Judy Heumann, whose advocacy for the rights of disabled people resulted in the passage of landmark federal legislation, died Saturday. She was 75 and died in Washington, DC, the BBC reports. Heumann, who was robbed of the ability to walk by polio when she was 2, was the first wheelchair user to teach in New York City. She had to win a lawsuit first, after the city's Board of Education rejected her application. Not even the ACLU would support the suit, Heumann once told the Washington Post.
She earned a master's in public health from the University of California, Berkeley, after not being allowed to enroll in a school until she was 9 years old. Heumann was barred from attending preschool because her wheelchair was considered a fire hazard. "Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives—job opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example," Heumann said, per NPR. "It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair."
Heumann was a leader in protests to change laws and policies, including the 1977 sit-in at a federal building in San Francisco that added pressure leading to the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act. She worked in the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who tweeted a tribute to her. Recognition of Heumann's achievements increased after the February 2020 release of Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, a documentary that was nominated for an Academy Award. The film chronicled the meeting of disabled young people, including Heumann, at a summer camp in the 1970s who went on to spearhead the disability rights movement. (More obituary stories.)
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