of them — almost all of them — don’t do what I need to do. What I need my braille computer to do is to work with an external keyboard. I use it for communication every day. So people type on a keyboard, a separate external keyboard, and their words pop up in braille on the braille display. I read it on this display and then I respond back by voice, maybe sign language, maybe computers, depending on how we’re conversing and interacting.

And most of the braille computers on the market do not do that. They don’t work with an external keyboard and that greatly limits my access, and all the other deafblind people who also need access. Let me add a quick visual description. So I’m filming in the backyard. You probably noticed all the bird sounds and maybe other outdoor sounds.

My guide dog, German shepherd Mylo is lying down on the patio. There’s a wisteria plant kind of behind and above me, and plants all along the perimeter. Some bamboo, some Jasmine. When my computer stopped working, I reached out to the company that makes it called Humanware and said, “It’s no longer working. Can you fix it?” And they said, unfortunately, they no longer support it. These devices are super important to me. In 2010 the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation of California purchased the device for me because I needed, I needed it for my education. They are expensive: it was somewhere around $5,000. And it was so critical to my access, to my education, that I said, “I need two.” I need a backup one in case the main one I’m using stops working. And throughout the 11 years I’ve had them that did happen. There was a time I was at a conference and a friend spilled her martini. It was a very expensive martini. And fortunately, she also had a braille computer. So for the rest of the conference, she let me borrow her braille computer so that I continued to have access during the conference.

And when I went back home, I was able to switch to my backup BrailleNote and send the other one back in for repairs. So they’ve mostly worked well for eleven years, and then all of a sudden stopped working. My main one and my backup one. I actually don’t know when the backup one stopped working, I only just recently checked it and it wasn’t working either. About two years ago, I was on the Today Show using one of Humanware’s old Apexes. So they reached out to me and said, by the way, we have a new device, it’s called a BrailleNote Touch, and we’d like you to give us feedback. So I got one of those. It was incredibly generous of them because these are very expensive.

So I’m holding up the BrailleNote Touch and it has a braille keyboard at the top. Along the bottom is, uh, the display. And my feedback was that it’s bigger, and heavier, and I preferred my Apex. So I hung on to it as a backup and continued to use my Apex. Weight and size matters when you are carrying the device everywhere all the time. That weight on my shoulder, this device plus the keyboard, that adds up over time and gets really exhausting.

So my ideal device is light and small and fits in my bag, and it’s easy to carry around. Because they no longer support the Apex, I now have to start using the BrailleNote Touch, and I’m, I’m just learning to use it. Now I’m going to have to get a bigger bag so that it can fit because it’s bigger and heavier.

It has a braille keyboard instead of a QWERTY keyboard. Some people actually argue that it’s faster to type in braille, on a braille keyboard rather than on a QWERTY keyboard. Sometimes. Yeah, because you have contractions and contractions allow you to type faster compared to QWERTY. There is one other device out on the market that I know of that will work with an external keyboard.

And those are the BrailleSense notetakers, braille computers from a company called HIMS. And unfortunately I’ve heard that those devices, the braille that comes out when you are using the external keyboard is only in grade one. That is a lot slower than grade two braille. I can read grade one, but it slows me down.

And when I’m having a conversation or accessing information, I’d like it to be as efficient as possible. I’d love to have a smaller, lighter braille computer that will work with an external keyboard. Maybe one day that’ll be an option, but until then, you’ll notice that I’ll be using the BrailleNote Touch with a braille keyboard instead of my BrailleNote Apex.

Last year, someone from the Obama Foundation asked if I would like to contribute my braille computer for their museum. It would be incredible to have one of my braille computers at the museum because I took it to the White House when I was meeting with President Obama and President Joe Biden back in 2015.

And I said, I’m really, really sorry, but Humanware doesn’t make the BrailleNote Apex anymore. And this is the best device for me right now. So I need to hang on to it. But if it stops working… That time has come. So maybe you’ll be able to see this device at their museum.

Mattel had the chance to tell kids you can have a facial difference and be a role model, but instead they erased a big part of Helen Keller’s life. I wish toy companies created affirming dolls for disabled kids.

Transcript

Haben speaking, hello! A new Barbie doll came out with Helen Keller and this Helen Keller has perfectly symmetrical eyes. The real Helen Keller when she was a kid and in her twenties did not have symmetrical eyes. One of her eyes drooped, and back then she and the people around her would have her be in profile in photos to try to hide one of her eyes.

So this new doll shows her with perfectly symmetrical eyes, essentially erasing her real lived experiences, which is a harmful message for blind kids today, and even blind adults. I have asymmetrical eyes. My eyes dance and kids teased me when I was younger. Today, adults often tell me to hide my eyes under dark glasses. It’s frustrating and disappointing that this new Barbie doll erases that part of Helen Keller’s experiences.

