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Talk:Haben Girma

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Not born deafblind

[edit]

>She lost her vision and hearing as a result of an unknown progressive condition >beginning in early childhood.[1]

This sentence could be misunderstood and occasionally one finds the claim that she was born deafblind, e.g. here https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/07/31/428075935/she-owes-her-activism-to-a-brave-mom-the-ada-and-chocolate-cake?t=1585914803966

That is certainly not true. There does not exist a single example of a person being born deaf and blind to develop a usable perception of the world nor speech.

It is important that Haben Girma has residual sight and hearing to this day https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/11/excerpt-from-the-deafblind-woman-who-conquered-harvard-law/

This explains that she is able to speak in a relatively normal intonation.

The intent of this remark is not to downplay her achievements, but I think it is necessary for clarification. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2a02:908:69f:b000:8db:fd34:9676:55e1 (talkcontribs) 0:00, 4 April 2020 (UTC)