We ask for accommodations, for example, materials in braille instead of print, a lot of society refuses, putting up barriers, and that limits our ability to get an education, to go and get a job. And thats nat fear. So i experienced those realized the law is one way to create change, and i wanted to create change and remove barrier for peeve with disabilities and my own personal story was discrimination and struggle and inspire he to become an attorney. The book is labin, the deafblind woman who conquered harvard law. The first deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School . That is what was that experience like . We had a lot of unknowns. I couldnt reach out to another deafblind harvard law graduate and ask them, how did you do this . How did you too oral arguments, take care of exams. I had to figure a lot of it out, and it actually started way back in elementary school, when i had to learn to advocate for my needs and to navigate the school system. One of my early chapters in my book is an experience where a teacher told me i was failing a class, and this was middle school. And i was extremely surprised because i did all my assignments. How can i be failing a class when im doing all the assignments. And we investigated what was going on, and my the teacher talk to the mainstream teacher, this was red heart middle school in oakland, california, as mainstream Public School so i was attending classes with nondisabled students so not a specialized school. And after the teacher for the blind talked to the mainstream teacher, they realized that the teacher was writing assignments on the board and i wasnt seeing it. So i was missing homework because i didnt see it was assigned, and sometimes instructor would read the assignment from the back of the room and i wouldnt hear him, and i at any time know that homework was being assigned. So i realized, if i just try to be a student ill never be successful. I had to both be a student and my own teacher and advocate. And thats when things changed. I started advocating for my rights. I started checking in, what are the strategies to get access to assignments if you cant see or hear the assignments. Would go to at the teacher after every class and ask what did i miss, what assignments . And i continue doing that through high school. My grades went up. I started getting straight as when i took responsibility for me education and the cool actually was more accessible than most schools. Most schools throughout the United States dont even provide blind students braille. So even if they heard the assignment, they would necessary out on the opportunity to do the reading and stay on top of classes. And those types of barriers for students to fall behind which then affects their ability to get good grades and get a job later so even though i had barriers in my school, i was getting more opportunities than most students, which allowed me to once i had advocacy schools, start doing well in school, which then helped me go on to college, then go on to law school. And when i faced all those unknowns at Harvard Law School, i had advocacy skills to fall on to ensure i had access to reading materials, spoken materials and could participate in all aspects of the program. Host at what point in your life were you aware that you saw and heard things differently than the majority of people . Guest thats a good question. I was born deafblind. Deafblinds in is a spectrum so even though i had limited vision and hearing when i was younger i had more than i do now and its slowly deteriorated over time. Probably will continue to deteriorate over time, and i just adapt and come up with solutions so that i can access what i need. When did i notice that im deafblind . I dont have an exact date, but when i was in middle school, i remember i was surprised that i was missing information. I didnt realize that the teacher was writing on the board and i was missing stuff or that he was saying things from the back of the room and i was missing information. I kind of assumed that the way i experienced the world was how most kids and adults experienced the world. So when i had that meeting with one of my teachers, the teacher for the blind and the mainstream teacher issue start evidence to realize how i experience the world is different from others, and other students can just go to school and expect expect at the teachers to teach them. I couldnt do that. I had to think but what might i be missing, the potential unknowns here, how can i find the unknowns . And all my life has been this process of trying to identify unknowns and figure them out and come up with solutions. A lot of detective work. Host from your book, miss girma, you write the Blind Community has Horror Stories of blind kids who never contribute around the house because their parents tell them they cant. My parents expect me to do chores, and i do. Guest its true. The truth is as a kid i didnt want to do chores. What kid wants to do chores . Luckily my parents still expected me to do chores. So i learned to do chores. I learned through nonvisual techniques for everything from vacuuming to doing dishes. Other parents are like, oh, you cant do that if youre blind, so they tell their kid with a disability to just sit in the corner and not participate. That kid grows up into an adult and never develops independent skills. That is extremely limiting, so its important for parents to encourage their kid to participate around the house, if youre not sure how they would do it, research, try. There are a lot of disability organizations that can help you come up with solutions for how to do activities with their child in accessible format. My parented had High Expectations but they were also very afraid and protective. There was one time when i wanted to good to travel to mali, west africa, and help build a school, and my parents told me no, thats not safe. And i told them, you guys are from africa. My dad grew up in ethiopia. My mom grew up eritrea. How can you tell me africa is not safe . They were responding based on being parents and wanting to protect their child and being afraid of the unknowns. When they brought up my disability, how can you build a school if you cant see . And i told them the other American Students also dont know how to build a school. Well learn together. Well figure it out. And they still said no. I was frustrated, but i wouldnt give up. I told them that i could do this activity and they wouldnt believe me. Often its the person with the disable who understands their abilities best. Not people outside that experience but the person with the disability. And they wouldnt believe in me so i brought in an ally to help advocate. I went to the Program Manager, for the program that takes kids to developing countries to help build schools. This Program Manager and i and my parents sat down for lunch, and they expressed their fears to the Program Manager, and she was able to address their fears. They asked her, how can she build a school if she cant see . And the Program Manager asked her to honestly, i dont know, but shell find a way. Sheing figure it out. Its okay if you dont have an answer. As long as you try, as long as you go out there, pick up a shovel, start digging. Theyll find strategies. Youll find alternative techniques, and when i went to mali to build the school, we did find alternative techniques. I knew how to handle a shovel, how to dying, move bricks, i learned all those activities, even building the latrine, after that when i came back to the United States, my parents felt slightly more confident about my abilities. They still had fears. All parents have fears and have this desire to keep a child safe at home, and we continued to have that struggle, even now theres still a little but of that struggle, of them wanting to keep me safe and me wanting to explore the world. Host were sitting here in a bright studio with a lot of lights on. What what do you hear or see right now . What are the images or the sounds . Guest its really hard to explain. I never had 2020 vision, so i dont know what youre experiencing. Nor die know if you have 2020 vision, theres a big what do you see . Host well, i think i see everything my vision is 2020. So, i can see your face and your hands typing and i can see claire over here typing and well explain why she is here as well in just a minute, but is it a opaque . Is that a term that works for you . Are you aware of light . Lets put it that way. Guest i can answer that question. Yes, im aware of light. So i can tell when the lights are on and off. Everything is blurry. I can sometimes see the outlines of objects. If someone is really close to me i can see them. I cant see you at the moment but a if you were closer i would see the outline of you, but not details like eyes or facial expressions. So everything is very blurry. Host can you understand any of my words at this point . You write in your book about being able to hear higher tones rather than lower tones in voice. I can hear a little bit in the high frequencies. If someone is near me i usually tell me if theyre speaking if cant catch their words so i dont know what youre saying until claire, the captioner, types what youre saying. She is typing on a keyboard that is wirily connected to my braille computer, and as you speak, she types what youre saying, and i read it in braille. My fingers run over the dots on my braille machine and i read the words. Then i know what youre saying. Host you also have another assistant here with you. Who is that . That is milo. Milo is me seeing eye dog. A small German Shepherd dog. Hes mostly German Shepherd but probably card big dog and he was trained as a seeing eye in morristown, new jersey. Host he is your second dog . He is my second dog. My first dog, who i talk about in my book, theres a chapper in my book where i talk but was like to go to the seeing sky train with a dog. If you want to have a good relationship, whether with an animal or a human being, you need to invest in that relationship. So i stepped away from college, stepped away from family, to spend three weeks entirely focused on developing a relationship with my seeing eye dog. At first it was incredibly awkward. I was a stranger to her, and her name was maxine, she was a stranger to me. We didnt understand each other so sometimes she would walk me into chairs, not stop at stairs, she was fully trained but she didnt have a relationship with me, and we had to work on our relationship. Over time we learned to understand each other, her guiding improved dramatically. For nine years we work together, traveling all over the country. When i graduated from college, she was with me. When i was climbing icebergs in alaska, she was with me and when i went to law school at harvard, she was there by my side through my classes, walking across the stage. Last year she passed away from cancer. And it was really, really hard to lose a partner. Not just a dog but a partner. And was by my side through so many big moments. Host you talk about techniques you use and one small