Remembering Activist Judith Heumann

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Judith Heumann’s critical role in the advancement of the Americans with Disabilities Act was featured in the 2020 documentary Crip Camp, which won a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton. The documentary told the story of Camp Jened, a summer camp for disabled people in the Catskills where Heumann worked as a counselor. We mourn the loss of this extraordinary person.

Judith Heumann was born in 1947 in Philadelphia to Jewish exiles of Nazi Germany. She contracted polio in 1949 - thirty years before the disease would be eradicated from the U.S. - and was left paralyzed in all four limbs. 

Local schools, unequipped for the needs of children with disabilities, prevented Heumann from enrolling until she was nine years old. When she was finally matriculated, she was separated from the other children. Despite this, Heumann eventually received a bachelor’s degree from Long Island University and a master’s in public health from U.C. Berkeley.

Heumann first gained public attention at the age of 22, when she sued the New York City Board of Education for denying her a teaching license - despite having passed the required exams. It was one of the first such civil rights cases in the country. The New York Times article covering the case was titled, “Woman in Wheel Chair Sues to Become Teacher.” Months later, Heumann won her case, and became the first accredited quadriplegic teacher in the city’s history. 

For the rest of her life, Heumann advocated for people with disabilities. In 1977, after the federal government delayed a set of regulations meant to prevent discrimination on the basis of disability, she helped organize a sit-in at the Federal Office Building in San Francisco. Roughly 150 activists - many with disabilities - occupied the building for 26 days until the legislation was signed. It was the longest peaceful occupation of a government building in U.S. history. 

Later in her career, Heumann would work in the Clinton administration in the office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, and in the Obama administration as Special Advisor for International Disability Rights in the State Department. In this capacity, Heumann traveled around the world, helping governments and non-profit organizations to improve the rights of disabled people.

In response to Crip Camp’s’s reception, Heumann said, “It’s very humbling. What I want is for the book and the film — and other books and films — to allow people to recognize the real absence of representation of disability in media.”