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!

Trying Vegan Donuts in Berlin

Video description

I’m sitting at a picnic table with three colorful round pastries in front of me. Behind me is my German Shepherd Seeing Eye dog, and a cobblestone square lined with trees.

Haben: This is going to be my first vegan donut experience. These are from Brammibal’s, and they’re actually the first fully vegan donut shop in Europe. The one on my left has lots of crumbles on top. And it’s heavy with some kind of filling inside. It’s overwhelmingly sweet, which is what you want in a donut. And the crumbles are little bits of pistachio, and it’s a good balance of nutty pistachio and also creamy sweetness. I wouldn’t have known it was a vegan donut. It just kind of tastes like a nutty pistachio donut. And then there’s another one!

She picks up the middle donut.

Haben: So I want to be able to share with these videos and travels that disabled people can have fun, can enjoy life. And it’s really about making our world more accessible so disabled people have access to all the different opportunities available to nondisabled people. Even if it’s access to doughnuts! So, what is this one?

She takes a bite.

Haben: Strawberry! Sometimes donuts have very mild flavors, and this one has a very strong strawberry flavor. So I like that. The third and final donut!

She tries it.

Haben: It has more of a white chocolate flavor with bits of strawberry on top. My favorite is going to be the strawberry donut.

She sets the white chocolate donut back on the table.

Haben: The second is pistachio. Even though they’re vegan, they’re still donuts!