Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist

by Judith Heumann

President Obama protected the ADA. His administration had a very strong domestic agenda for people with disabilities. In particular, he targeted our next frontiers. Curb cuts and ramps are essential, but if you put in a ramp and nothing else happens, then no one will go up the ramp. Obama hired people with disabilities to work in the White House and appointed people with disabilities throughout the government. He hired people with knowledge and vision, and focused on education and employment for disabled people. Although much progress had been made, significantly lower numbers of us were going to college than were nondisabled peers, we were also much more likely to be unemployed, and we were much more likely to live in poverty than nondisabled people. Obama recommended increased funding for IDEA, the educational act for children with disabilities that I had worked on. He recommitted the US government to hiring one hundred thousand people with disabilities, convened gatherings with the leading designers of autonomous vehicles and disabled people to ensure disability would be taken into account in their development, and did a number of other important things in this vein.