Judy Heumann, which full name is Judith Ellen “Judy” Heumann, American disability rights activist has reportedly passed away at the age of 75 on March 5, 2023.
Mourning her passing, a tributes was posted on Facebook which read;
Today, we mourn the passing of The Mother of Disability Rights, Judy Heumann.
To say she left this world a better place is an understatement—Judy Heumann is the one who blazed the trail for disability rights.We can thank her for monumental legislation such as Section 504, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, The Americans With Disabilities Act, The Rehabilitation Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The fire she lit will lead the way for generations to come.
Let’s continue to celebrate her memory—share in the comments below happy memories made with Judy or how Judy’s work has touched your life
Werner and Ilse Heumann, German Jews who immigrated to America, gave birth to Heumann. She was diagnosed with polio at the age of 18 months and has spent much of her life in a wheelchair. Heumann had to battle for inclusion in the school system on numerous occasions. She was not allowed to enroll because the neighborhood public school considered her a fire hazard because she was unable to walk.
Instead, she received home instruction twice a week for three years, lasting approximately an hour each time. The choice was contested by Heumann’s mother, Ilsa Heumann, a fellow community worker.
In the fourth grade, Heumann was then permitted to enroll in a special school for kids with disabilities. Heumann was required by city policy to finish high school at home. When Heumann’s mother and other parents organized a protest against the policy, the school was under enough pressure to change it. In 1961, Heumann started high school.
At the age of nine to eighteen, she spent each summer at Camp Jened in Hunter, New York, a camp for kids with disabilities.
Heumann later remarked, “We experienced the same delight together, the same indignation over the way we were treated, and the same disappointments at chances we didn’t have.” Her time at camp made her more conscious of the interconnectedness of the disabled experience. Heumann made friends with Bobbi Linn and Freida Tankus at Camp Jened, and they eventually collaborated on disability rights campaigns. Heumann and other Camp Jened campers can be seen in the 2020 documentary Crip Camp.
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.”
Heumann is married to Jorge Pineda, and lives in Washington, D.C. She died on March 5, 2023.