Judith Heumann

She attended Camp Jened, a camp for children with disabilities, in Hunter, New York every summer from ages 9 to 18. Heumann's experience of camp brought her a greater awareness of the connectedness of the disabled experience, later saying, "We had the same joy together, the same anger over the way we were treated and the same frustrations at opportunities we didn't have." At Camp Jened, Heumann met Bobbi Linn and Freida Tankus, who she would later work with as disability rights activists. The 2020 documentary Crip Camp features Camp Jened campers, including Heumann.

Heumann's book, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, was published in February 2020. It tells her personal story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and "just be human".

In 2010, Heumann became the Special Advisor on International Disability Rights for the U.S. State Department appointed by President Barack Obama. Heumann was the first to hold this role, and served from 2010 to 2017. On January 20, 2017, Heumann left her post at the State Department with the change of a new administration. The Special Advisor role was disestablished by United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017. Paralympian Ann Cody was currently the most senior official working on international disability rights at State. In November 2021, President Joseph R. Biden appointed Sara Minkara as Special Advisor on International Disability Rights (SAIDR) at the U.S. State Department. Special Advisor Minkara is the first person to hold this office since the Obama administration, as well as the youngest, and the first Muslim-American in its history.

From September 2017 to April 2019, Heumann was a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation. At Ford, she worked to help advance the inclusion of disability in the Foundation's work. She also promoted the intentional inclusion of disability in philanthropy work. Heumann produced a paper co-written by Katherine Salinas and Michellie Hess titled Roadmap for Inclusion: Changing the Face of Disability in Media. This paper explores the lack of representation of disabled people in front of and behind the camera, as well as prominent stereotypes of disabled characters when represented in the media, and concludes with a call to action to increase disabled representation in media.

From 2002 to 2006, Heumann served as the World Bank Group'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.

Heumann served in the Clinton Administration as Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services at the United States Department of Education from 1993 to 2001.

Heumann co-founded the World Institute on Disability with Ed Roberts and Joan Leon in 1983, serving as co-director until 1993.

In 1977, Joseph Califano, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, refused to sign meaningful regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was the first U.S. federal civil rights protection for people with disabilities. Califano issued orders that no meals or medication would be allowed in the HEW federal building to force them out. The protesters then contacted Delancey Street Foundation and The Salvation Army, which agreed to bring them food for the following day. Fellow protester Kitty Cone developed a way to keep medication cool by taping a box over the air conditioner unit to store the medication of the disabled protesters. Additionally, the protesters received support from the Black Panther Party after receiving a call from Brad Lomax a disabled protester with multiple sclerosis and member of the Black Panther Party. Lomax called the Black Panthers to support the protesters with meals, and the Black Panthers brought them hot meals and snacks for the duration of the Sit-in. After an ultimatum and deadline, demonstrations took place in ten U.S. cities on April 5, 1977, including the beginning of the 504 Sit-in at the San Francisco Office of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. This sit-in, led by Heumann and organized by Kitty Cone, lasted until May 4, 1977, a total of 28 days, with about 125 to 150 people refusing to leave. It is the longest sit-in at a federal building to date. Joseph Califano signed both Education of All Handicapped Children and Section 504 on April 28, 1977.

Ed Roberts asked Heumann to move to California to work for the Center for Independent Living where she served as the deputy director from 1975 to 1982. She was an early adopter of the Independent Living Movement.

While serving as a legislative assistant to the chairperson of the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare in 1974, Heumann helped develop legislation that became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

In 1970, Heumann 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 sued the Board of Education on the basis of discrimination. A local newspaper ran a headline of 'You Can Be President, Not Teacher, with Polio'. The case settled without a trial and Heumann became the first wheelchair user to teach in New York City and taught elementary school there for three years.

Heumann received much mail from disabled people around the country due to her press coverage while suing the Board of Education. Many wrote in about their experiences with discrimination because of their disabilities. Based on the outpouring of support and letters, in 1970, Heumann and several friends founded Disabled in Action (DIA), an organization that focused on securing the protection of people with disabilities under civil rights laws through political protest. It was originally called Handicapped in Action, but Heumann disliked that name and lobbied to change it. Early versions of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 were vetoed by President Richard Nixon in October 1972 and March 1973. In 1972, DIA demonstrated in New York City with a sit-in protesting one of the vetoes. Led by Heumann, eighty activists staged this sit-in on Madison Avenue, stopping traffic.

Heumann graduated from Long Island University in 1969. She also earned a Master of Science degree in public health at the University of California, Berkeley in 1975.

Heumann was born to Werner and Ilse Heumann, who were German Jewish immigrants. She had polio at the age of 18 months, and has used a wheelchair 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 due to her inability to walk. Instead, for three years she was given home instruction twice a week, for about an hour each visit. Heumann's mother, Ilsa Heumann, a community activist in her own right, challenged the decision. Heumann was then allowed to go to a special school in the fourth grade for disabled children. Per city policy, Heumann was to return to home instruction for high school. Heumann's mother rallied against this policy with other parents who put enough pressure on the school to reverse the policy. Heumann entered high school in 1961.

Judith Ellen "Judy" Heumann (born December 18, 1947) is an American disability rights activist. She is recognized internationally as a leader in the disability community. Heumann is a lifelong civil rights advocate for people with disabilities. Her work with governments and non governmental organizations (NGOs), non-profits, and various other disability interest groups, has produced significant contributions since the 1970s to the development of human rights legislation and policies benefiting children and adults with disabilities. Through her work in the World Bank and the State Department, Heumann led the mainstreaming of disability rights into international development. Her contributions extended the international reach of the independent living movement.

Heumann was born in Brooklyn to German-Jewish immigrants and is the oldest of three children. Her mother came to the US from Germany in 1935 while her father came in 1934. Heumann lost her grandparents and great-grandparents in the war. She is the sister of Joseph Heumann, a film professor and author. Judy does not view her disability as a tragedy, saying, "Disability only becomes a tragedy for me when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives––job opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example. It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair."