Excerpt from ‘The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law’
The following is excerpted from Haben Girma’s new memoir “Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law.” More information on Haben and her memoir is available here. “Can you hear me?” The voice coming through my earbuds sounds scratchy. The earbuds connect to an FM receiver, part of an assistive listening device. Harvard Law School hired American Sign Language interpreters with voice transliteration skills to provide access to audio and visual information in my classes. Celia Michau and Erin Foley sit in the back of the classroom whispering into a microphone, which has a wireless connection with the receiver, so I can sit anywhere in the classroom. I prefer to sit in the back, though, just in case I need to communicate with the interpreters. “[Mumble, mumble, static crackle.] How about now?” the voice asks. I shrug, then shake my head no. “Well, you’re responding, so you can kind of hear us, right?” Somewhere in front...