Moving Forward Together
Join us to hear what people with lifelong disabilities have to teach us so we can all move forward together!
Judith Heumann is an internationally recognized leader in the Disability Rights Independent Living Movement. Using a wheelchair since age two, she was barred from attending New York City’s public schools in the 1950s until she was nine.
In 1977, Heumann led disabled activists and allies in San Francisco in the longest takeover of a government building in U.S. history. The Section 504 Sit-in sparked a national movement that led to the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Her work also helped overturn the long standing myth that we couldn’t afford to accommodate a minority of people with disabilities in the East Bay and beyond. What helped a small group of people move more safely and easily around a small city was quickly embraced by parents pushing prams, bikers, walkers, pretty much the rest of us.
The secret to Heumann’s success? She insists on speaking and being heard—and understands the power of community—much like our Village movement—to build a world to which we all belong.