Blind Heroes & Breton Butter: Finding Braille in Saint-Malo

Reading Braille out loud over the radio, a young blind woman assists the Allies in the Netflix series “All the Light We Cannot See.” The show inspired me to visit Saint-Malo on my journey through France for the Braille Bicentennial. The tourist office offers large print and Braille brochures, videos with French Sign Language, wheelchairs optimized for cobblestones, and a tactile map with a Braille key. Tactile maps are still rare, and I hope more cities take action to welcome people with disabilities.

Thank you to Laurence Maillard Nourrissier, accessibility coordinator for the Saint-Malo tourist office, for thoughtfully creating an “All the Light We Cannot See” tour of Saint-Malo! I also want to thank Joël Hardy, Christine Hardy, and Sylvie Thézé from the Braille Bicentennial team for their incredible Breton hospitality.

Descriptive Transcript

Standing outside with her hair swaying in the wind, Haben Girma speaks with enthusiasm, a microphone clipped to her gray coat. Below her stretches a road with cars and pedestrians, and in the distance appears a granite fortress on an island surrounded by the emerald La Manche, also called the English Channel.

Haben: Blind women rarely appear as the heroes in books and movies, which is why I was really charmed by “All the Light we Cannot See”—a book and a Netflix series. There is a blind woman who uses her voice and reads Braille to help the Allies during World War II. It’s a fictional story, but it’s actually inspired by many true stories.

Photo: Haben, her Seeing Eye dog Mylo, and Laurence stand on a balcony with the granite, fortress-style Château de Saint-Malo in the distance, surrounded by gardens and thick, granite walls.

Photo: Christine, Haben, Mylo, Sylvie, and Joël stand together smiling on the same balcony.

Video: Haben and Mylo walk along the ramparts above the old city. She has a brace on her left ankle. The ground has large, fitted granite slabs that are relatively smooth. Openings along the wall show glimpses of the Ferris wheel and boats below.

Haben (voiceover): The key scenes take place in Saint-Malo, a French city known for dramatic history, emerald beaches and the most delicious butter I’ve ever tasted!

Photo: A rectangular tray has a knife and eight cubes of butter in a variety of colors, from purple to pink.

Video: Haben sits at a table with a large paper, tactile map that includes Braille.

Haben: There’s a tactile map of Saint-Malo here. And many of the symbols on the map are almost universal, like a common understood texture for water, a tactile star to say you are here.

The video returns to the first scene.

Haben: I recently read the book called “And There Was Light.” Notice the similarities in titles? They are connected!

Photo: The book cover shows the profile of a young man with his hair in a side part pompadour, and the background rises from yellow to orange. The text reads, “And There was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance.”

Haben (voiceover): A resistance leader and Braille reader, Jacques Lusseyran helped liberate France from Nazi occupation.

The video returns to the first scene.

Haben: People assumed because he was blind that he wouldn’t be able to participate. But we all have a voice. We all can advocate.

What is Dinner Table Syndrome?

Having a seat at the table doesn’t always mean being included. Deaf and Deafblind people often face dinner table syndrome — missing out because communication barriers build walls. Watch Haben Girma and Rachel Kolb break it down and share solutions. How do YOU stay connected?

Descriptive Transcript

Haben Girma, a woman in her thirties with medium dark skin, long black hair, and dancing hazel eyes speaks to the camera. She has a mic clipped to a teal top, and behind her is a blue wall.

Haben: Sometimes around the dinner table I feel stressed. It’s a paradoxical feeling of being present, but because of communication barriers, feeling like you’re not actually there because you’re missing out on so much information. This is an experience a lot of Deaf and Deafblind people have gone through, and there’s a name for it.

Rachel Kolb, a white woman in her thirties with blonde hair and a light blue top, signs to the camera in American Sign Language. She is standing in front of a light wooden cabinet. A voiceover of Rachel speaking English plays as she signs.

Rachel: Yes, Deaf people like me often call that feeling “dinner table syndrome.” In my new book, Articulate, I tell one story about how I experienced dinner table syndrome during my 19th birthday. That was my first year of college. I went out to dinner to celebrate with a group of hearing people from my dorm. Almost no one knew how to sign. When I showed up, I knew they’d come to celebrate me. None of them wanted to exclude me. But still, I sat there and watched their conversation flying, back and forth, their laughter swirling around the table. I couldn’t keep up. It felt terrible.

