Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist

by Judith Heumann

our bonding in the face of exclusion—was teaching us something that would become essential to our success later. We were learning that despite what society might be telling us, we all had something to contribute:

“We’re not going to let a hypocritical society give us a token education and then bury us,”

Passage of the ADA has meant that curb cuts and ramps are now routinely created to facilitate wheelchair use, and access to education, transport, and jobs has cracked open. More awareness and expertise on the part of the disability activists has emerged.

If you were to acquire a disability tomorrow it would be a change. But I can tell you this: it wouldn’t have to be a tragedy.

We are all human. Why do we see disability differently from any other aspect of being human?

We need to accept our humanity and design our world around it: use universal design; support personal assistance; change how we hire. We can design our cities and our society in a way that fosters belonging and community, rather than segregation and isolation.