Known as the “Mother of the Disability Rights Movement,” Judith Heumann was a disability rights activist and a trailblazer for fellow campaigners. She is recognized as an international leader and was a lifelong advocate for people with disabilities.
Heumann worked with governments and non-governmental organizations, non-profits, and various other disability interest groups. She was instrumental in the development and implementation of several significant legislation, including Section 504, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Heumann was born in 1947 in Philadelphia and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She contracted polio before she was two years old and used a wheelchair for most of her life. She and her parents struggled repeatedly for her inclusion in the education system, which refused to accommodate her wheelchair because it was deemed a “fire hazard.”
Not wanting to miss out on mainstream activities, from ages 9 to 18 Heumann attended Camp Jened, a pioneering summer camp for disabled children and young adults in Hunter, New York. The experience stayed with her and was featured in the 2020 award winning Oscar-nominated documentary “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” produced by the Obama Higher Ground Production company. That same year, she published her memoir, “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist,” written with Kristen Joiner.
Heumann first rose to prominence back in 1970 when she sued the New York City Board of Education for denying her a teaching license because the Board did not believe she could get herself or her students out of the building in the case of a fire. The case settled without going to trial and Heumann became the first wheelchair user to teach in New York City.
Heumann participated in a series of watershed protests during the 1970s, uniting disabled people with impairments of all kinds. She moved to the west coast and earned a master’s in public health at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she co-founded the renowned Berkeley Center for Independent Living with other disabled students and served as its deputy director until 1982. The following year, she co-founded the World Institute on Disability in Berkeley, serving as co-director until 1993. She then spent time working for President Bill Clinton on special education and rehabilitation services for disabled people.
Heumann died on March 4, 2023, at the age of 75.