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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Steffone.

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Speaker 1: Never told you are pressure. iHeart Radio.

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Speaker 2: And y'all as you heard yesterday obviously when we were

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Speaker 2: doing our Monday Mini and Annie was like, hey, July,

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Speaker 2: that's Disability Pride Month. So of course we wanted to

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Speaker 2: jump in to celebrate activists who've been working not only

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Speaker 2: in disability justice, but so much more because you know,

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Speaker 2: it's always intersectional here and today we're starting off with activist, lawyer, writer, speaker,

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Speaker 2: and so many other titles have been Garma and Garma

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Speaker 2: is a Harvard Law School graduate, born and raised in

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Speaker 2: the San Francisco Bay area and is a human rights lawyer.

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Speaker 2: And here's a bit from her website. The first Deathline

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Speaker 2: person to graduate from Harvard Law School ha been Germa

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Speaker 2: is a human rights lawyer advancing disability justice. President Obama

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Speaker 2: named her a White House Championship Change, and the World

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Speaker 2: Health Organization appointed her Commissioner of Social Connection.

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Speaker 1: And in the site, she talks about why she decided

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Speaker 1: to be a disability rights lawyer. Quote. As a deafblind

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Speaker 1: student in college, I witnessed advocates using the Americans with

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Speaker 1: Disabilities Act ADA to change social attitudes. The National Federation

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Speaker 1: of the Blind regularly referenced the ADA when explaining to

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Speaker 1: technology developers why designing access for people with disabilities is

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Speaker 1: a necessity. I heard how the National Association of the

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Speaker 1: Deaf used the ADA to increase close captioning online, and

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Speaker 1: how disability rights advocates used the ADA to compel Target's

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Speaker 1: tech team to make Target dot Com accessible to blind Americans.

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Speaker 1: Impressed by the success of these advocates, I felt inspired

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Speaker 1: to join them. Back then and even now, I encountered

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Speaker 1: many barriers in the digital world, not because of my disability,

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Speaker 1: but because of attitude among tech developers that trivialize access

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Speaker 1: for disabled people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. We've talked about that previously on different episodes, about

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Speaker 2: the fact that it could be easy, but they don't

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Speaker 2: think it through and trivialize the needs. So just as

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Speaker 2: a kind of asterisk there. Germa lost her sight in

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Speaker 2: hearing as a young child and currently retains one percent

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Speaker 2: of her site. Growing up, she did have access to

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Speaker 2: technology such as a digital braille device, but she talked

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Speaker 2: about the fact her brother, who was also deaf blind,

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Speaker 2: did not because they did not live in the US

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Speaker 2: at the time, and so it was kind of a

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Speaker 2: conversation about the differences and the privileges she was able

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Speaker 2: to have in the US. Later, she would go on

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Speaker 2: to successfully graduate from Lewis and Clark College, graduating magna

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Speaker 2: cum laud, going on to Harvard Law, obtaining her Juris

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Speaker 2: Doctorate jd. And after receiving her degree, Garma joined the

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Speaker 2: Disability Rights Advocates or DRA, representing people with disabilities as

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Speaker 2: a staff law. Since she started her work as a

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Speaker 2: human rights lawyer and justice advocate, Garma has been very

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Speaker 2: vocal in talking about the importance of countering ablest attitudes

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Speaker 2: and inaccessibility. Here's a quote from a twenty twenty three

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Speaker 2: Forbes article titled Disability Sparks Innovation Insights from deaf, blind

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Speaker 2: human rights lawyer Hobin Garma. During her powerful speech, Hobbin

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Speaker 2: shared that the barriers she has encountered as a disabled

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Speaker 2: person have been due not to her disability, but rather ableism,

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Speaker 2: a system of beliefs and practices that treat disabled peoples

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Speaker 2: as inferior to non disabled people. The daughter of refugees

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Speaker 2: and a black disabled woman, Hobbin says she's built her

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Speaker 2: path to success, which she documents in her best selling

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Speaker 2: memoir Hobbin, the deaf blind woman who conquered Harvard Law

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Speaker 2: on the belief that inclusion is a choice.

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Speaker 1: And the article continues as someone who was named a

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Speaker 1: White House Champions have changed by President Obama, appeared on

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Speaker 1: Forbes's thirty Under thirty list, has learned to dance, ski, climb,

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Speaker 1: and surf, and is an accomplished law and disability rights advocate.

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Speaker 1: Hobbin's disability hasn't heeled her back, but ableism, she said,

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Speaker 1: whether intentional or unintentional, creates barriers for people in the

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Speaker 1: disabled community every day, often preventing them from full inclusion

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Speaker 1: in the workplace, being supported to achieve their potential and

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Speaker 1: contribute their skills, as well as being able to fully

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Speaker 1: participate in other aspects of their lives and society. We

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Speaker 1: need people to recognize that disabled people are talented, said

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Speaker 1: Hobbin during her remarks at the forum, and many organizations

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Speaker 1: disabled people are not represented, or if disabled people are represented,

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Speaker 1: is often just white disabled experiences. Diversity is multi layered.

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Speaker 1: We need all our different experiences represented. Every single one

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Speaker 1: of us has something to bring to the organization right.

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Speaker 2: And on her website, she includes why organizations need to

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Speaker 2: invest in accessibility. As she writes, prioritizing inclusion helps your organization.