technique is you lift your toes to keep from tripping. How does that change how you walk . Guest youre a very observant reader. Thats a small detail in my book but you picked it up. So, throughout my life, i came up with strategies to help me see and be more aware of the world. One strategy is i like wearing flats, very thin shoes so i can feel the environment more easily when im walking. The shift from wood to carpet, pavement. Can feel that through my shoes because i wear flats. I also tilt my toes upwards when im walking so that if i do smash against something, its easier to maintain your balance if your toe are slightly pointed upwards. So, i rarely fall, partly because i have good balance, partly because of the way i walk, and also because im a dancer. Dancing helps you develop really good balance. Host lets talk about lewis and clarkcome and one of your first advocacies there for the menu. Guest thats a good one. One of my favorite chapters in the book is about my time at Lewis Clark College in portland, oregon, small liberal arts school. They dade fantastic job providing me access to my classes. I had all the materials for my text books, my examples, in braille, handouts in class, everything was going well in my classes. Theres just one issue, the cafeteria. In the cafeteria, they had maybe six different food stations. Sighted students would walk in, browse a print menu and go to the station of choice. I cant read the menu. Blindness wasnt the problem. Blindness is never the problem. The problem was the format of the member u. So i went to the manager and i asked, can you make the menu accessible . You could email it to me or braille the menu or post its online. I have software called screen reader, and that will convert graphical information on websites or emails into accessible formats like digital braille, and the manager told me, sorry, we have over 1,000 students. We dont have time to give you the service. For the first to months i tolerated the situation. I told myself, at least i have food. At least im get my textbooks for my classes. At least im getting an education. Sometimes we engage in the oppression olympics. We compare ourselves and tell ourselves, someone else has it worse. Stop complaining. At least you dont have it as bad as someone else. But that kind of thinking is not helpful. We never remove barriers and advance society were constantly comparing forms of oppression. I realized if i wanted the system to change, i had to do something. So i researched the americans with disabilities act and talked to advocates. Then i told the university, i told the food service at the cafeteria, that they have the legal obligation to make the menu accessible to people with disabilities. And if they dont, im going pursue legal action. I had no idea how i would do that. I was just 19. I couldnt afford a lawyer. Now i know there are nonprofit Legal Centers that will help students with disabilities but back then i didnt know that. All i knew was i had to try. I had to do something. And in this case, the very next day, the manager promised to make the menus accessible. They did. They started sending the menus. Back then i was vegetarian and its much easier to eat vegetarian when you know what the food choices are. When you know which one of the stations is serving a vegetarian meal. So i finally could more easily eat vegetarian, and life became delicious, and the next year, a new blind student came to the college. He at any time have to fight for access to the menus. He had immediate access to the menus. That taught me when i advocate, im removing barriers for entire communities. That inspired me to become an attorney and continue advocating for people with disabilities. Host your book is written in a series of vignettes. Why did you choose that model . Guest i feel stories are really powerful to help teach people a lesson. Didnt want to lecture to people. No one wants to be lectured at. So instead i offer series of fun, engaging, humerous stories that will help the lessons stick. Each story teaches us something about ableism, ableism is a set of beliefs that people with disabilities are inferior to the nondisabled were not inferior but ableism teaches society that we are. So, the stories in my book help identify ableism and at the end of the book theres an accessibility guide. If you feel inspired, if you feel the mood to take steps to removal accessibility, if you feel inspired to take steps to remove barriers and work toward accessibility, then accessibility guide can help. Host what is your reaction if somebody tells you, youre an inspiration to them . Guest i tell them what are you inspired to do . Host thats not a word you like, is it . Guest so really depends on how people use it. I try to be patient because im an advocate. My role is to teach people but accessibility. So i ask people, what do you mean when you say im inspiring . You mean you want to take steps to remove barriers . Are you inspired to make your website accessible . Are is the word inspiration a disguise for pity. Sometimes it is. The word is used so often for people with disabilities, when theyre not even doing anything productive. So, we want to ask people, be aware of what your actually saying, try to use a different word. Maybe role model, maybe motivation, but ask yourself what are you really feeling before you use a word. Host you write in your book that only 10 of blind people can read braille, and 70 of blind people are unemployed. Guest only about 10 of the Blind Community reads braille