As Disability Pride Month (July) concludes, which celebrated 35 years since the July 26, 1990 signing of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), Equity Committee member Ellen Block recommends Judy Heumann’s book “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist“. Heumann, who died in 2023 at the age of 75, was paralyzed after contracting polio as a baby. Early in life she became a civil rights activist (fighting to attend public schools in New York where she was considered a fire hazard) and was instrumental in bringing about policy changes that allowed people with disabilities to participate in everyday activities. As Gloria Steinam writes, “It’s one of the ironies of American life that the one category into which almost all of us will fit at some time in our lives—people with disabilities—is often the last on the list of included groups in this country.” Read this engrossing memoir to learn about one of the pioneers of disability justice, whose personal story is both interesting and inspiring.
