Judy Heumann, ‘mother of the disability rights movement,’ dead at 75

Judy Heumann, a well-known activist who helped pass legislation protecting the rights of people with disabilities, has died at the age of 75.

News of his death on Saturday in Washington, DC, was posted on his website and social media accounts and confirmed by the American Association of People with Disabilities.

The exact cause of Heumann’s death was not immediately known. He has been in the hospital for about a week but expects to go home, said Maria Town, the association’s president and CEO.

“In addition to all the policy making and legal battles that he helped win and fight, he really helped to make disability not a bad thing, to be able to be disabled in the world and not be considered as someone who should be in a separate and special place,” said Town .

Heumann, who lost the ability to walk at the age of two after contracting polio, has been called the “mother of the disability rights movement” for her longtime advocacy for the disabled through protests and legal action, her website said.

He lobbied for legislation that eventually led to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Rehabilitation Act. He was assistant secretary of the US Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, from 1993 in the Clinton administration, until 2001.

Heumann also participated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was ratified in May 2008.

He helped found the Berkley Center for Independent Living, the Independent Living Movement and the World Institute on Disability and serves on the boards of several related organizations including the American Association of People with Disability, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Humanity and Inclusion and the United States International Council on Disability , his website says.

Heumann, who was born in Philadelphia in 1947 and raised in New York City, is the author of her memoir, So Heumannand a version for young adults titled, Rolling Soldier.

The book tells the story of the parents’ struggle to secure a place for their daughter in school. “Children with disabilities are considered difficulties, economically and socially,” he wrote.

She graduated from high school and earned a bachelor’s degree from Long Island University and a master’s degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. It was groundbreaking at the time, which shows just how much has changed, Wall noted.

“Today the hope for kids with disabilities is that we’re going to be included in mainstream education, that we’re going to have the opportunity to go to high school, go to college and get that degree,” Town said while admitting it’s unfair. “But I think the fact that the main assumptions have changed is a big problem, and I also think that Judy has played an important role.”

He also appeared in the 2020 documentary film, Crip Camp: The Disability Revolution, which highlights Camp Jened, the summer camp Heumann attended that helped spark the disability rights movement. This film was nominated for an Academy Award.

During the 1970s he won a lawsuit against the New York Board of Education and became the first teacher in the country to be allowed to work while using a wheelchair, which the board tried to pose as a fire hazard.

He was also a leader in the historic, non-violent occupation of the San Francisco federal building in 1977 that set the stage for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law in 1990.

Town, who has cerebral palsy, said Heumann was the one who suggested using a mobility scooter to get around more easily. He was not ready to hear it at first after the age that told him he needed to look less killed. However, he finally decided to give it a try.

“And it literally changed my life,” Town said. “And that’s part of what Judy does. She really helps people accept who they are as disabled people and be proud of that identity. And she helps a lot of people realize their own strengths as disabled people.”