Judith (Judy) Heumann

1947-2023

This selection for “foundations from the Foundation” celebrates the work of Judith (Judy) Heumann (December 18, 1947 – March 4, 2023) on the first anniversary of her death. She  was an American disability rights activist, known as the "Mother of the Disability Rights Movement". 

Heumann contracted polio at the age of 18 months, and used a wheelchair most of her life.[12] She rejected cliches about disability as a tragic experience, saying, "Disability only becomes a tragedy for me when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives––job opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example. It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair."[

She attended Camp Jened, a camp for children with disabilities, in Hunter, New York, every summer from ages 9 to 18. Heumann's experience of camp brought her a greater awareness of the shared disabled experience, later saying, "We had the same joy together, the same anger over the way we were treated and the same frustrations at opportunities we didn't have." The 2020 Oscar-nominated documentary Crip Camp features Camp Jened campers, including Heumann. https://cripcamp.com/[

Heumann began making major moves toward rights for people with disabilities while attending Long Island University, Heumann began her activism for the rights for people with disabilities by organizing rallies and protests with other students with and without disabilities, demanding access to classrooms by ramps and the right to live in a dorm.  She won a lawsuit against the New York City Board of Education for denying her a teacher’s license because of her disability.

She earned her MPH at U of California at Berkley where she joined other disability rights leaders and was part of the Center for Independent Living movement.  In 1977, she helped organize a 24-day sit-in at the San Francisco office of U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which pressured the Carter administration to finally execute protections for disabled people, eventually leading to passage of the American with Disabilities Act (“since we’d been left out of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we needed our own Civil Rights Act”).

Her work with governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), non-profits, and various other disability interest groups, produced significant contributions since the 1970s to the development of human rights legislation and policies benefiting children and adults with disabilities. Through her work in the World Bank and the State Department, Heumann led the mainstreaming of disability rights into international development

Take some time to hear her story and learn about her pioneering work in her own words:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJr4wGcLNsA  (TED talk)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU2NBntjMqA  Judy Huemann youtube channel

https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/judy-heumann.html

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.00050

Her biography brings the disability rights movement to life: Heumann, Judith. Being Heumann large print edition: An unrepentant memoir of a disability rights activist. Beacon Press, 2020.