Judy Heumann, a renowned advocate for the rights of disabled people, has died at the age of 75.
Heumann
was an internationally recognised leader of the disability rights
movement whose activism led to the implementation of major legislation
in the United States.
After contracting polio as a child, she became the first wheelchair user to work as a teacher in New York City.
She died in Washington DC on Saturday.
Heumann
was "widely regarded as 'the mother' of the disability rights
movement", according to a message posted on her website announcing her
death.
She
was at the forefront of major disability rights demonstrations, helped
spearhead the passage of laws and founded national and international
advocacy organisations, it added.
Heumann also served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, and had more than 20 years of non-profit experience.
Barack Obama said he was "fortunate" to work with Heumann, and paid tribute to her life-long dedication to fight for civil rights.
The American Association of People with Disabilities also led tributes, saying her leadership "advanced the rights and inherent dignity of people with disabilities".
Born
in 1947 in Philadelphia and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she
contracted polio when she was two years old and lost the ability to
walk.
She
was not allowed to attend pre-school, because her wheelchair was
considered a "fire-hazard", and when she eventually got into a school at
age nine, she recounted being treated as a "second-class citizen".
Her
parents fought for her rights as a child, and she went on to study
speech therapy at Long Island University and earned a masters in public
health from the University of California, Berkeley.
In
the 1970s, she won a lawsuit against the New York Board of Education
and became the first teacher in the state to use a wheelchair.
Her
fight for civil rights led to her staging a 24-day sit-in at a San
Francisco federal building in 1977, an event which eventually helped
pave the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990.
Heumann
went on to serve in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 2001 as an
assistant secretary in the Office of Special Education and
Rehabilitation Services in the Department of Education, and was
appointed special adviser on International Disability Rights by Barack
Obama.
Alongside
her decades' long activism, she also co-authored her memoir, Being
Heumann, and its Young Adult version, Rolling Warrior, and was featured
in the Oscar-nominated documentary, Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution.
Heumann is survived by her husband, Jorge, and two brothers, Ricky and Joseph.