Haben: As a Deafblind person, I’ve experienced dinner table syndrome among hearing people and among Deaf people. Dinner table syndrome is a mismatch between the group communications and the communication needs of the individual person. Every Deaf and Deafblind person is different. Some sign, some voice, some like me use Braille.

So what we need is to first identify what’s happening. Naming it allows us to reclaim our place at the table by coming up with strategies, both for Deaf people and for hearing people, because it’s a team effort to feel fully present at a table.

Rachel: For me, signing is the most effective dinner table syndrome prevention strategy. I encourage my friends to learn ASL, or I think about my other access options, such as interpreting services. When I go to participate in a mixed group and there isn’t an interpreter, I think about how to keep the group small. I often prefer one-on-one conversations best. I ask my hearing friends to please look at me, or speak clearly, or be more expressive, or use a little bit of sign or gesture or pointing, or we can write things down, or text, or generally be more…

Rachel pulls out a copy of her book and shows it to the camera. The title ARTICULATE: A DEAF MEMOIR OF VOICE is on the cover, the letters of “Articulate” assembling gradually across the page, bold pink and purple swirls in the background.

Rachel: Articulate.

Rachel points to the title of her book and grins.

Rachel: What strategies do you use to feel more connected with other people? You can comment below.

Join us in celebrating 200 years of Braille at the Coupvray castle park on September 20, 2025

Join us in celebrating 200 years of Braille at the Coupvray castle park on September 20, 2025. Visit Coupvray’s website for more information about the Braille Bicentennial.

Descriptive Transcript

Haben Girma, a woman in her thirties with medium dark skin, long black hair, and dancing hazel eyes speaks to the camera. She has a mic clipped to a teal top, and behind her is a blue wall.

Haben: Braille has a bicentennial coming up!

Photo: Haben’s fingers glide over a light-colored paper covered in dots.

Haben: Some people say Braille is old-fashioned, but you can tell them ink has been around for thousands of years; and last I checked sighted people are still writing with ink.

Braille is only 200 years young, and blind people all over the world—lawyers, programmers, teachers—continue to use Braille to access knowledge. 

Photo: A tactile model of the Sydney Opera House has Braille on all four sides.

Haben: A lot of people ask me, “How did you go through Harvard Law School as a Deafblind person?” Braille!

The video zooms in on dots rapidly rising and falling on a Braille display.

Haben: It’s not the only thing, but it made a huge difference to let me have access to textbooks, exams, and conversations. Huge gratitude goes out to the teacher who invented Braille, Louis Braille. 

Photo: A portrait of a man with light skin, short reddish-brown wavy hair, and a serene expression with his eyes closed. He wears a dark, formal coat over a high-collared top with buttons down the front.

Haben: So it’s named after him and he was born in Coupvray, France. It’s just outside of Paris and the celebration is gonna be there at his hometown. It’s September 20, 2025. It’s free and open to all. There will be accessible games, art, music. There will be educational panels. Help share the word.

Photo: Haben stretches a hand toward the top of a detailed, metal model of the Eiffel Tower rising about four feet high above a museum table. 

Haben: I’m going to be there and I hope you will be, too.

I broke my ankle and now have 3 disabilities! My top 3 perks of using a wheelchair.

I broke my ankle, and let me tell you: using a wheelchair while Deafblind is an experience for the next book! In honor of #DisabilityPrideMonth here are my favorite things about using a chair. 

Thank you to my friend Dr. H’Sien Hayward, a psychologist and experienced wheelchair user, for patiently answering all my chair questions! 

Descriptive Transcript

Video description: Haben, a woman with medium dark skin, dancing hazel eyes, and long dark hair, sits in a manual wheelchair. She has a microphone clipped to her black, wrap-style dress, and a support boot on her left foot. Behind and above, a canopy of trees provide welcome shade on a summer day. 

Haben: I broke my ankle and now I have three disabilities! Three! If you’re organizing a disability panel, you’re in luck! You can just hire me. I offer triple the perspectives, triple the wisdom, triple the speaking fees! 

You’re probably wondering what happened. When we ask people that question, we’re inviting them to share their trauma, their pain, and not everyone wants to share their injury story. I don’t ask people for their injury story. If they want to tell me, great! Beautiful! If not, that’s okay.