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Speaker 2: Disabled people are one of the are just historically underrepresented groups,

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Speaker 2: numbering over one billion worldwide. Reaching a group of this

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Speaker 2: scale creates value for everyone. Organizations that prioritize accessibility benefit

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Speaker 2: by gaining access to much larger audience, improving the experience

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Speaker 2: of both disabled and non disabled people, and facilitating further innovation.

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Speaker 2: Organizations also have legal obligations to ensure access for disabled people.

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Speaker 2: But with that, yes, we do need to come back

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Speaker 2: to the fact that the new Supreme Court ruling has

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Speaker 2: really messed this up. So of course, yes, we will

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Speaker 2: come back and have a deeper conversation because we don't

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Speaker 2: know about this legal obligations anymore. But we'll just pause

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Speaker 2: on that and come back later and cry about it later.

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Speaker 2: And from the Forbes article, they write when thinking about accessibility,

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Speaker 2: Hobbins shared her belief that organizations need to consider not

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Speaker 2: just their employees, but they're also their clients, customers, and

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Speaker 2: a larger population. For instance, she emphasized how important it

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Speaker 2: is to make technology more accessible. Sometimes when I think

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Speaker 2: about accessible, people think, oh, we'll build a separate website

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Speaker 2: or disabled people. Separate is never equal. It might start

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Speaker 2: out with good intentions, but down the line, the separate

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Speaker 2: app or website or disabled people ends up with fewer updates,

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Speaker 2: fewer resources, and that's not equal. So what we want

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Speaker 2: is one app, one website, or one organization that's accessible

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Speaker 2: to everyone. And when you are designing digital services, the

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Speaker 2: web content accessibility guidelines are a great tool.

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Speaker 1: She continues to educate companies, organizations, and the general community

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Speaker 1: about the importance of understanding language and wording, as well

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Speaker 1: as accessibility when it comes to being inclusive. From her website,

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Speaker 1: she advises quote, challenge yourself to create a disability story

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Speaker 1: without using the word inspiration. The overuse of the word,

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Speaker 1: especially for the most trivial things, has dulled its meaning.

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Speaker 1: People sometimes even use the word as a disguise for

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Speaker 1: for example, You've inspired me to stop complaining about my problems,

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Speaker 1: because I should feel grateful I don't have yours. Messages

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Speaker 1: that perpetuate us versus them hierarchies contribute to marginalization. Engage

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Speaker 1: audiences by moving beyond the inspiration cliche.

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Speaker 2: That very cringe and She continues on her website giving

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Speaker 2: advice about harmful messages people should avoid including things like

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Speaker 2: non disabled people should feel grateful they don't have disabilities.

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Speaker 2: This perpetuates hierarchies of us versus them, as we talked

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Speaker 2: about previously, and continuing the marginalization of disabled people. And

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Speaker 2: it goes on with another example of what not to use.

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Speaker 2: Successful disabled people overcome their disabilities when the media portrays

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Speaker 2: the problem as the disability societies not encouraged to change.

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Speaker 2: The biggest barriers exist not in the person, but in

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Speaker 2: the physical, social, and digital environment. Disable people and the

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Speaker 2: communities succeed and the community decides to dismantle digital, attitudinal,

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Speaker 2: and physical barriers.

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Speaker 1: And advice on messages that should be included like we

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Speaker 1: respected admire disabled leaders just as we respect and admire

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Speaker 1: our non disabled leaders. We're all interdependent and go further

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Speaker 1: when we support each other.

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Speaker 2: And of course, she has received many accolades for her work,

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Speaker 2: including being named a Championship Change by the Obama administration,

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Speaker 2: being one of Forbes thirty Under thirty, awarded the Helen

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Speaker 2: Keller Achievement Award, and she, as we said earlier, has

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Speaker 2: written and published a memoir titled Hubbin, The Deaf Blind

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Speaker 2: Woman who Conquered Harvard Law obviously being noted as the

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Speaker 2: first to do that. It's amazing and apparently it's a bestseller.

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Speaker 2: We need to put this on our list soon of

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Speaker 2: our many memoirs that we need to read.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes we should, and we've talked about this before,

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Speaker 1: but this is something we've seen in our line of

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Speaker 1: work where we've been pushing for transcripts. There has been

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Speaker 1: some movement on that, but listeners, let us know because

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Speaker 1: I think that's really important and that's been something for

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Speaker 1: me that I have really wanted and I hope that

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Speaker 1: we're booming in the right direction. But Robin is right,

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Speaker 1: that was like not a priority because it's always the

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Speaker 1: disability is a bit lower of a priority, and I

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Speaker 1: don't think it should be that way. So well, as always,

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Speaker 1: if you have any thoughts about this or any suggestions,

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Speaker 1: please let us know. You can email us at Steffandi

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Speaker 1: your Mom stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find

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Speaker 1: us on Twitter at Monster podcast, or on Instagram and

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Speaker 1: TikTok at stuff When I never told you. We're also

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Speaker 1: on YouTube. We have a tea public store. We have

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Speaker 1: a book you can get wherever you get your book. Thanks,

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Speaker 1: as always to your super producer Christina or executive producer

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Speaker 1: Maya and our contributor Joey.

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Speaker 2: Thank you and we're so sorry, especially me. Person that

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Speaker 2: you're the best.

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Speaker 1: We love that. Thank you and thank you for listening.

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Speaker 1: Someone Ever Told You is a production of iHeart Radio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcast in my Heart Radio, you can check

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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows,