Tribute to the “Mother of Disability Rights” Judy Heumann (December 18, 1947–March 4, 2023)
If you are not familiar with Judy Heumann, she is known as the “Mother of Disability Rights.”
In 1969, after earning a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Theater from Long Island University, she applied for work teaching kindergarteners and second graders in special education. Initially, due to her disability, she was not considered for the job. She brought suit and prevailed. This victory spurred changes that increased opportunity for other jobseekers with disabilities.
In 1970, Judy was the first teacher in a wheelchair to be hired by the City of New York. She was the first woman in a wheelchair to teach in New York State. She held that job until 1973.
Following her success in court, people with disabilities from across the nation reached out to Judy to share stories of the discrimination they faced. In response to the groundswell of letters, together with friends, some of which she met at Camp Jened (in 2020, Camp Jened and Heumann were featured in the critically acclaimed documentary film “Crip Camp”) Judy founded Disabled in Action (DIA). The purpose of the organization was to “fight to eliminate the barriers that prevent [people with disabilities] from enjoying full equality in American society."
DIA and the NYC Human Rights Commission led “the One Step Campaign.” The campaign encouraged stores, restaurants and other places of public accommodation in the New York City area to provide wheelchair accessibility.
She left New York in 1973 for California. She pursued a Master’s in Public Health at UC Berkeley, which she completed in 1975.
In 1973, the Rehabilitation Act, which established modern Vocational Rehabilitation, was enacted. Vocational Rehabilitation is the component of the US Workforce Development Program most focused on increasing labor force participation of people with disabilities. The law also provided funding for centers for independent living. (In more recent years we have seen nursing homes co-opt the phrase.) Independent living is a philosophy, and the centers gave rise to a movement and a model led by peers, shaping and delivering five core services to one another. What most mattered in the law was Section 504. The Section was the first civil rights law in the world to include people with disabilities.
In 1974, Ms. Heumann secured her first job in the political sphere. She worked as a legislative assistant for the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare in the US Senate. There, drawing on legislation from the State of Washington, she helped develop 94.142, more commonly known as the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act.
People with disabilities did not have a federally recognized right to an education until the Mills v. Board of Education decision in 1975. Judy helped write the regulations that changed that. From 1975 to 1982 Judy was the Senior Deputy Director of the nation’s first Independent Living Center in Berkeley.
In 1977, people with disabilities in the know decided it was time to release the 504 Regs. They decided to put pressure on Joseph Califano, the Carter Administration’s Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Sit-ins in NYC and DC included Disability in Action. However, the sit-in led by Judy and Ed Roberts that gained the most traction, as 150 people with disabilities and their allies occupied for 26 days Joseph Califano’s office in San Francisco. The regulations were released.
She went on to co-found the World Institute on Disability and worked there from 1983–93 before returning to DC to direct the Department of Disability Services for the Mayor’s Office.
From 1993–2001, Ms. Heumann was the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services. She then spent three years at the World Bank. In 2010, Heumann became the Special Advisor on International Disability Rights for the U.S. State Department. For seven years, she devoted her considerable talent to making the world more equitable and welcoming to all people with disabilities.
Ms. Heumann closed her career at the Ford Foundation and in 2020 she released “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist.”
“Legacy” isn’t adequate to sum up what she accomplished. She literally changed the world. We are grateful for the vision she embraced and her tireless commitment.
This tribute and written account of Judy Huemann’s work and advocacy was adapted from a post published by Joelle Brouner, Executive Director of the Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council.
March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month
Every March, the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD) and its partners collaborate to observe Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month (DDAM). The theme for 2023 is Beyond the Conversation. For DDAM, the NACDD engages in a social media campaign to highlight the many ways in which people with and without disabilities come together to form strong, diverse communities. The campaign seeks to raise awareness about the inclusion of people with developmental disabilities in all aspects of community life, as well as awareness of the barriers that people with disabilities still sometimes face in connecting to the communities in which they live. To learn more about DDAM and how to get involved in the social media campaign, visit the NACDD website.
|
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Day
On March 22, 2021, 45 years after the inception of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Governor Inslee proclaimed this day the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) day and urged people from Washington state to join in this special observance. This year, IDEA is 47 years old and continues to work to serve youth with disabilities and their families by providing a free and appropriate public education. Read Governor Inslee’s full proclamation.