because a lot of teachers of the blind are not teaching braille. Theres an assumption that, oh, they can just listen to books on tape or they can just listen to information on their computers. Theres no need for braille is the assumption. But if people dont learn braille, if blind people dont learn braille, they dont develop a literacy. Its important to know how words are spelled, how sentences are formed. If you only listen to stories, youll think, once upon a time is one word. So, its important for more people to learn braille and we should make sure our schools are teaching braille to blind students. And if adults become blind late in life, we should ensure their services to teach braille to adults, because braille is a really powerful tool to connect with the world, to access information, and especially when it comes to employment, braille readers have an advantage over nonbraille readers. About 70 of the Blind Community experiences unemployment, and that is because a lot of employers assume that blind people cant do lots of different tasks. When i was in college, i wanted to get a summer job just like so many other College Students who want to get a summer job. A friend of mine told me, i know a place where there are lot of summer jobs, alaska. So i said, okay, lets go to alaska. And he was right. Alet of summer jobs in alaska. Juneau has a large tourism industry, so lots of jobs there are to help meet in the needses of tourists. I applied to tons of the jobs, employers would see my real estate may, get excited, and i was valedictorian in high school. I had really good grades in college, lots of volunteer experiences, so employers would get excited with my resume, and but once they met me for the interview they realize i had a disability and then come up with all kind of excuses. Actually we just filled the position. Sorry, were looking for a different fit. That was incredibly frustrating. Peeled toll me work hard and youll be successful. I worked hard, and i still faced barriers. Working hard alone is not enough. Society needs to remove barriers. Employers need to remove barriers. And eventually after a long search, i found an employer who was inclusive. It was at a small gym in alaska, and i work as a front desk clerk. My responsibility was making sure was be responsiblere at the cash register, make sure equipment in the gym worked, cleaning the changing rooms. One day a woman walked in and she told me one of the treadmill is is not working. I followed her to one of the treadmills, i tried hitting the on button, it wouldnt work. I tried the other buttons. It wouldnt work. I felt the treadmill from top to bottom. And on the bottom there was a switch. I flipped the switch and the machine went to life. The lady said, my goodness, i didnt see that switch. I told her i didnt see it either. Sometimes nonvisual techniques are equal in value and surpass visual techniques. Host just to go back to that gym story, was your hearing better at that time that you could understand the woman speaking to you . Guest yeah. My hearing yes. I could hear more back then. Was still deafness is a spectrum so if someone was close to me, i could understand them. Host i saw earlier when i spoke to you, you couldnt hear me but a when claire spoke to you, you could hear her very clearly. Or more clearly. Guest claire has a slightly higher voice than you do. If you have a lower voice0. Claire is a little easier to hear. I still dont hear claire very well. I catch bits and pieces of what she says. Host you describe yourself in your book as trawl visible and insri lanka illinois ultravisible and invisible. Its complicated. I stand out as a black woman, deafblind with a guide dog and a funny computer, so people see me but at the same time they dont see me because they see all the stereotypes of blindness. They see the blind beggars which are the stereotypes of blind people that we most often see in the media. And all the stereotypes about deaf people, for so much of our history the words deaf and dumb head gone together and a lot of people assume that were less intelligent, which is not fair. I want people i want society to change and get rid of those assumptions. Its move away from the Charity Model and start seeing people with disabilities as talented, with valuable contributions for society. We have a system the strength and discovery which means orientation and it scales. When i was in school and after high school, i took a lot of training from capable professionals who taught me how to navigate through things i never experienced before. They have patterns, so when i arrived here, milo and i lived through this area, one of your Staff Members identify new seating area. It was with the community. Clara what did you do for a leaving. Is this a fulltime job for you. Its the mark. Guest i work in, i am a caption or so i caption tv, college classes, plays a musical and sport events. Hell of you been doing that. Guest ive been doing that for three years. Host is the system, something you came up with. Art who invented what we are doing here. Since about around the 80s. This is all how it came out. Haben i started asking myself, would be possible to do a keyboard. And i connected it with a keyboard, i communicate better with people. Its my start was moved to communicate. I am not fluent. And a lot of people dont know sign language. Most hearing people can type. So ive had someone in a keyboard, it would be able to type and ill be able to refer they are staying and braille. So i its been time looking for