Judith (Judy) Heumann was born in 1947 and contracted polio at two years old. As a result she has had to rely on a wheelchair for mobility and needs care to perform some of the tasks of daily life.

It would be hard to exaggerate Judith Heumann’s importance in the international movement for disability rights. She has been a part of every important event in the struggle for disability rights. 

Her mother fought hard for Judy to get an education as a child because services for the disabled were minimal and classrooms were not accessible. As an older student she struggled to get access to education. She earned her B.A. in 1969 and had to sue the New York Board of Education to get her teaching license.

In the 1970s she worked as a counselor at Camp Jened, a summer camp for disabled people. Many of the major players in the disability rights movement were involved in this camp, which changed their lives. I encourage everyone to watch Crip Camp on Netflix, or at the free YouTube link below. It is an amazing story and Judith is one of the main characters. 

Judy was instrumental in almost all the disability activism in the 1970s including:

– Shutting down Manhattan traffic to protest Nixon’s veto of the 1972 Rehabilitation Act

– Getting hauled off an airplane for asserting her right to a seat

– Launching a sit-in—which ended up lasting 28 days—at a federal building in San Francisco, calling for a plan and funding to get Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act implemented and enforced.

– She was one of the founders of the groundbreaking Berkeley Center for Independent living 

Heumann earned her Master’s of Public Health at Berkeley in 1975 and proceeded to build institutional structures for disability rights:

– In 1983, she co-founded the World Institute on Disability (WID) as one of the first global disability rights organizations founded and continually led by people with disabilities that works to fully integrate people with disabilities into the communities around them via research, policy, and consulting efforts.

– From 1993 to 2001, Judy served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education.

– Judy served as the World Bank’s first Adviser on Disability and Development from 2002 to 2006. In this position, she led the World Bank’s disability work to expand its knowledge and capability to work with governments and civil society on including disability in the global conversation.

– President Obama appointed Judy as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State, where she served from 2010-2017.  

– Mayor Fenty of D.C. appointed her as the first Director for the Department on Disability Services, where she was responsible for the Developmental Disability Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration.

She has played a role in the development and implementation of major legislation including the IDEA, Section 504, the Americans with Disability Act, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

As Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation (2017–2019), she wrote “Road Map for Inclusion: Changing the Face of Disability in Media.” She also currently serves on a number of non-profit boards including the American Association of People with Disabilities,  the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund,  Humanity and Inclusion, as well as the Human Rights Watch Board.

Fully one quarter of our population has a disability. ANYONE can become disabled: it is the most inclusive minority group. Aging almost always involves some kind of disability.

SOURCES

This is the best and most thorough synopsis of Huemann’s story I have found:

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/judith-heumann

Memoir, with Kristen Joiner, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist

Judith Heumann’s website

“Crip Camp,” documentary on Netflix, but you can also stream for free from here: https://wheelchairtravel.org/how-to-stream-netflix-crip-camp-movie-for-free/

TED talk in the fall of 2016, “Our Fight for Disability Rights—and Why We’re Not Done Yet”