'Biden Is Committed To Involving Disabled People In His Administration': Judith Heumann, Activist
'Judith Heumann: 'Biden is committed to involving disabled people in his administration.' The Guardian, Dec. 15, 2020.
The US activist on Covid’s impact and her starring role in Crip Camp, the documentary charting the birth of the disability rights movement. “When people say no, I really have to do something about it,” says US disability rights pioneer, Judith Heumann, who has advised presidents Clinton and Obama. As a young activist in 1970, Heumann fought New York’s education board to become the first person in a wheelchair to teach in the city’s schools. Her influential campaigns include the 504 sit-in, a month-long occupation of a San Francisco federal building in 1977 that forced through civil rights protections for disabled people.
That success paved the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990.
- Judith Heumann, Special Advisor for Disability Rights, Tokyo, 2014.
Now she is the star of a Netflix documentary, Crip Camp. The film – ostensibly about a summer camp for disabled youngsters in the New York Catskills in 1971 with a vibe that’s been likened to Woodstock – charts the birth of America’s disability rights movement. Neumann, who had polio as a child, is a captivating central character, with the documentary reflecting her journey from summer camp leader to disability rights pioneer. Today, aged 72, Covid is Heumann’s biggest concern, with disabled people disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Thirty years since her activism helped secure the ADA, the virus has brought the law’s importance into sharp focus.
In Alabama, for example, the state decided learning disabled people were not eligible for ventilators that were under ration; but the Office of Civil Rights ruled this violated the ADA and the decision was reversed.
For Heumann, Trump’s failure to tackle the pandemic has intensified the challenges (“we [America] didn’t take the actions that we should have early on”) and she worries about the virus’s economic fallout. “What impact will the financial situation have at a local level on money for home and community-based services? People living in institutions, nursing homes or other group settings are dying at much higher rates than those who aren’t. For that not to happen, we need to have money to enable people to live in the community.” Her relief when Joe Biden won the election manifested itself physically.. Biden, she says, is “committed to bringing the disabled community into the administration”. Disabled people were involved in drafting his disability policy.
The role of special adviser on disability (noticeable by its absence under Trump), which she held under Obama, is waiting to be filled. Asked if Biden has invited her to resume the post, she is staying tight-lipped.
Heumann says her fighting spirit and optimism come from her ex-marine father and community organiser mother who instilled a sense of equality in their young daughter; she had piano lessons instead of occupational therapy, for example..They “were creative and supportive and were advocates … they didn’t allow the low expectations society had for me.”.. Heumann’s first true battle as an adult was when NY education officials denied the young, fully qualified graduate a teaching licence after deciding she could not get either herself or her students out of the school in a fire (buildings were then inaccessible). She sued for discrimination. She recalls the case in her recent memoir Being Heumann, which is longlisted for the Barbellion literary prize:
“It didn’t matter how smart or how capable I was … because I couldn’t walk, I wasn’t considered qualified to teach second-graders.”
One way to tackle this is for disability issues to be addressed in literature and history in the way gender studies and black studies are taught now, says Heumann. And better representation in media and the arts is also vital.
As Netflix introduces Heumann to a whole new audience, she says she hopes the positive changes sparked by the disability movement will inspire further action: “When you look at disabled individuals, families and friends, there are many things we learned … how to be resilient, how to keep fighting, how to keep moving forward.”...
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/15/judith-heumann-biden-is-committed-to-involving-disabled-people-covid-crip-camp
- Judith Heumann, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Heumann
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