Haben

Oprah Winfrey referred to her as “a millennial Helen Keller”

Haben is the story of a deaf blind daughter of refugees who refused tokenization and demanded true inclusion.

A disability rights lawyer, her memoir is laced with stories of her childhood, her growing years in public school, blindness camps, college at Harvard and after.

Blindness, she believes, is limited eye sight. She believes that disability is not a barrier. The barriers are social, physical and digital. And so she didn’t stop herself from doing carpentry or salsa dancing or horse riding or stand up paddling or climbing icebergs in Alaska.

Her story is an extraordinary tale of strength and perseverance.

Inspiring?

Here’s her take on being called Inspiring.

“I cringe inwardly. People with disabilities get called inspiring do often, usually for the most insignificant things, that the world now feels like a euphemism for joy. Sometimes when a non disabled person uses the word to describe a person with disability, it’s a sign that they’re feeling overwhelmed or uncomfortable.”