ROLLING WARRIOR

Adapting her memoir Being Heumann (2020) for younger readers, the activist author relates her fight for disabled people’s equality.

The child of parents orphaned in the Holocaust, Heumann saw her polio—which resulted in the inability to walk, dress herself, or use the bathroom unassisted—as “no big deal.” The world thought otherwise. Pulled out of public school for being a “fire hazard” and sent to a segregated school where disabled students were infantilized and underestimated, she realized that she “wasn’t expected to be a part of the world.” Fortunately, her parents fought for her inclusion. After a hard-won legal battle to become a teacher, the politically active Heumann advocated for the passage of Section 504, a precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act, and, later, the ADA itself. Stonewalled by government officials but aided by civil rights allies, she and disabled protesters across the country staged protests and grueling sit-ins despite a lack of food, aides, and phone communication. Heumann’s frank accounts of humiliation and dismissal are infuriating, but her conversational narration and snarky chapter titles (“Sorry, If You Could Just Hide Behind Everyone Else That Would Be Great”) keep the tone encouraging, and her accounts of disabled people’s camaraderie are heartening. Above all, she reassures readers that “activism makes a difference.” A reflective epilogue explores global disability rights, representation, and the importance of telling—and listening to—#ownvoices stories. Heumann presents White.

Insightful and empowering.