A Celebration of Women™

has been inspired to Celebrate the Life of this accomplished woman that never allowed any form of adversity get in her way of following her dreams. Taking her own experience in life, this crusader has been one of the pioneers that forged the way for all human beings facing disibilities to life a full and functioning lifestyle.

Join us here this day and Celebrate the work of this woman by leaving her a message of Celebration and Welcome.

WOMAN of ACTION™

Judith E. Heumann

 

 

Judith E. Heumannis an enormously influencial woman who pioneered for equality for people with disibilities. When she was 18 months old, she was diagnosed with polio, and had to spend her life in a wheelchair. After contracting polio in 1949, Judith E. Heumann was barred from attending her local elementary school, which, like most U.S. public buildings in the 1950s, was not wheelchair-accessible. Heumann’s mother offered to carry her up the school’s steps each morning and back down at the end of the day, but the school’s administrators refused.

Description: Judith Heumann, Advisor for Disability and Development.
Disability & Inclusive Development Conference 2004 — Sharing, Learning and Building Alliances. Wednesday, December 1, 2004 Country: United States, Photographer: Simone McCourtie.

Because Heumann could not exit the building on her own, “I was considered to be a fire hazard,” Heumann recounted Feb. 9 in delivering the annual Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability Law and Policy in Pitt’s Barco Law Building.

She was allowed to attend school until the 4th grade, though she did graduate from two colleges: Long Island University (1969) and University of California at Berkeley (1975). It was from the University of California at Berkeley that she received her Master of Arts in Public Health Administration. She wanted to be a teacher, but was turned down by the New York City school system because she used a wheelchair. In response, she filed a suit against them and won.

Conferencia de Judith E. Heumann

 

However, Judith did much with societies that envelope how much she has accomplished. She helped develop the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and also helped draft the Americans with Disabilities Act. She was Vice President of WID (World Institute on Disability) and also was the director of its Research and Training Center.

Judith also helped found the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities and Disabled in Action (of which she was also president).

She co-founded Disabled in Action in 1970. She co-founded the World Institute on Disability in 1983 with Ed Roberts and Joan Leon in 1983, serving as co-director until 1993.

She served in the Clinton Administration as Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services at the US Department of Education from 1993 to 2001. She also served as the World Bank Group’s Advisor on Disability and Development, leading the World Bank’s work on disability and its integration into their programs and projects. She currently is the Director of the Department of Disability Services in Washington, DC. Currently, she works for the US State Department, in Washington, D.C.

Judith was also a member of many groups, including the National Advisory Council of the Center for Women Policy Studies, Tools for Living in the Community, the Over 60’s Health Center, the National Council on Independent Living, and the National Rehabilitation Association.

Judith, from 1975 to 1982, was Deputy Director of the Center for Independent Living, and although she was no longer the Deputy Director in 1982, she stayed a member until 1993. After 1982 until 1983, Judith served as the assistant to California’s State Department of Rehabilitation.

Since June 1993, Judith has been assistant secretary of the Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, and she also manages the Rehabilitation Services Administration, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and the Office of Special Education Programs. In 1995, at the International Congress on Disability in Mexico City, Judith represented the Secretary of Education Riley. Now, Judith is married to Jorge Pineda and lives in the United States’ capital, Washington D.C.

In developing countries, the status of people with disabilities is far worse; less than 10 percent of disabled children in the developing world attend school, Heumann noted. In her talk, titled “

 

“We [the disabled] need your help, and the international community needs Pitt’s help,” Heumann said.

Including the Voices of Disabled People in the International Development Agenda,”Heumann argued that Pitt—with its strong international presence, academic units like the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS), and culture of inclusion for the disabled—is well-positioned to champion the rights of the people with disabilities worldwide.

Pictured with Heumann are (front row, left) Ginny Thornburgh, vice president and director of the National Organization on Disability, Religion, and Disability Program, and (back row, from left) SHRS Dean Clifford E. Brubaker; Katherine D. Seelman, SHRS associate dean for disability programs and professor of rehabilitation science and technology; Richard Thornburgh, former Pennsylvania governor and U.S. Attorney General and a Pitt alumnus (LAW ’57) and trustee; law school Dean Mary A. Crossley; and Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg.

 

“Disabled people are no different from any other group around the world. With appropriate opportunities and supports, we are able to contribute to the economic and social well-being of their communities.” Heumann says, “People can become disabled at any point of their life as a result of injuries from industry, landmines or rebel conflicts, or conditions such as HIV/AIDS, River Blindness, or malnourishment,” she says. “Poverty is a leading cause of disability. As a result, people with disabilities are disproportionately represented among the poor.”
says Judith @ Disability in the Mainstream: Bank Appoints Prominent New Disability Adviser.

Independent Living Movement

Judith is also a power of example that the disabled are not to ever believe that they are to live a life that is less than any of their dreams and hopes. It is her wish that all those with challenges Take Action and go live out loud. “I’ve always had friends with developmental disabilities,” she said, recalling her earliest experiences in New York schools as a disabled youth who spent time in a special education class with youngsters her own age, 10, and those as old as 20 or 21.

New Mobility’s Person of the Year: Judith Heumann, 2011

” … For her unwavering commitment to secure equal rights for people with disabilities all over the world, New Mobility is proud to name Judith Heumann as our 2010 Person of the Year.

Disability Goes Global
When NM interviewed Heumann, she had just returned to Washington, D.C., from a whirlwind trip to four countries in Africa and the Middle East. In one of what will undoubtedly be many such trips, she met with government officials and disability organizations in Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan and Qatar.” READ MORE – LINK ABOVE PHOTO.

“For those of us who have grown up with what independent living is all about and to see that it’s not happening in some places — well, it’s jarring,” she said.

How would Heumann define the term “independent living”?

“It’s an issue of respect,” she said. “Independent living is bringing together voices of disabled people, all disabilities, and bringing those voices to the local, state and national levels. It means bringing support to one another to create our own dreams of how we want to live our own lives.” ~ A Chat With … Judy Heumann, By Deborah Kendrick

Her own dreams and aspirations go beyond the 600,000 citizens of the district she serves. There are still too many disabled people who don’t know about their own rights, she said, who don’t belong to any organizations, who don’t spend time with others who have encountered similar experiences of discrimination or the joy of seeing it dissipate.

Judith today will be Celebrating her 60th year on December 18, 2011. * We will keep you up with the plans, as time goes on. Peek back once in a while to her feature, as we do up-dates, etc.

A Celebration of Women

welcomes this power of example into our Alumni of WOMEN of ACTION, with open arms and warm hearts.

Brava Judith !!!