Another thing I want to point out is that the doll comes with a book that says, “Braille.” So the book says braille, which doesn’t make any sense. It feels like a token. It would be like a print book that says, “Print.” It doesn’t make any sense. It’s very tokenized. It sounds like it’s a doll for sighted girls. What sighted people would imagine for blind people rather than a doll for actual blind kids. I’m really disappointed with this, and I wish blind kids had access to more toys and dolls that actually represent our real experiences.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is May 20th, and throughout the month accessibility advocates will be introducing more people to inclusive design. If you are new to digital accessibility, beware of companies claiming to provide quick and easy automated accessibility “solutions.” An alarming number of companies, nonprofits, and government agencies have fallen for this. Millions of dollars have poured into this. Artificial intelligence only works in limited situations and is nowhere near the point where we can rely on it for all our accessibility needs. Avoid AccessiBe, AudioEye, EqualWeb, User1st, UserWay, & other services claiming to provide automated web accessibility “solutions.”

I made this video to alert those new to digital accessibility.

Over 400 accessibility experts and allies signed the Overlay Fact Sheet, a document describing the harms caused by these services.

May you continue learning about digital accessibility this month, and all year long!

Transcript

Haben speaking. Hello! There are companies out there that are claiming you can add one line of code to your website, and it’ll be fully accessible to blind and disabled people. Beware of companies claiming to use AI solutions to make websites accessible. AI is a tool, and right now it’s extremely limited in what it can do for accessibility.

I gave examples of auto-captioning in my last video. Auto-captioning turns my name, Haben Girma, into “happen grandma.” Imagine if you are a deaf person relying on the captioning and it’s auto-captioning. You miss out on key terms, important details, if you’re only relying on AI based solutions like auto-captioning.

So it’s a myth out there that you can rely on AI for all your accessibility needs. AI is great in certain, very specific situations, but these companies out there—there are many of them, so it’s not just one—they’re claiming you can add one line of code and then your website will be accessible given their AI-based accessibility solutions. It’s extremely frustrating to me, and many of my blind friends, that millions of dollars are being poured into these companies.

One of these companies is called AccessiBe, and I went to their website. I’m blind, I’m a screenreader user. So I navigate websites using a screenreader, and on their own website I encountered barriers. If I’m finding barriers on their own website, how can I trust them to make other websites accessible? I don’t. I don’t trust them to make other websites accessible and I’m not the only one.

Over 400 accessibility experts and allies have signed a document describing the harms these services cause. Beware of companies claiming to use AI-based solutions to make websites accessible. Avoid these companies. Take full responsibility for accessibility. Disabled people are 1 billion people around the world. That’s a huge market. When you invest in accessibility, you get more customers, more revenue in the long run, and your product is better overall. Invest in real accessibility solutions.

If you’re organizing a virtual event, plan to include captioning. Deaf people deserve access, too. If you invite two accessibility lawyers to speak AND still don’t provide captioning… Annapolis, we have a problem.

A link to my memoir, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law

Transcript

Haben speaking. Hello! Something wild happened today. Several months back the Annapolis Book Festival invited me to talk about my book, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law. And my friend, a disability rights lawyer, Lainey Feingold would talk to me about my book and accessibility.

So today, 30 minutes before that conversation was scheduled to start, the festival tells us there isn’t going to be any captioning. Two accessibility lawyers are invited to an event to talk about accessibility, and they’re told there won’t be any captioning! The lack of captioning excludes deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

It’s one of the ways to provide access. So all attendees, whether deaf or hearing, can participate. It also helps a lot of people who are in sound-off situations for whatever reason, so that they could also have access to the c≈aptioning. So I told the event, I’m not going to participate. I’m not going to give a talk.

if there’s no captioning. When I was in law school, one of the biggest lessons was sometimes you have to give a firm “No.” This can be hard for a lot of people. There is a lot of focus on working together, collaborating, but sometimes you need to provide a firm, “No.” And that firm no can lead to solutions and collaborations down the line.

When I said no to giving a talk in an inaccessible environment, they started to take captioning more seriously. A lot of people deprioritize captioning. I can understand organizers feeling overwhelmed with so many things you need to do for an event, but captioning is not something you can shove to the bottom of the list.

It needs to be prioritized. So about 20 minutes before the session was supposed to start, they started looking into captioning options. There are auto-captioning services. Zoom supports auto-captioning. The problem with this is that it’s riddled with errors. My name is often misinterpreted to “happen.”