National Assistive Technology Awareness Day
March 1 was National Assistive Technology (AT) Awareness Day. In December 2022, Congress reauthorized the Assistive Technology Act as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and renamed it the 21st Century Assistive Technology Act. Before the passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act’s passage in 2014, the Assistive Technology Act was administered by the Rehabilitation Services Administration. It is now administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Community Living.
The revised bill contains many of the state grant programs designed to increase access of AT devices and services to all individuals with disabilities. It also includes an increase in grant funding for protection, advocacy agencies, and state-level programs to support unique AT needs in states. Finally, there are important new provisions to improve collaboration on the use of AT. Learn more about AT from national partners at CAST or our local partners at the Washington state Special Education Technology Center (SETC).
Legislative Update
March 8th is the 59th day of a 105-day legislative session and is also the last day for bills to be passed out of their house of origin. That means, any bill that was introduced in the Senate, must receive a vote of approval by the Senate before starting its journey in the House of Representatives and vice versa for bills introduced in the House of Representatives.
Bill Spotlight
Ending Student Restraint and Isolation (2SHB 1479): Some concerned and well-meaning partners are framing the elimination of isolation as a path to increasing restraint and injury for students and staff, but research and the experiences of states and school districts that do not isolate or restrain dispel this myth. The goal of HB 1479, to immediately end isolation and specific restraint practices (chemical/mechanical), come out of a workgroup recommendation report requested by the legislature in 2021. The recommendations in this workgroup report are informed by extensive research that unequivocally demonstrate that isolation and restraint do not provide any educational or therapeutic benefit to students (U.S. Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, 2014). Rather, there is ample evidence showing substantial risks of physical and psychological harm to students (Mohr, Petti, & Mohr, 2003). For adults and employees imposing the interventions, the detrimental effects are reflected in higher staff turnover, increased use of sick time, and lower job satisfaction (samhsa.gov, March 2010). As mentioned, Washington is not a pioneer in seeking to end restraint and isolation, and is following other states that have eliminated the use of isolation restraint practices without seeing higher rates of injury to students or staff.
Special Education Funding (ESHB 1436 & E2SSB 5311): During this session, the Legislature has shown skepticism about how school districts use their funds to provide students special education and related services. This position was assumed based on amendments to the original version of HB 1436 that dramatically reduce the original bill’s impact and calls for audits of special education funding, but during the recent House floor debate, we heard legislators openly express their belief that school districts do not appropriately use funds currently provided. These remarks can be heard during the March 2, 2023 floor debate (debate on HB 1436 starts at 47:45; debate on the defeated striking amendment starts at 53:00). In the 2023–25 biennium, the original version of HB 1436 would have added $803 million. The current form of SB 5311 only adds $352 million and the current form of HB 1436 only adds $168 million over that same period. For context, the gap in special education funding, which increases over time, was over $400 million in 2020–21.
To see what bills OSPI Special education is watching, please check out our 2023 Bill Tracker Page.
Have questions or comments, please contact David.Green@k12.wa.us
 |
|
Click here for this month’s Fiscal & Data updates on the following topics:
- Safety Net Submission Reminder
- Notice of Public Comment Period for Annual State Application of Fiscal Year 2023 of the IDEA Federal Grant
- Excess Cost Reminder
- Data Reporting for Students with IEPs: End of Year Federal Special Education Data Reporting—Timeline for Initial Evaluation/Transition from Part C to Part B, and Early Childhood Applications now open until July 15, 2023
- Special Education Data and Fiscal Office Hours
|
Click here for this month’s Dispute Resolution updates on the following topics:
- Special Education Community Complaints by the Numbers
Medical Diagnoses and Special Education Eligibility
Can a district require a student to have a medical diagnosis of a disability for the district to determine if the student is eligible for special education and related services?
|
|
