Disability-rights pioneer Judith Heumann inspired NJ allies by beating ‘unfathomable’ odds

Judith Heumann, a disability rights pioneer and “internationally recognized badass,” as her podcast tagline put it, left a big hole in the hearts of many when she died over the weekend at age 75.

That was certainly true in New Jersey, where Heumann was remembered as an inspiration by family members and fellow activists.

"The obstacles to her were incredible and unfathomable in today's world, and it's embarrassing that we had those values back then," said her cousin, Milton Heumann, a Rutgers law professor who grew up with Judith in Brooklyn. "She had quite a struggle."

Heumann, born in Philadelphia and raised in New York, lost the ability to walk at age 2 due to polio. Yet through her longtime advocacy, protests and legal action, she became the "mother of the disability rights movement," as her own website put it.

She lobbied for legislation that eventually led to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Rehabilitation Act. She served as the assistant secretary of the U.S. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, beginning in 1993 in the Clinton administration, until 2001.

She also was involved in passage of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was ratified in 2008.

News of her death on Saturday in Washington, D.C., was posted on her website and social media accounts and confirmed by the American Association of People with Disabilities. A cause of death was not immediately revealed.

Polio put Heumann in a wheelchair at 18 months old but never stopped her, Milton Heumann said in an interview Monday. The woman who worked with former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama was always "Judy" to the people who knew her, he added.

“She had a fabulous voice and we would have an annual play for one of the Jewish holidays in our little synagogue," he said. "All these folks would come, maybe 80 people, and the rabbi would produce a little play, something from Broadway, and Judy had this fabulous voice."

The synagogue was in a two-story building and services took place on the second floor, in a time before people thought about accessibility, he said. Heumann's father carried her up the stairs to the temple. Outside of that, her cousin said, he didn’t think much about Judy’s disability because she didn’t dwell much on it.

She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in speech therapy from Long Island University in 1969. The following year, she gained national attention when she applied to be a teacher in New York City but was denied because of the “paralysis of both lower extremities,” according to a New York Times account that year.

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The city board of education deemed her a fire hazard. Heumann sued and won backers, including then-New York Mayor John Lindsay and eventually got her teaching license.

Heumann also co-founded the advocacy group Disabled in Action in the 1970s. In 1977, she was a leader in a historic, nonviolent occupation of a San Francisco federal building that set the stage for passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which became law in 1990.

Javier Robles, a Rutgers University professor and founder of the Disability Action Committee, a coalition of advocates in New Jersey, said Heumann was one of the first leaders to take a stand on disability rights. She was a mentor, he said, someone he could always call or text with questions.

Robles said he was planning to send her an invitation to Rutgers' disability awareness month when he received an email on Saturday saying she had died. Heumann had visited the campus before and was always surrounded by young people, he said: She knew how important it was to pass her knowledge and activism on to a new generation.

"She was always on my mind when we were having a situation in New Jersey where people with disabilities seemed to be worth less than others," said Robles, who also uses a wheelchair. "I thought, 'If Judy can do it, we can do it.'"

This article contains material from the Associated Press.

Gene Myers covers disability and mental health for NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: myers@northjersey.com

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This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Judith Heumann NJ family activists mourn disability rights pioneer