different keywords and testing it with a real computer, to try to find out which ones work and which ones are most affordable. And resilient. You have to have them in all kinds of environments. Sometimes people accidentally spell things about things. So i carry a keyboard and i also carry a backup one just in case. Host you tell the story in a row, about the party after your first semester of law school. [laughter]. Haben for the most part, thats a good story. I was loud and in a noisy environment. Before i had this keyboard and computer, i had no way to communicate with people. In love noisy environments. So i missed out. I would be excluded in the settings. In 2010, thats before i started law school. I found the system. And i started slowly using it in different environments. And at the end of my first semester in law school, several of my classmates together at a bar to celebrate the end of classes. When i arrived, i was extremely nervous because i wasnt sure how it would work and how i would be able to communicate. It actually worked out really woa. In hearts, people carry the voices to be heard and understood. My classmates enjoy the opportunity to have the voices and just type. You didnt have to shout to communicate with me. So they can take a break and just type. I was able to read it. That worked out woa. Until someone had is it too much to drink. Then i cannot understand him. I asked myself, what i want if i were in his shoes. Would it what would i expect from a friend. So i offered to walk him home. Laura struggling to communicate. I really admired my dog and through vexing my dog, i was able to convince him to help guide him home. And fall is home. Because starting off in the right direction, and eddie keep in mind, he had to follow maxine so help me get home. Host writing a book, that the world is the steaming sensory stew. Haben there is always something going on. Your exciting hearing, there is something going on in the world they are not staying and hearing. It is constantly experiencing, that is working out. Its really important to be able to focus and be present on we do can participate. So those things you can experience and feel. I find that its a skill and an ability and very few people can do it in a different loophole. Some people are really good at picking up environments to scan. And somebody walks by me, i can feel the air change as they walked by. There are lots of little signals you can pick up if you cant have a sense of touch. Since one of the stories are about. I discovered that and the intelligence of it. Host who is gordon and is he still a part of your life. Haben gordon is one of my best friends. I have a team of about ten people who take turns traveling with me two different events and typing. And gordon is really good at typing and describing the world and identifying challenges. Something is really important for everyone to have a person who can help you identify her sexism or racism and sometimes the world gets overwhelming and we feel tired. We lose the ability to advocate for ourselves. And if you have, like a friend who can help share for you and help you advocate we do struggle to advocate for yourself. Its really important. Each of you talk about the loneliness sometimes. Haben yeah. I dont really have a community that automatically gets me. My people dont automatically get someone who is deaf and blind. The deaf community, deals and community dont automatically instead of me. So i have to work to build rich and bridges. And help this is how i communicate and this is how i process information. Lets find a middle ground where we can all communicate and understand each other. And that takes work. It is a process. Sometimes it is exhausting. Host your brother was born deaf by the soft correct. The one yes and thats interesting. One of my brothers is also deaf blind. And he is the completely different experience than me. His deafness and whiteness is different. His Communication Style is different. He was born and raised in aircraft and i was born and raised in the United States. So we have differences. We do have some similarities. And so we have to find a way in which to communicate. Sometimes he is the braille computer a key part and sometimes we use sign language. Host july 20th, 2015. Haben i love that dave. Host y. Haben yesterday i met president obama. And thats when he the americans with disabilities act. They also invited me and Vice President joe biden of the ceremony. That was an incredible honor. Host what was that like. Haben was amazing. I was not sure what to expect some people dont want to interact with me. The nervous or uncomfortable. They are out of the comfort zone. Typing is the familiar but it is also so different to some people. For some people, they see no. President obama switched from voicing to typing so i could access his words. And he typed, he was a slow typist. Host you did not bring maxine to the white house he wrote that the new book. Why not. Haben sometimes live travel with maxine, or milo, the conversation shifts to the dog. I thought i would only have maybe two minutes with president obama and i was concerned that he would not talk about the accessibility and if my dog stole the show. So i chose not to bring my dog because i was concerned that the conversation would be about dogs. It is probably wouldnt have a still, it is still talk to me about access disability and inclusion but that was my concern. Host we do decided to write the book and go on book tour, will you biggest concerns. Haben i say a