This is Michael Maxwell with the Sioux City Public Library and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I am recommending Being Heumann memoirs written by disability activist Judith Heumann with Kristen Joiner about how the treatment of Americans with disabilities has changed during her lifetime.
Judith Heumann grew up with supportive parents who made sure she was included in her community alongside her peers- even if this meant her father carrying her upstairs in her wheelchair during a school assembly despite the principal’s protestations. Judith internalized these situations she experienced at a young age, and by the time she was denied the right to become a teacher she’d had enough. Judith sued and won her right to teach, but this was just the beginning.
Whenever Judith Heumann met an unfair barrier, she was unafraid of ramming into it and shattering expectations. Sometimes this was unfortunately literal, with Heumann and other activists slamming their wheelchairs into glass doors and dragging themselves up the stairs of the U.S. Capital just to be heard.
This is the kind of book that makes a reader realize how much they don’t know. My sense of shame at not having heard the stories Judith shares was quickly drowned out by the indignity I felt vicariously through her experiences. This memoir packs an empathetic wallop and lays out a clear narrative of disability history in America. It’s particularly thought-provoking when Heumann reveals the extent to which our domestic policy has informed the treatment of disabled individuals world-wide. You’ll finish this book with a new perspective.
Check out Being Heumann by Judith Heumann and other mind-expanding memoirs at the Sioux City Public Library today!
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