Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist

by Judith Heumann

We accepted that our inclusion was dependent on someone else being “nice.”

Part of the problem is that we tend to think that equality is about treating everyone the same, when it’s not. It’s about fairness. It’s about equity of access. And equity of access, whether to housing, health, education, or employment, looks different for someone like me and the hundreds of thousands of us who cannot do things the same way, than it does for the majority of people who can. It involves ramps, wider doorways, bars, sign language interpreters, captioning, accessible technology, audio descriptions, documents in Braille, and personal assistance for those with physical disabilities, as well as those with intellectual disabilities. When this is not understood, we get framed as “complaining” and “selfish,” even though we’re simply asking for the same rights as everyone else. This especially happens to women. We’re called “demanding,” and if we refuse to back down, we’re “relentless.” But labeling us “demanding” and “relentless” is just a different way of trying to make us “submit.”