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School
University of Florida *
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Course
3093
Subject
English
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
Pages
4
Uploaded by ConstableFog3120
Section 1
: Summary/Overview:
-
The book,
Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist
, by
Judith Heumann, focuses on Heumann’s journey to fight for her rights after being
paralized by polio. Many of her struggles centered around the school system being
unprepared and unwilling to make accommodations for her and her disability. The author,
Judith Heumann had her encounter with polio when she was only two years old and when
she recovered, her parents were told she would never be able to walk again. Although she
was bound to a wheelchair, Heumann grew up still able to play with the other children in
the neighborhood. The first major struggle that she faced with the school board was when
she was told that her wheelchair was a fire hazard and could therefore not attend school.
As she grew up, it became more obvious that the world was not accommodating for
disabilities, but when she entered her Health Conservation 21 classroom, she found out
that there were other kids struggling in the same ways that she was that she could relate
to. In college, Heumann decided to get involved with the student government and a
sorority. After graduation, when she began looking into teaching, she was immediately
met with pushback regarding her disability. She was forced to take legal action to obtain
her teaching license and was eventually successful. Judith switched her career focus to
the Center for Independent living and this led to her life in fighting for the rights of those
with disabilities. The point in this autobiography was to show how Heumann overcame
her personal struggles as she grew up and then how she used that power to make true
changes in her city and further. Heumann shares a powerful story of persistence and
community that serves to push society to continue the progress that has already been
made and to continue to fight for equity for the disabled community.
Section 2
: Events
-
Event 1
The first event that I read that made an impact on me was when Judith Heumann had to
take her medical exam for her teaching license. She shares that the purpose of the exam
was to ensure that she did not have any medical issues that would be harmful to children.
The situation became increasingly frustrating to Heumann as well as to me while I was
reading when the doctor began to question her history with polio as well as the surgeries
that followed it. The questions that followed pushed Heumann to raise her arms even
though she had explained to Dr. James that she could not. She was also asked to show the
doctor how she walked as well as how she went to the bathroom. After her initial exam,
she had to enter a follow up exam. During this follow up, her witness was not allowed to
enter the exam room, but there were two other doctors present who continued to question
her abilities and discriminate against her. I chose to include this event because it was one
that immediately made me feel disgust and anger towards a group of people that I did not
know and that I would never meet. It is one of the few times that Heumann is truly
helpless to discrimination and is also one of the first times that she identifies
discrimatination by name in her book. This event is powerful because it led to Heumann’s
push against the school board to obtain her license.
-
Event 2
The second event that I wanted to include was the sit-in at the Health Education and
Welfare building. In this situation, the crowd of people that were with Judith Heumann
were asked by her to stay the night in the building in an act of protest. They were
protesting the regulations being placed on section 504 for Civil Rights legislation. What
was so important about this sit-in was that the protesters all had disabilities so it was an
extreme difficulty for them to not have access to things such as medications and
catheters. These sit-ins also occurred at multiple other protests they had helped organize.
I chose this event because even though it was such a powerful moment of protest, the
Secretary of HEW still would not approve the regulations. This event allowed Judith
Heumann to establish her position as a leader in the movement for the rights of the
disabled community.
Section 3
: Reflections
-
This book was one that I did not necessarily enjoy because of how difficult it was to
understand how certain events of discrimination could have happened. It was, however, a
book that made me think deeply about the flaws in the education system when it comes to
the disabled community. As I read more, I realized that the reason I was struggling with
understanding the extremity of the discrimination was that I was forgetting that the
disabled community has had very recent struggles and that even though they had been
fighting for generations, there was still a significant amount of progress to be made.
Disabilities in the past were mostly seen as a problem to be hidden away or to be fixed,
but progress has been made to make accommodations to achieve equity for the disabled
community. One important way to advocate for people with disabilities is to educate
yourself on laws and regulations so that you can be an educated advocate. By being
educated, it will allow you to appropriately share information with government officials
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who can write legislation to make new accommodations for people with disabilities.
Another way to be an advocate for people with disabilities is to act. Judith Heumann
leads an example of how to use protesting and persistence to convince government
officials to pass or write supportive laws and regulations. I would absolutely recommend
this book to students in future semesters because it is one that provides clear examples of
discrimination against those with disabilities as well as their fight for equality and now
for equity. Without this book, it is difficult to fully understand exactly how extreme some
of the discrimination against the community was and still is.