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For many years, I have been working with a Japanese nurse, Nozomi Kawabata (pen name) who has a disability. He has been working tirelessly to share my work with other Japanese nurses with disabilities. This is one example of his efforts.
Many thanks to my dear Japanese friend and to Mrs. Kayoko Kanou for sharing my coloring book on her YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKwD4QDYdXk&t=627s
(At 14min 21sec)
Cheers!
Donna
Judith Heumann was born in Philadelphia on Dec. 18,
1947. She grew up in Brooklyn. Her parents, Werner and Ilse Heumann, were both
sent away from Nazi Germany as Jewish children, and neither of them saw their
parents again. Werner ran a butcher shop, and Ilse volunteered for local civic
groups.
During the 1949 polio epidemic, when Judy was 18 months old,
she was diagnosed with the disease. She spent three months in an iron lung.
When her mother tried enrolling her in kindergarten, the
principal said she could not attend, calling her a “fire hazard.” She was not
able to properly enroll in school until she was 9 years old, and even then she
took her classes with other disabled students in the basement. She was able to
mix with the rest of the student body only once a week during assemblies.
She attended a special high school, graduated from Long Island University with a bachelor’s degree in speech and theater in 1969, and earned a master’s in public health from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975.
She first came to prominence as an advocate for the disabled
in 1970, when she tried to become a New York City teacher. She passed every
requirement except a physical and was denied a position, with the cited cause
being “paralysis of both lower extremities.” Regulations stipulated that
teachers must not have physical issues that prevented them from moving on
stairs quickly or from escorting students out of school in case of an
emergency.
Ms. Heumann sued the city and went public, telling The Times
that if a school lacked a ramp or elevator, she could teach on the ground
floor, and adding that she moved faster with her electric wheelchair than
normal pedestrians did walking.
Within a few months, Ms. Heumann won her license — becoming
New York City’s first teacher in a wheelchair.
A pivotal moment came in San Francisco in 1977. It had been four years since President Richard Nixon had signed the Rehabilitation Act, one section of which, 504, was supposed to outlaw discrimination against disabled people by any institution receiving federal money.
Yet officials repeatedly delayed implementing the measure, and Joseph A. Califano Jr., the secretary of health, education and welfare under President Jimmy Carter, said he had wanted to overhaul the regulations before authorizing them.
Activists responded that there would be national protests if Mr. Califano did not sign off on the original form of the law by April 4.
April 5 arrived. Protesters in cities throughout the nation occupied federal offices. Ms. Heumann, then 29, organized the San Francisco contingent. She appeared with more than 100 other people of varying disabilities to demand action from Joseph Maldonado, the regional director who reported to Mr. Califano from San Francisco.
…. the San Francisco sit-in continued for almost a month. It has often been described as the longest nonviolent occupation of a federal building in American history.
Judy Heumann..... went on to become an official in the Clinton
administration, a special adviser in the Obama State Department and a fellow or
board member at some of the nation’s leading nonprofits. She was also featured
in the Oscar-nominated 2020 documentary “Crip Camp.”
Donna Maheady
Read more about her work:
Judy Heumann, Who Led the Fight for Disability Rights, Dies at 75 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Judith Heumann, ‘Mother of the Disability Rights Movement,’ Has Died | HuffPost Latest News
Judy Heumann | Disability Rights Advocate | Judithheumann
Judy Heumann, trailblazing disability rights activist, dies at 75 (msn.com)
Judith Heumann: Our fight for disability rights -- and why we're not done yet | TED Talk
