Judith Heumann
Advocate for the Disabled
1947–2023 A.D.

One source defines “disability” as “an experience of any conditions that make it more difficult for a person to do certain activities …” and we know there are many types of disabilities—physical, mental, emotional and others. However, up until the recent past disabled people struggled not just with their limitations, but also with legal and social restrictions as they try to live a “normal” life. And this new consciousness and the resultant changes for the disabled were inspired and made possible by many persons. Particularly by one woman, disabled herself, who advocated for improved lives for everyone. This was activist Judith Heumann, a lady that one source called “A lifelong civil rights advocate for people with disabilities.”

Born in Philadelphia, in December, 1947, Ms. Heumann was the daughter of German Jewish immigrants who had come to the U.S. some 10 years before. In fact, many members of her family had perished in the Holocaust. As she grew up in Brooklyn, Judith contracted polio at the age of 18 months which meant that she had to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life. At that time her doctor advised her parents to put her in an institution since she would never walk. As she later wrote, “Institutionalization was the status quo in 1949. Kids with disabilities were considered a hardship, economically and socially.”

When Judith entered public school she encountered the prevalent attitudes at the time. “Kids with disabilities were considered a hardship, economically and socially.” she stated. When Judith tried to attend kindergarten at her neighborhood school she was denied since the school considered her being in a wheelchair a “fire hazard.” However, her parents fought back and demanded she be admitted. Eventually she attended a special school and went on to complete high school, college and graduate school. She earned a B.A. from Long Island University in 1969 and six years later earned her master’s in Public Health at University of California at Berkeley.

In the 1960s as Judith attended a special camp for disabled children in the Catskills where she came to know other disabled children. She wrote later: “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.” At the camp she became acquainted with several other future activists and later returned to work as a counselor.

Then in 1970 Ms. Heumann was denied her teaching credentials because officials felt she would not be able to get her students safely out of the classroom in case of a fire. She successfully sued and gained the right to teach in a wheelchair—the first to do so. Then that same decade, Judith took her concerns into the street when she was part of a protest that shut down traffic in Manhattan, to protest President Nixon’s veto of the 1972 Rehabilitation Act. Then she managed a 26 day sit down, in the Federal Building in San Francisco to protest the agency’s lack of enforcement, of various parts of the revived Rehabilitation Act.

Ms. Heumann continued to be influential in creating and putting into action pieces of legislation dealing with the disabled. She also helped establish the Berkley Center for Independent Living and the encouraged the Independent Living movement. In addition, she served on the boards of many nonprofits such as the United States International Council on Disability, and Save the Children.

Then as a legislative assistant for a U.S. Senate Committee in 1974 Judith assisted with the preparation of legislation that became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1974.

Heumann was later appointed by the mayor of Washington, D.C. as the city’s first Director for the Department on Disability Services. Then in 1993 during the administration of Bill Clinton, she became assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Service in the Department of Education, and she served till 2001. The next year Heumann served as the first advisor on Disability for the World Bank Group and was involved in international efforts to assist the disabled.

Under President Barack Obama Heumann served as Special Advisor on International Disability Rights for the U.S. State Department and was the first woman to occupy this position—serving from 2010 to 2017. This position was discontinued in 2017 but later reestablished under President Biden’s administration.

Her memoirs/autobiography, An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist was published in February, 2020. Judith was married to Jorge Pineda in 1992 and they lived in Washington. There she passed away in March, 2023 at the age of 75.

Indeed, even though in a wheelchair, Judith Heumann advocated and implemented changes in action and attitude toward the disabled. As she wrote: “Some people say that what I did changed the world. But really I simply refused to accept what I was told about who I could be. And I was willing to make a fuss about it.”

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Anne Adams is a retired church staffer. She lives in East Texas and has an historical column for a local newspaper. She has published in Christian and secular publications for more than 40 years.

References:
Wikipedia
Judith Heumann