History Note
Each month of 2007,
Access Press will feature an important person in disability history:
local, regional or national
Judy Heumann
Key Player in Disability Rights Movement
Judy Heumann (b. 1947) has
had a hand in most of the major advances in the disability rights
movement in this country.
At eighteen months she
contracted polio, leaving her in a wheelchair. Heumann faced many
prejudices while growing up disabled. The school refused to allow
her to attend, calling her a fire hazard. It wasn’t
until the fourth grade, after Heumann’s mother had fought a
hard battle, that she was allowed to go to school.
Heumann’s early
struggles prepared her for bigger ones ahead. When the New York
City Board of Education refused to allow her to teach, based solely
on the fact that she was disabled, Heumann sued and won. She went
on to teach elementary school for three years. It was due to this
incident that in 1970 Heumann, with several other disabled friends,
founded Disabled in Action. Its goal was to secure protection for
the disabled under civil rights laws.
Heumann became a legislative
assistant to the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Labor and
Public Welfare in 1974. While there she helped develop legislation
that became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Along
with her colleagues, Ed Roberts and Joan Leon, Heumann helped create
and develop the first public policy research think tank devoted
to disability issues, known as the World Institute on Disability.
She also shaped and co-directed the nation’s
first Center on Independent Living in Berkeley, California.
In 1990 Heumann helped draft the landmark piece of legislation,
The Americans with Disabilities Act. She has also assisted in developing
regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. She helped
design federal and state legislation that led to the creation of
more than 200 independent living centers nationwide. She is also
the co-founder of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities.
Today Heumann is head
of her own consulting firm, Heumann & Associates. ![]()
Sources: www.chelseaforum.com,
www.ilusa.com, www.disabilityhistory.org
