Being Heumann cover art

Being Heumann

An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Being Heumann

By: Judith Heumann, Kristen Joiner
Narrated by: Ali Stroker
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £12.96

Buy Now for £12.96

About this listen

 Tony-award winning actress Ali Stroker reads the story of Judy Heumann—one of the most influential disability rights activists in US history

A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn’t built for all of us and of one woman’s activism—from the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco to inside the halls of Washington—Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann’s lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society.

Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis, Judy’s actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people.

As a young woman, Judy rolled her wheelchair through the doors of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in San Francisco as a leader of the Section 504 Sit-In, the longest takeover of a governmental building in US history. Working with a community of over 150 disabled activists and allies, Judy successfully pressured the Carter administration to implement protections for disabled peoples’ rights, sparking a national movement and leading to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Candid, intimate, and irreverent, Judy Heumann’s memoir about resistance to exclusion invites readers to imagine and make real a world in which we all belong. People with Disabilities Social Sciences Women Memoir Witty Disability Justice
All stars
Most relevant
Judith Heumann clearly and passionately describes the disabled experience and our culture. Please read this, disabled or non-disabled, this is an important book. Many of the discriminatory experiences Judith writes about still happen today. We need to know our disabled history in order to ensure our rights are upheld

You need to read this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.