Judith Heumann

Disabilities play major part in society. Many people have visible and invisible ones or will get a disability over the course of their lifetime. When we enter a public building, cross the street, or go to school, we can be sure that our needs are (at least on paper) met. However, things weren't always like this. The fight for disability rights started fairly recently, but it is not unimportant.

Judith “Judy” Heumann was born December 18, 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. When she was 18 months old, she fell ill with polio and was paralyzed in her legs from thereon out. Judith’s parents were Jews who had fled Germany to avoid prosecution by the Nazis. During the Nazi era, disabled people were the first to be institutionalized and systematically killed. So, her parents’ experiences in Germany may have been an important factor to them not following doctors’ advice to institutionalize her or leave her out. She stated that her family was very careful to include her in every way they could; she had many non-disabled friends in the neighborhood and was not locked away at home the way many other disabled children were at the time.

When Judy turned 5, it was time for her to go to kindergarten. Upon her arrival, the principal refused her, claiming that she, as a wheelchair user, was a fire hazard. For the next four years, the school board sent a tutor to Judith's house for two and a half hours every day. She also received physical therapy, meaning a therapist taught her how to crochet.

At the age of nine, Judy finally got to go to school, in a class for children with disabilities. She later said that while she is in favor of inclusive schools, the experience of being in a classroom with other disabled children was extremely valuable to her, as they shared more experiences and had the focus and time of their classroom assistants.

Some of the most valuable memories in Judy's young life were those she made in summer camp for disabled children. In the 2020 Netflix documentary Crip Camp, the life of disabled teenagers who went to Camp Jezebel in New Jersey is documented. At camp, the teenagers were dating, fighting, discussing, everything one does in summer camp. In the documentary, you can also see that the camp inhabitants have discussions about disabilities, what it means to be disabled, and what they want to do afterwards. While experimental at the time, camps like this were certainly a driving force behind social activism and the foundation of disability rights groups. As disabled children were usually institutionalized or given away at that time, these may have been some of the first instances of communication and solidarity building among disabled children.

After her high school graduation, Judy wanted to become a teacher, and although she passed the written and oral examinations, she “failed” the medical one, with the doctor stating that she was not healthy, having two paralyzed legs. The story was covered by a friend of a friend who worked for the New York Times. Following the article, Judy was contacted by a civil rights lawyer who said he would represent her for free. Judy won the trial Heumann v Board of Education and became the first wheelchair using teacher in New York state. After teaching for three years, Judy went to study at UC Berkeley. At that time, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, social activism was high, and the disabled students of UC Berkeley made lots of noise, organized protests, and founded organizations.

Following Heumann v. Board of Education, Judy received numerous letters from individuals with disabilities who shared their experiences of discrimination. Inspired by these letters, Judy, along with several friends, founded Disabled in Action (DIA) in 1970. The organization focused on ensuring the protection of people with disabilities under civil rights laws through political protest.

Early drafts of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a law intended to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities in federally funded programs, were vetoed by President Nixon in October 1972 and March 1973. In response to one of these vetoes, DIA organized a sit-in in New York City in 1972. Led by Judy, eighty activists participated in this sit-in on Madison Avenue, causing a traffic halt.

In 1977, Joseph Califano, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), refused to sign meaningful regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was the first U.S. federal civil rights protection for people with disabilities. In protest, Judy and other activists and protestors occupied the HEW building in San Francisco. Over 120 people with a range of disabilities, ranging from different kinds of paralysis to deaf or blind, occupied the building in what was still today the longest sit-in in US history. Califano issued orders that no meals or medication would be allowed in the HEW federal building, to force the protesters out.

The protesters then contacted Delancey Street Foundation and The Salvation Army, which agreed to bring them food and medication. Additionally, the protesters received support from the Black Panther Party after receiving a call from Brad Lomax, a disabled protester with multiple sclerosis and member of the Black Panther Party. The Black Panthers, committed to fighting injustice, brought them hot meals and snacks for the duration of the sit-in. The FBI also shut down the buildings phone lines to limit protesters’ contact with the “outside” world, in this section, they did, however, forget that some of the people in the building were deaf, i.e., that they could use sign language to communicate with outsiders through windows. Califano signed both the Education of All Handicapped Children regulations and the Section 504 regulations on April 28, 1977.

After her years of successful activism, Judy took on positions as special advisor for disability, education, development, and media representation in the Clinton and Obama administrations as well as in the World Bank and the Ford Foundation. Throughout the last years of her life, she continuously placed the voices and experiences of people with disabilities at the center of her work. She wrote a book in 2020, worked on the Netflix documentary Crip Camp, and hosted her own podcast Heumann Perspectives, in which she conducted interviews with other members of the disabled community.

Judy passed away on March 4th, 2023 at the age of 75. She will be remembered for her tremendous achievements for disabled people in the United States and all around the world.