Dr Karen Hall is a special education educator, who was born with a congenital physical disability that mimics a triple amputee. Though she attended a school for children with special needs only periodically and started at primary school when she was 12 years old, determination has seen her earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in special education and a doctorate in anthropology and communications.
Though not amputated, three of her limbs end just below the right knee, at the ankle, and at the wrist on her right arm.
“Some people said I was born that way because my mother or my family is cursed,” she related. “Some said my mom was trying to throw me away. I always told my mother, Barbara Hall, it didn’t matter what people thought, said, or called me once I had her, my grandmother’s and uncle’s love and support. I heard things like, ‘she has a pretty face but it is a pity she was born this way’. I heard them say, ‘she has these skills but…’.”