“It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair.” Judy Heumann (Video)

Polio Survivor and Civil Rights Advocate Judy Heumann

Judy Heumann was a major American civil rights activist who remained little-known until a flurry of attention in the last three years of her life. Joseph Shapiro/NPR

“ ‘Judy Heumann was the first person I called when, in 1987, I reported my first story on disability rights. Judy, who contracted polio when she was 18 months old, gave me the quote that perfectly summed up that little-known civil rights movement.’

“Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives – job opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example," she said. "It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair.”

“That idea seemed so unexpected and strange that my editors at a newsmagazine decided not to publish my story.

It was still a radical claim that disabled people didn't see themselves, or their conditions, as something to be pitied. Or that they insisted what most held them back wasn't their health condition but society's exclusion - maybe attitudes that they were less capable to do a job, go to college or find romance; or a physical barrier, like a sidewalk without a curb cut.”

That reimagining of what it means to be disabled did gain traction over the years - the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act just three years later in 1990 was a milestone - thanks to leaders like Heumann, who died suddenly (on March 4, 2023) at age 75 at a hospital in Washington, D.C. She'd been hospitalized the previous weekend with breathing problems.” Joseph Shapiro for NPR

Source: ADA National Network

“What's been incredibly important for me is to be part of an evergrowing Disability Rights movement. That to me is really one of the most seminal moments, seeing younger, disabled people saying they're part of the ADA generation and recognizing that they have the law, but it isn't going to get implemented effectively without all of our voices.”

“I don’t think I felt, really, shame about my disability. What I felt more was exclusion.”

“You don’t just advocate for human rights, and rights for people with disabilities, but you FIGHT for them and you fight for them with a passion.”

Trevor Noah on the Daily Show March 10, 2020