Rather than focusing on the break, I’m going to focus on the rebuild. That story starts at the hospital. X-rays showed there’s a fracture, and the nurse gave me crutches. I asked, “How do blind people use crutches?” 

The nurse said, “I’ve never been in this situation before.” 

Well, I’ve never broken a bone before. 

We quickly realized the easiest solution would be to use a wheelchair. 

Getting a wheelchair is actually tricky. The gold standard is to have a chair that’s custom designed for your body and lifestyle. That takes months, and the cost is astronomical!

I needed my mobility back. Like many women tired of being told to wait, I turned to Amazon. The chair arrived the very next day! I got my mobility back! And I want to share some of my favorite things about using a wheelchair.

The top one is freedom. Having the chair means I can roll out of the house. We’ve taken the chair across the country on planes, gone to parks, friends’ barbecues… That is possible because so many advocates have fought for policies and laws that would make more of our world wheelchair accessible.

My second favorite thing about having a wheelchair is that wherever you go, you have a seat. And this seat with a fancy cushion is way more comfortable than most of the other seats.

Third, as someone who can’t drive because I’m blind, it’s actually quite fun to be able to roll on my own wheels. A smooth hallway turns into a runway, and I’ve been enjoying that!

Cross-disability friendships are super important, and one of my good friends is Dr. H’sien Hayward. She’s been teaching me a lot about wheelchair life. 

Video description: Dr. H’Sien Hayward, a smiling woman with light skin,  voluminous blonde hair styled in soft curls swept to one side, and wearing a black blouse with puffed, short sleeves speaks from a video recording. She is sitting in a warmly lit room with high, slanted wooden ceilings and floral artwork on the walls.

H’Sien: Happy Disability Pride Month! I remember a moment many years ago that revealed to me just how sacred life in a chair can be. 

Photo: H’Sien grins while surrounded by pigeons in a sunny courtyard. She’s dressed all in black, including her sporty, manual wheelchair.

H’Sien (voiceover): It was the early 2000s and I was volunteering in Mongolia. We had brought about 250 wheelchairs and set up a clinic in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar.

Video returns to her speaking.

H’Sien: And a woman of around 70 arrived. I was told that she had been paralyzed 44 years earlier from a stroke, and that her family had just brought her by horseback across the Gobi Desert for three days to our clinic. She was about to receive her first wheelchair, and when she did, tears began to stream down her face. Not tears of sadness because she was about to begin a life confined to a wheelchair. No, these were tears of joy because she got to spend a life liberated by a wheelchair.

Video returns to Haben.

Haben: Thank you, H’sien! Everyone should have a H’sien in their lives. 

I’m also really grateful for my family for helping with so many different things. My mom in particular has been cooking for me and she is a phenomenal cook! She is really, really good! I might have to fracture another bone. 

The bone should have a full recovery, and in the meantime, I’m enjoying chair life and reading lots of good books. One book I strongly recommend is a book called Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law.

Photo: Mylo, a German Shepherd dog with pointy ears, gazes with fascination into the pages of a book. The cover has an image of Haben facing forward confidently in a blue dress. The background is a warm red, and the title appears in white text.

Haben: Ask your library and bookstore if they have it! And if you enjoyed it, share it. Leave a good review! 

This is not the summer I planned, but it’s definitely a summer going in my next book.

My first Braille Map Experience at a Garden: Seattle Sensory Garden

The first time I experienced a Braille map of a garden was in Seattle. Thoughtfully designed exhibits throughout this oasis encourage us to savor all our senses; they even have a tribute to proprioception, the sense for knowing where your body is in space, a kind of internal GPS. While most gardens focus on sight, this one celebrates six senses!

Many organizations worked together to create this free, public garden: the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, Friends of the Sensory Garden, Local Lions Clubs, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle Parks Foundation, and more. Thank you!

Descriptive Transcript

Haben gently runs her fingers across Braille on a vertical sign. The top part says, “Welcome to Woodland Park Rose Garden, Open 7:30 a.m. to Dusk.” Below that, an arrow points to the right and says:

Haben (reading out loud): Seattle Sensory Garden!

