Carla Herrera and her work empowering people with visual impairments

By Irma Gallo | Mexican Press Agency

Mexico’s Carla Herrera is the first person with visual impairments to graduate with a master’s degree from Harvard. For this lawyer from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, earning this degree from an Ivy League university would allow her access to spaces that were not easily accessible to people with visual impairments in the mid-1990s.

“If I went, a recent graduate, without a master’s degree from Harvard, and applied for a job, and another person who also didn’t have a master’s degree from Harvard but could see applied for the same job, given the way things were in Mexico and sadly still, it’s likely that that person would be given the job just because she could see and I couldn’t.”

This isn’t just Carla’s personal perception. Unfortunately, this continues to happen three decades later. According to the World Health Organization, “In 2023, visual impairment represents an annual global cost in terms of productivity of $411 billion.” Furthermore, it affects the quality of life of the adult population, as their employment rates may be lower while depression and anxiety rates increase.

The young lawyer was very clear about applying only to Harvard. She chose it over Yale because she liked the idea of living in Boston, a university city, and she wanted to get the full experience of what life as a foreign student entails. She arrived two months early to study a special course on legal terms in English, so by the time she entered the master’s program, she already knew how to navigate the subway, get from her home to the renowned university and vice versa, go to the supermarket, and everything else any international student needs to live in the Massachusetts capital.

“I lost my sight when I was ten. I have congenital glaucoma. Since I was a little girl, I wanted to go to Harvard. I submitted a single application. I said: if they accept me, I’ll go; if they don’t, I’ll figure out what’s next. I didn’t go through the process of sending out five or ten applications. My idea was very clear: I wanted to go to Harvard. They admitted me, but I deferred it for a year because I was working. Then, I went to do an LLM, which is a master’s degree for international students. I finished in 1995,” she says.

Herrera describes her experience as enriching. She says she made many friends and that being a very organized person allowed her to make the most of her time at the university.

“I would get up at 4 or 5 in the morning, study, read, exercise, go to my classes, and always have time to go to the museum, the movies, and all the places nearby.”

Upon completing her studies and returning to Mexico, Herrera decided to focus her efforts on guiding people with visual impairments toward personal and professional independence. She founded the Center for Studies for the Blind, A.C. (CEIAC), an organization that, in her words:

“Functions as a resource center so that people with visual impairments can access regular education. Because I don’t believe in schools for the blind. I don’t believe in separate education for people with this disability. Perhaps those with other disabilities or more disabilities do need separate spaces. It’s an organization that doesn’t believe in overprotectionism, doesn’t believe in welfare, but truly in the empowerment of the individual.”

According to data from the National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID), conducted in 2014 by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), 7.2 million people in Mexico have some type of disability. Ten years later, according to some activists, the figure is much higher: “Gabriela Quintero, of the Blind and Low Vision Community Association, said that there are 11 million people with visual impairments in Mexico, of whom 500,000 are completely blind.”

Dedicated one hundred percent to her work as a lawyer and to empowering people with visual impairments, Carla Herrera never intended to be an activist. However, when she was denied the right to enroll her family in a sports club, she fought for what she considered then, and still considers, an issue of justice.

“I’m married to a woman. We have a family of four children. We had a legal dispute here in Mexico in 2012 because they wouldn’t accept us as a family in a sports club that is very, how should I put it?…very elitist. We were both already members, but they didn’t want to accept us as a family, so we fought the legal battle. The goal wasn’t to join the club but to have our place as a family here where we live, in a very conservative society,” she told the Mexican Press Agency.

What happened, Carla recounted, led her to become known as an LGBTQ+ rights activist. However, she doesn’t recognize herself as such and is even considered critical on some points.

“They tell me I’m an LGBT activist, but to be very honest, I have criticisms. Perhaps those in that movement won’t like what I’m about to say, although I accept and respect all people with their choices and their gender. But the issue of sexual orientation is not the same as the issue of transgenderism, and I feel like they’re lumped together. I’m not discriminating in any way; if I were transgender, I would tell you the same. There are people who can be transgender and be women. I’m not transgender; I’m a woman, and I’m gay.”

With two centers, one in Ciudad Juárez and another in the city of Chihuahua, CEIAC offers an intervention model tailored to each user, working with mobility and independence, educational inclusion, psychology, inclusive technology, neurodevelopmental care, and initiation into the arts. On YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, you can find her as @ceiacmexico.

“Today, CEIAC is present in two cities, serving 500 people a month, and I’m still on the board and dedicate part of my time, part of my life, a couple of hours each week to it,” Gabriela tells Mexican Press Agency.

Every October 15th, International White Cane Day is celebrated to remember that people with visual impairments are one of the communities that face the greatest discrimination. The commemoration was proclaimed in 1980 by the World Blind Union in Paris.