lot of authors will get the message. It is really a common fear fear among off others. They interpret the stories differently. All different kinds of acts. Some stories really stick with readers. Other stories readers entirely miss it. It is really fascinating to me to hear back from readers. I loved hearing back from readers. And people can send me messages. On twitter and facebook and instagram. My name can people can something back. What was your favorite part of the peter. Host i enjoyed all of the book. I will just see that. I miss grandma, when people go to your website to your social media site, and attack a message to you, what is the process that he gets to your keyboard. How does that work. Haben some facebook, twitter, and instagram have accessibility teams that help with websites. Its not perfect but if somebody says me a message through twitter, is the software called strainer, usually takes over on my iphone. And it will convert the images on the screen and graphical information on screen to speech. The only time its when its easytoread. The images, are difficult. Some people include image descriptions. A lot of people dont include image news discretion. There needs to be a transcript of the video. In the captions and cited, i cant actually see captions. So i encourage people to add captions so that people who can see can use as captions. Host my favorite part of your book is the fact that you like to have your situation described to you if you are unaware of it. Tell me about the hearts. It was in here and what is she wearing. Questions like that. They seem very important to you. Haben people are really important to me. I can learn a lot about a person when i asked them to describe the setting. I asked him to describe the setting immediately describe the food. Other friends on tell me about the animals they see. Like the dogs of the cats that are in the room. Other friends as somebody describes the setting, tells me a lot about that person. Host part of why its mom and dad now. Haben mom and dad are in the area. Host and they live close by to you. Haben relatively, yes in the close by. Host and they still worried about you. Haben yes. [laughter] they are so concerned and want me to be safe which is understandable. Theyll always be my parents. Host plus close with this. Your writing abroad, i like my deaf blind world. In his comfortable and familiar and it is all in no. It is my norm. Haben i dont wish to be cited in hearing. Im comfortable and happy with what i have. I do love using my skills and abilities and talents. So someone were to offer me a solution that would allow me to hear. I will take it. If somebody offered me the ability to fly, ill take it. Until then, ill take airplanes not be content. But only happy to improve in advance my skills and abilities. Host cares about, have it, the deaf blind woman who conquered harvard law and she has been our guest on book tv along with cool air baldy, and my love thank you all for being here. Weekly on our program afterwards of the American Unit price interviewed former speaker of the house of representatives newt gingrich. On the threats to the u. S. Faces from china. And on experience, and congress and in american politics, we do say are some of the changes that we need to make domestically to make sure that we do have the resources to compete with china. Is part of why i wrote that janet chapter. It is that titles fall. A lot of what has to be done has brought china. We have six schools in baltimore, in which chapter not a single student in six schools, can pass the state math and writing exam. Give crisis it would be there whether the chinese existed or not. So we need very dramatic deeper forms in our own system. I need to reform the pentagon. This entire bureaucratic structure and try to remind people theres literally building 1943 so that 23000 people using carbon paper and manual typewriters could manage the worldwide work. Now we have ipads, smart phones etc. You still have 23000 people. His maniacal and of course it slows everything down that makes everything is it too expensive so we have zones of reform. The chinese currently are mopping up ulcers of International Organizations might basically writing countries. In the land of either having picked the leader and the Amazing International organization. Were not even prepared to start thinking about a campaign. On the scale and complexity and there was a need in places like the food and agriculture organizations. On the world health organizations. Just go to melissa. And its astonishing how methodically successful they been so i say were going to have to if we are serious and we are determined to overmatched the chinese really have to really interact together and we have to go through some very painful and very profound reforms and part of the reason that he wrote traverses china, was to set the stage for people to have this conversation and to recognize that everything president is doing, which i say is the right general direction is about 10 percent of what we need to do it for only going to be capable of competing in china. Taught scotus of this program is our website booktv. Org her short newt gingrich. The title of his book, trump versus china. Use the fox at the top of the page. May 1974, the house of Judiciary Committee released a report on the present. As story and it was part of, is this gentleman right here, he is the author of president ial misconduct. Can you tell me a little bit aboutha
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