Judy Heumann, who spent decades attacking a political organization that ignored disability rights and won war after war, finally joined and reformed the very organization she once belonged to. attack, died Saturday in Washington, DC. She is 75 years old.
ONE Notification on her personal website does not specify the reason.
Quadriplegic from an early age, Ms. Heumann (pronounced human) began her career campaigning for a woman to be allowed to work as a teacher in New York City when discrimination against Treatment of people with disabilities is not widely understood as an issue.
She went on to become an official in the Clinton administration, special counsel in the Obama State Department, and a member or board member at some of the nation’s leading nonprofit organizations. She also featured in the 2020 Oscar-nominated documentary “Crip Camp”.
Over time, she has witnessed a revolution happen when the government gets involved in the lives of people with disabilities like her. And she, like anyone else, helped bring about that revolution.
A pivotal moment came in San Francisco in 1977.
It has been four years since President Richard Nixon signed the Rehabilitation Act, part of which, 504, was seen as prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities by any entity that receives federal funds.
“It is a very important provision because it means that, for example, you cannot discriminate against people with disabilities in preschools, primary schools, secondary schools, universities, hospitals, institutions. government officials,” Ms. Heumann speak BBC in 2020. “And if there is discrimination in fact, you will have a remedy. You can go to court. You can file a complaint.”
However, officials repeatedly delayed implementing the measure, and Joseph A. Califano Jr., secretary of health, education and welfare under President Jimmy Carter, said he wanted a review of the regulations. prior to allowing execution.
Activists reacted that there would be nationwide protests if Mr. Califano did not sign the original form of the law by April 4.
April 5 has arrived. Protesters in cities across the country seized federal offices. Miss Heumann, then 29 years old, organized the San Francisco team. She appeared with more than 100 different people with disabilities to demand action from Joseph Maldonado, the area director who reported to Mr. Califano from San Francisco.
“No one informed him; he doesn’t know what a 504 is,” Ms. Heumann speak The New York Times in 2020. “We were skeptical that nobody took what we were doing.”
Other protests soon ended. But the sit-in protest in San Francisco continued for nearly a month. It is often described as the longest nonviolent occupation of a federal building in US history.
Many protesters did not bring necessary supplies, even without clothes to change. The government cuts off the building’s water and telephone connections.
Fortunately, deaf protesters know another way to communicate: sign language. That’s how they get the message out of the building. Other protesters know of an interesting form of entertainment: wheelchair racing.
The sit-in rally received support from the mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone, who sent the mattress to, and from the Black Panther Party, which organized delivered ribs and fried chicken.
Ms. Heumann later traveled to Washington and participated in a special congressional hearing. “We will no longer allow the government to suppress people with disabilities,” said Ms. Heumann speak. “We want the law to be enforced. We don’t want any more segregation.”
Then she turned to speak with Eugene Eidenberg, Mr. Califano’s agent. “I would appreciate it,” she said, her voice shaky but firm, “if you would stop shaking your head in agreement when I don’t think you understand what we’re talking about.”
On April 28, Mr. Califano signed Section 504. The provisions of this measure for federal organizations and activities prepared for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, expanding protections protection to include both the private sector and many other areas of public life.
After Mr. Califano surrendered, Mrs. Heumann speak“We believe we won’t be in big trouble.”
Judith Ellen Heumann was born in Philadelphia on December 18, 1947. She grew up in Brooklyn. Her parents, Werner and Ilse Heumann, were both expelled from Nazi Germany as Jewish children, and neither of them ever saw their parents again. Werner ran a butcher shop and Ilse volunteered with local civic groups.
During the 1949 polio epidemic, when Judy was only 18 months old, she was diagnosed with the disease. She spent three months in an iron lung.
When her mother tried to enroll her in kindergarten, the principal said she could not attend, calling her a “fire hazard”. She wasn’t able to properly enroll in school until she was 9, and even then she took her classes with other students with disabilities in the basement. She could only mingle with the rest of the student council once a week during rallies.
She attended an exceptional high school, graduated from Long Island University with a bachelor’s degree in speech and theater in 1969, and earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975.
She first rose to fame as an advocate for people with disabilities in 1970, when she tried to become a teacher in New York City. She passed all but physical requirements and was denied a position, citing what was cited as “paralysis of both lower extremities.” The regulations state that teachers must not have a physical condition that prevents them from moving quickly up stairs or escorting students out of school in an emergency.
Ms. Heumann sued the city and went public, telling The Times that if a school lacks ramps or elevators, she can teach on the ground floor, adding that she travels faster in an electric wheelchair than she can. ordinary pedestrians.
The Times editorial board wrote in her favor, quarrel that “blind students taking notes in their heads and students with hemiplegia driving to school on their own demonstrate a determination that goes beyond the bravery of the more celebrated heroic athletes of our society.” Mayor John Lindsay called for a “careful and compassionate review” of her case.
Within months, Ms. Heumann had earned her license — becoming New York City’s first wheelchair teacher.
She went on to found, help run, or advise many organizations that care about the rights of people with disabilities, including the Center for Independent Living, a Berkeley group she calls “the world’s first human-led organization.” executive disability”.
She worked in government in the mid-1970s as a staff member of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. She returned to Washington from 1993 to 2001 as an assistant secretary of the special education and rehabilitation services office in the Clinton administration.
During the Obama administration, she experienced a rare setback when she tried to persuade the Senate to recommend ratification of an international treaty modeled on the Americans with Disabilities Act.
She also holds positions of advisor, fellow or board member of organizations such as the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, and Human Rights Watch.
In August 1991, Ms. Heumann attended a disability rights nonprofit program in Eugene, Ore., and was struck by the broad shoulders of another attendee in a wheelchair, an accountant named Jorge Pineda. Less than a year later, they were married.
He survived her, along with her brothers, Ricky and Joseph.
In her youth, Ms. Heumann was a camper and counselor at Camp Jened, a summer camp for people with disabilities in the Catskills that, in 2020, became the subject of “Crip Camp”.
The camp, established in 1951 and closed in 1977, is a special place that offers children with disabilities experiences that are common to others, such as playing classical rock music and sneaking in love. .
It produced a number of leaders of the disability rights movement, including others who participated in the 1977 San Francisco sit-in.
in one Ask and answer. published the year of the film’s release, The Times called Ms. Heumann the film’s “operating star”. She describes the camp as more like a “playground,” but she sees greater meaning in the joy she has.
“It was a free time,” she said. “We can be ourselves and that totally helps shape our future.”