Seeing Eye dog Mylo and Haben stride along a wide, paved path toward a blue archway. Their friends Margaux Joffe and her small dog Codi stand beside a map for the garden. The sign has print, Braille, and tactile lines for the map. It’s tilted at an angle to make Braille reading easier. Haben stands by the sign, reading the Braille out loud.

Haben (reading): A garden in peak season is a riot for the senses! A symphony of sound, scents, and sight. We invite you to touch, see, listen, smell and move.

She touches a lilac, a small purple flower, leaning close to enjoy the sweet fragrance.

Haben (reading): Local Lions Clubs who serve people who are deaf and blind planted the seed of an idea for this space in 2008.

The camera zooms in on her hands reading, then shows the map with “Meadow Gardens,” “Woodland Gardens,” “Cathedral of Melodies,” “Table of Understanding,” and more.

Haben (reading): Come stimulate your senses at the Seattle Sensory Garden, an inclusive space for people of all ages and abilities.

Touch Tour at the Museum of Flight in Seattle

Imagine a future where blind people building planes, flying planes, and shaping aviation policy is so common it ceases to be remarkable. Seattle’s Museum of Flight has a selection of planes both blind and sighted people are encouraged to touch. Blind guests can also arrange an extended touch tour, and during my visit a pilot invited us to step over the public access barriers. The hands-on exploration of aviation history included studying the plane modeled on the one flown by Amelia Earhart. We’re excited for more museums around the world to offer accessible programs like touch tours!

Thank you to Gary, our museum guide, for teaching us so much about flying! I’m also grateful for my friend Margaux Joffe who scheduled the tour and joined me on this adventure.

Descriptive Transcript

Seeing Eye dog Mylo wags his tail as he nudges Haben. She’s sitting inside a small, single-seater plane that is positioned slightly lower than the museum floor. She explores the control panels with one hand while petting Mylo who is standing outside the plane.

Haben (voiceover): The Museum of Flight in Seattle offers touch tours.

Photo: Three people smiling together by a railing overlooking a multilevel, expansive museum gallery with a variety of planes on the floor and in the air. On the left is Margaux Joffe, a woman with light skin, short dark hair, glasses, a patterned jacket, dark pants, and white sneakers. She has her arm around Gary, an older man with white hair including his beard, light skin, glasses, navy blue blazer with a lapel pin, light shirt, tie, an ID on a lanyard, dark trousers, and dark shoes. On the right is Haben, a woman with long black hair, dark skin, wearing a denim jacket over a dark dress, and sneakers. Mylo lies on the floor in front of the group, smiling with his tongue out.

Haben (voiceover): Allowing blind individuals to feel a variety of planes, from the engines to climbing into the pilot’s seat.

Photo: Haben studies a radial aircraft engine through blue gloves. Gary also wears blue gloves. Behind them, multiple planes are visible on the floor as well as suspended from the ceiling.

Haben (voiceover): Touch tours help make science more accessible.

Photo: Margaux and Haben smile from inside the pilot seats of a small, bright red RotorWay Scorpion. The helicopter has several strips of black tape on its front. Still, Haben is signing ILY with optimism. Behind them is a large, gray and white model of a space capsule with a yellow entry ramp and open hatch. The capsule and helicopter are in a room with blue carpets, blue walls with painted puffy, white clouds, and panoramic windows showing more planes outside.

One Deafblind, Unpaid Protestor

For many disabled people, showing up at a protest requires planning. Will there be an ASL interpreter or will you need to find a volunteer? Will the space be wheelchair accessible? For me, as a Deafblind person, I need a seat or table for my Braille computer and keyboard. Organizers who share detailed accessibility information make it easier for disabled people to join.

Descriptive Transcript

Haben (voiceover):
Braille helps me protest, allowing me to read signs that I’m not able to see.
Advocate in any way you can, whether that’s standing, sitting, voicing, signing, online or offline.

The video shows Haben and her parents smiling and waving under a majestic redwood. A short wooden border circles the tree, and Haben is sitting on the border with one hand on her Braille computer and her Seeing Eye dog on the ground beside her. The video pans around the park showing hundreds of people of all ages—some sitting, some standing, and some holding signs that say: “Respect the dignity of every human being,” “Fight fascism,” “Hands off the rule of law,” “Don’t tread on our first amendment rights,” “Stop the big ugly betrayal bill,” “Dissent,” and more.