Judith Heumann

Judith Heumann (1947-2023) was an American disability rights activist, author, and government official widely regarded as the most important figure in the history of the American disability rights movement. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she contracted polio as an infant and used a wheelchair throughout her life. Her early experiences fighting for access to public school, and later her landmark lawsuit against the New York City Board of Education to become a licensed public school teacher, shaped a lifetime of advocacy. She was a central organizer of the Section 504 sit-in of 1977, the longest occupation of a federal building in American history, which directly preceded the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Heumann later served as Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services under President Clinton and as Special Advisor on International Disability Rights under President Obama. Her memoir, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, written with Kristen Joiner, was published by Beacon Press in 2020 and won the Meridian Award for Biography. She was also featured in the Netflix documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020), executive-produced by Barack and Michelle Obama.