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Wyvernator1 t1_isygw1g wrote

Becoming deaf and blind at the same time is my biggest nightmare. How would one communicate at all? You can't see anything and if you were suddenly deaf and blind nobody would be able to tell or show you what's going on and you would be so confused and scared

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cgally OP t1_isyi1vm wrote

I agree it's an awful thought. In the video, they detail how she has developed a braille system that interfaces with a keyboard connected to other keyboards. She also works with someone who transcribes the conversation which is then converted to braille text for Haben to read. She is an amazing woman. She travels the world, salsa dances, and even has been surfing in Hawaii!!!!!!

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LilacYak t1_iszeey4 wrote

How in the heck do you surf without sight!? Assisted?

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Qwearman t1_it0jtmi wrote

Pete Gustin does vids on his life as a blind voice actor (as well as the Blind Surfer). It’s crazy the kind of tech and memorization that goes into it.

He has macular degeneration so one of his vids was explaining how he can look people in the eyes and point cameras.

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frealfr t1_isyuz4z wrote

You could talk.

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smokeNtoke1 t1_isyzkll wrote

How do you learn to do that?

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Romeo9594 t1_isz71ls wrote

The same way Helen Keller did like 100 years ago. Hands on the face to feel vibrations and movements of someone's speech, then lots and lots and lots of practice with someone who has the patience to help you learn to replicate those vibrations yourself

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Wyvernator1 t1_it170n7 wrote

God dayum, apparently people's jawbones(?) can feel vibrations/ "hear sound" quite well but I didn't know something similiar could be actually used

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cgally OP t1_isxl9g6 wrote

Edit Harvard Law Grad.

This is such an inspirational story.

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toomuchredditmaj t1_isxm3hh wrote

yeah I was about to say... Helen Keller.

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Mtnskydancer t1_isxyayp wrote

Radcliffe? Weren’t the colleges segregated by gender?

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moonchylde t1_isy5hcn wrote

Correct, she wanted to go to Harvard but wasn't allowed.

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Darryl_Lict t1_isynjuw wrote

It doesn't really go into when she became deaf and blind. I thought that most deaf from birth people had a real difficult time speaking clearly, Marlee Matlin being an example. She speaks really clearly. Amazing woman.

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mechapoitier t1_iszacpd wrote

Closest I’ve found is she went deaf and blind “in early childhood” which is a very vague term.

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LuLuDeStruggle t1_it0sdkl wrote

She wasn’t born deafblind. She talks about it in her memoir {{Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law}}

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cgally OP t1_it1zsfl wrote

From what I read it is a progressive condition. She had a bit of site when she was younger.

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fatchamy t1_it0r6c0 wrote

I saw her speak at a conference fireside chat event and she was HILARIOUS! Really incredible person, her book and story is very compelling.

She was using this typewriter looking gadget that I suppose is the relay with her translator/interpreter.

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TriGurl t1_iszetig wrote

How blind is she? Can she see colors or is it all black for her? I used to assume that blind meant all darkness without the ability to see light or shapes but then realized some legally blind folks can see some varying degree of things. Was curious what her blindness was…

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davidgrayPhotography t1_it01ee1 wrote

Wikipedia says she has about 1% of her eyesight. Even 1% of eyesight can vary between people, so I wouldn't want to guess on what she can and can't see in terms of colour, brightness and such, but yeah 1% is well and truly legally blind.

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like_a_bistro t1_iszhmub wrote

Her autobiography is a good read

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frealfr t1_isyuvgv wrote

Is deafblind even a word?

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cgally OP t1_isyx80w wrote

As harsh as it sounds, apparently so. In fact, Ms. Girma used that term herself in one of the videos I watched about her this morning.

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plilq t1_isz8iv0 wrote

It's printed on the cover of her book in the interview you just posted.

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ian2121 t1_isz7xzz wrote

I knew a deaf, dumb and blind kid once… he sure played a mean pinball.

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jacanced t1_iszrnt8 wrote

Not sure if people don't recognise Pinball Wizard, or just don't have a sense of humour

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notschneider t1_isyv1tm wrote

>>>Helen Keller

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cgally OP t1_isywyov wrote

The title was actually meant to be Harvard Law. I added an edit note when I was unable to edit the title.

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CGY-SS t1_it11wqu wrote

This lady actually did it though and didn't have a fraud for a handler making stuff up out of thin air.

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CGY-SS t1_it11xhs wrote

This lady actually did it though and didn't have a fraud for a handler making stuff up out of thin air.

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slayaboy87 t1_isz6v65 wrote

Don’t tell Lillias White!

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cgally OP t1_iszf7m8 wrote

I initially did not get your joke bc I have no idea who Lillias White is. I searched her name and read about her major F-up last week.. That was pretty bad. Here's the Instagram post from the woman who was ridiculed. In fairness, she actually is sticking up for Lillias White, which is very commendable.

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Darryl_Lict t1_it1h83k wrote

Man, what a fiasco. It's pretty amaing that people can use real time captioning devices but I can see why Lillias White made that mistake. I remember 40 years ago when a visiting professor from Bell Labs teaching a voice recognition class was telling us all the difficulties in performing that task and single speaker single word recognition was still 5 years in the future and speaker independent full flow sentences would be 20 years in the future. Now our phones do it easily and we don't even think about it.

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LuLuDeStruggle t1_it0sjnt wrote

{{Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law}} is an excellent memoir for anyone interested in learning about her life experiences.

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zahliailhaz t1_it1p5is wrote

She graduated in 2013. Haben is amazing, I’ve met her twice, but this isn’t news.

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cgally OP t1_it1srz4 wrote

It's uplifting news though.

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zahliailhaz t1_it4k2qu wrote

Considering Haben Girma herself has said she does not want to be seen as inspirational or uplifting just because she graduated college (something that isn't a news article for non-disabled people) I think we should respect that.

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The fact that it took until 2013 for a deafblind person to graduate Harvard speaks to the ableism the university had previously, not the triumph or inspiration of Haben.

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As I said, I've worked with Haben on a couple different occasions, as I work in disability. Looking at disabled people and considering them inspiring for doing things that wouldn't be inspiring if non-disabled people did them is generally seen as unwanted by disabled people. I'd encourage you to look into this TED talk by Stella Young which speaks on this concept.

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