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Judith Heumann, a renowned activist who helped secure legislation protecting the rights of people with disabilities, has died. She was 75 years old. Ms. Heumann died Saturday in Washington, D.C., according to a statement from her family. Over decades of activism, Ms. Heumann played a role in developing national disability-rights legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. She was also involved in the passage of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. (Otis, 3/5)  

A quadriplegic since childhood, Ms. Heumann (pronounced human) began her career in activism waging a one-woman battle to be allowed to work as a teacher in New York City when discrimination against disabled people was not widely understood as a problem. She 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.” (Traub, 3/5)

President Biden on Sunday remembered disability rights activist Judith Heumann, who passed away on Saturday at 75, as a “trailblazer” and a “rolling warrior.” ... “Judy Heumann was a trailblazer – a rolling warrior – for disability rights in America. After her school principal said she couldn’t enter Kindergarten because she was using a wheelchair, Judy dedicated the rest of her life to fighting for the inherent dignity of people with disabilities,” Biden said in a statement. (Sforza, 3/5)

Actress and activist Marlee Matlin called Ms. Heumann “a fearless champion” in an online tribute. “Millions of people who have faced barriers owe her a debt of gratitude,” Ms. Matlin, an Oscar-winning actress with hearing loss, posted on Twitter. (Otis, 3/5)

Judy Heumann was the first person I called when, in 1987, I reported my first story on disability rights. Judy, who contracted polio when she was 18 months old, gave me the quote that perfectly summed up that little-known civil rights movement. "Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives — job opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example," she said. "It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair." That idea seemed so unexpected and strange that my editors at a newsmagazine decided not to publish my story. It was still a radical claim that disabled people didn't see themselves, or their conditions, as something to be pitied. (Joseph Shapiro, 3/4)