Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist

by Judith Heumann

I racked my brain for a way to convince the ACLU representative. The problem was, I had no recourse. Disability wasn’t covered at all in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act was intended to end discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin, but made no mention of disability. There was no law I could quote or legal precedent to cite. If I’d been covered under the Civil Rights Act, I could have hung up and called the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, which had been created by the act. But there were no disability rights organizations. My only option was to try to persuade the man that discrimination against disabled people existed. I was so frustrated I wanted to cry. Instead, I forced myself to get very calm. He had to listen to me.