Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist

by Judith Heumann

Donald Trump’s actions are good examples of how attacks on civil rights can happen. These kinds of attacks don’t always come through the front door; often they slide stealthily through any crack they can find. Shutting down the ADA pages on the White House website, ordering staff “to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens,” hiring senior staff who neither know the legislation they are mandated to enforce nor believe in what the law requires, or not hiring staff at all are stealthy, slippery snakes looking for the cracks in the civil rights laws. Under the management of DeVos, seventy-two policy guidelines that interpreted and explained the rights of students with disabilities under IDEA disappeared from the government website. It is guidelines like these, documents that clarify and explain laws and policies, that can make the difference in people’s ability to know and advocate for their rights. If someone violates your civil rights, your main recourse involves making a complaint. But if you don’t know or you don’t fully understand the laws and regulations, how do you know to make a complaint? It’s a slippery slope. When laws and policies get less visible, it becomes more and more difficult to know whether an action is even considered a violation of your civil rights.