I’m not “happen” I’m Haben. And if you’re trying to read the captions, to access the event just through the captions, a lot of things are misunderstood and confused. And that’s not fair. There are situations where I can understand why someone would use auto-captioning. Maybe they truly don’t have the resources to pay for professional captioning.
But I strongly recommend, please use professional captioning services. MIT and Harvard were sued because they were posting many videos without captions, which denies access to deaf and hard of hearing people. And the schools tried to argue, “Hey, there are captions!” And they pointed to the auto-captions.

Auto-captioning is not equal. Auto-captioning is not equivalent to accurate, professional captions. So this is a reminder for festival hosts, event organizers: prioritize captioning. It’s not optional. And, lawsuits are extremely expensive and time consuming. Learn from Harvard and MIT’s mistakes. If you don’t know how to caption your events, ask! Research.

There are lots of resources out there. Many tools to choose from. Prioritize accessibility. Access for deaf and hard of hearing audiences matters, too. If you enjoyed the video, drop a comment, like the video, or subscribe to the channel.

I normally don’t follow the Oscars, but this year’s nominations include a short film with a Deafblind character. Depictions of underrepresented groups in movies influence how the mainstream public treats us. Feeling Through features a Black teen taking advantage of a Deafblind man, perpetuating the dangerous “Black criminals” stereotype.

The portrayal of deafblindness also advances harmful stereotypes. How the Deafblind character travels with a cane, shops, and manages money does not represent Deafblind people. The New York Times mistakenly praised the film for being “a window into the largely unknown world of deaf-blindness,” which saddens me. Celebrating Feeling Through adds to the discrimination facing disabled people at work, school, and the community.

Most film critics miss the racism and ableism in Feeling Through, so I created my own film review with a disability justice perspective.

Film Review Video Transcript

You can use Feeling Through to teach people to catch racist and ableist messages, skills all of us dedicated to human rights should have.

One last thing. Some film critics claim Feeling Through is the first film to cast a Deafblind actor in a leading role, but that’s incorrect. The 1919 film Deliverance featured Helen Keller cast as herself in that film about her life. Let’s continue to remember Helen Keller.

Transcript

Haben speaking. Hello! One of the films nominated for an Oscar has a Deafblind character,
and it’s received a lot of press for having a Deafblind actor playing the Deafblind character.
And that’s the only nice thing I can say about this film. It’s called Feeling Through, and in this
film, the Deafblind character’s named Artie.

He meets a young man, a teenager out on the street and asks the teen for help. And the
whole film is about the interaction between the Deafblind guy and the sighted hearing teen.
Well, Artie asks to go to a store. They go to a store. On the way, Artie is using his cane and
his cane smacks against a piece of construction.

The cane did its job. That’s how canes work. They bump into things. And that signals to the
blind person that something’s there and the blind person would, if they have good cane
skills, navigate around the obstacle. That’s not what happened in this film. The producer
decided for the blind person to smack his cane against this obstacle and then trip. He
doesn’t really trip over the obstacle. He seems to trip over air. This was chosen by the
producer. Again, there are lots of Deafblind people and blind people who use white canes all
the time. I’m sure a few of them trip over air. But this is not representative of the blind and
Deafblind community.

So that happens, and they keep walking and they get to the store. And at the store, what
does Artie do? The producer has Artie hand over his wallet to this complete stranger. I
would never do that. I don’t know any Deafblind people who would do that. Hand over your
wallet to a complete stranger. The teen, the sighted hearing teen takes the wallet, buys
some items at the store, doesn’t tell Artie what he’s buying, buys items and pockets some of
Artie’s money. He doesn’t ask for permission. This is stealing. Later, they return to the bus
stop and at the bus stop, they fall asleep. I don’t know any disabled people who would fall
asleep at a bus stop in the middle of the night in New York City, but the producer has this
happen.

And during that time, the sighted hearing teen wakes up, notices Artie is still asleep, reaches
in and takes Artie’s notebook, reads through it. Invasion of privacy. Trust is fragile. Lots of
disabled people are concerned of being taken advantage of. Imagine being a Deafblind
person and learning of this film, this film that has been nominated for an Oscar, where a
Deafblind person’s privacy is invaded and a stranger steals from them. And this is supposed
to be a feel-good inspirational film. When I read this, it was deeply disturbing. I was also
concerned about employers, teachers, community members who would watch this film and
make assumptions about Deafblind people.

This could cause people to be discriminated against. Another thing to note is the sighted
hearing teen is Black. So we have another film portraying the racial stereotype of the black
criminal. America is struggling with racism. We don’t need a film that portrays racism and
ableism. Disabled people are harmed by this film. Black people are also harmed by this film.
If you’re voting in the Oscars or you know someone who’s voting in the Oscars, please don’t
reward films that advance racist and ableist stereotypes.