DESCRIPTION: Haben sitting on couch. HABEN GIRMA: We're not inferior, but that's the assumption that's embedded in our culture. DESCRIPTION: On-screen text over image of Haben in a cap and gown.

Girma, 29, is deaf and blind; she was born that way. But none of that prevented her from speaking at two packed panels during South by Southwest last week and taking a few minutes to chat with me.