Jason Homer
To celebrate Disability Pride Month in July, I decided to pick up the 2020 memoir by disability advocate Judith Heumann, “Being Heumann”. I will admit that I knew very little about Judy prior to reading her memoir, but her life of advocacy has fundamentally changed the lives of millions of Americans. This memoir left me wondering how a woman who was so influential in advancing the civil rights of people with disabilities remains relatively unknown. Luckily, a film about her 28-day occupation of San Francisco’s Federal Building will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2026, starring Ruth Madeley, Mark Ruffalo, and Dylan O’Brien and shine a light on her accomplishments.
Inside the pages of “Being Heumann”
What struck me most about “Being Heumann” wasn’t just the history, it was Judy’s voice. She recounts a life filled with barriers with remarkable candor, humor, and resilience. After being paralyzed by polio as a toddler, she was denied entry to a New York public school because officials considered her “a fire hazard.” Thanks to her mother’s persistence, she eventually attended school, but it was clear from an early age that Judy’s life would require fighting for opportunities others took for granted.
As a young adult in the 1970s, Heumann turned that determination into activism. When the New York Board of Education refused to grant her a teaching license, she sued and won, becoming the first teacher in New York State to use a wheelchair. She went on to help lead the historic 28-day sit-in in San Francisco, forcing the federal government to enforce disability rights protections. Her work helped lay the foundation for the Americans with Disabilities Act, legislation that has transformed everyday life for our entire country.
A moment worth mentioning
One of the memoir’s most memorable sections recounts her summers at Camp Jened, where, for the first time, she experienced life without constantly being defined by her disability. Combined with parents who encouraged her to advocate for herself, that experience helped shape someone unwilling to accept society’s assumptions about what disabled people could or couldn’t do.
Throughout the memoir, she’s funny, self-deprecating and refreshingly honest. Rather than feeling like a history lesson, the memoir reads like a conversation with someone whose company you’d genuinely enjoy.
Your next read if
If you’re looking for a memoir that will educate you, challenge your assumptions, and leave you with a renewed appreciation for the power of persistence, humor, and humanity, “Being Heumann” deserves a place on your reading list. Judy Heumann was, in every sense of the word, wonderfully “Heumann.”