Judith Heumann
Encyclopedia
Life
Heumann's commitment to disability rights stems from her personal experiences. She had polio at the age of 18 months, and has used a wheelchairWheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
most of her life. Heumann had to fight repeatedly to be included in the educational system. The local public school refused to allow her to attend, calling her a fire hazard. Heumann's mother, a community activist in her own right, challenged the decision, and Judy was allowed to go to school in the fourth grade. Judy Heumann began taking major steps toward rights for people with disabilities in college, organizing rallies and protests with other students with disabilities. When she got out of school and was denied her New York teaching license because the board did not believe she could get herself or her students out of the building in case of a fire, she took the case to court. After the judge recommended that New York City’s Board of Education rethink its decision, Heumann became the first person in a wheelchair to teach in New York City and taught elementary school there for three years.
In 1970 Heumann and several friends with disabilities founded Disabled in Action
Disabled in Action
Disabled In Action of Metropolitan New York is a civil rights organization, based in New York City, committed to ending discrimination against people with disabilities through litigation and demonstrations. Founded in 1970 by Judith E. Heumann and several other disabled friends, Disabled In Action...
, an organization that focused on securing the protection of people with disabilities under civil rights laws. While serving as a legislative assistant to the chairperson of the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, in 1974 she helped develop legislation that became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a United States federal law that governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to children with disabilities...
. An early leader in the Independent Living Movement, she then moved to Berkeley where she served as deputy director of the Center for Independent Living. She also organized the sit-ins at the U.S. Department of Health Education, and Welfare offices in San Francisco and around the U.S. which resulted in HEW Secretary Joseph Califano signing the Rehabilitation Act's Section 504 regulations. She co-founded the World Institute on Disability with Ed Roberts
Ed Roberts (activist)
Edward Verne Roberts was an American activist. He was the first student with severe disabilities to attend the University of California, Berkeley. He was a pioneering leader of the disability rights movement.-Early life:...
and Joan Leon in 1983, serving as co-director until 1993.
Heumann served in the Clinton Administration as Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services at the US Department of Education from 1993 to 2001. From 2002 to 2006 she served as the World Bank Group
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...
's first Advisor on Disability and Development, leading the World Bank's work on disability and worked to expand the Bank’s knowledge and capability to work with governments and civil society on including disability in the Bank discussions with client countries, its country-based analytical work, and support for improving policies, programs, and projects that allow disabled people around the world to live and work in the economic and social mainstream of their communities. She was Lead Consultant to the Global Partnership for Disability and Development. Until recently she was the Director of the Department of Disability Services for the District of Columbia, but in 2010 became the Special Advisor on Disability Rights for the US State Department under President Obama.
Personal
Heumann graduated from Long Island UniversityLong Island University
Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...
in 1969 and gained a Master of Science degree in public health at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1975. She has been awarded honorary doctorates by Long Island University in Brooklyn, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
and the University of Toledo. She was the first recipient of the Henry B. Betts Award from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago , ranked the "#1 Rehabilitation in America" by U.S. News & World Report every year since 1991 is a rehabilitation hospital located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It also operates a network of alliance hospitals and outpatient and day rehabilitation...
(later awarded jointly with the American Association of People with Disabilities). Heumann is married to Jorge Pineda, and lives in Washington, D.C. She is the sister of Joe Heumann, a noted film professor and published author.
Further reading
- Judith E. Heumann, Including the Voices of Disabled People in the International Development Agenda, Thornburgh Family Lecture Series, University of Pittsburgh School of Law accessed at http://www.law.pitt.edu/news/thornburghlecture06.php July 24, 2006
- Judith E. Heumann, Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement: Pioneering Disability Rights Advocate and Leader, 1960s-2000, oral history, Online Archive of California, 2004, retrieved from http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb9v19p0k9 July 24, 2006
- Ilene Zeitzer interview with Judy Heumann. Originally published in, "Change from Within: International Overview of the Impact of Disabled Politicians and Disability Policy Bodies on Governance". retrieved from http://www.rollingrains.com/archives/000513.html April 29, 2009