Preface to the Korean edition
Judy's Note
Entering

Part 1 Brooklyn, New York, 1953

Chapter 1 Butterfly
Chapter 2 The Rebel
Chapter 3: To Fight or Not to Fight
Chapter 4: Fear of Flying

Part 2 Berkeley, California, 1977

Chapter 5 Detention
Chapter 6: Occupying Forces
Chapter 7: Soldiers on the Battlefield
Chapter 8 The White House

Part 3, Berkeley, California, 1981

Chapter 9 Fruition
Chapter 10: Chingona, Competent and Bad Women
Chapter 11 People
Chapter 12 Our Story

Acknowledgements
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Translator's Note
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Judith Heumann Chronology?
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I became disabled, I became a citizen, and I became myself.

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1947, Judith Heumann was left with quadriplegia as a result of polio, but her family and neighbors were unaware of her disability.
Her friends on the same block naturally pushed her wheelchair, and she didn't think there was anything Judy couldn't do with them.
However, because he uses a wheelchair, he is denied entry to kindergarten and school on the grounds that he is a "fire hazard," and is aggressively asked "Are you sick?" by a passing child. As he attends a special school for the disabled, he gradually comes to realize that he is different from others, and that there are things he cannot do and places he cannot go.


While attending a special school and then a regular high school and participating in a summer camp for the disabled, Human became more aware of his disability identity and opened his eyes to the fight for equal opportunities and rights for the disabled, and for a life where he could eat when he wanted and sleep when he wanted.
After graduating from Long Island University and wanting to become a teacher, he sued the New York City Board of Education in 1970 for denying him a teaching license due to his disability, and based on that experience, he founded the civil rights organization "Disabled People in Action," which is led by people with disabilities.
In 1972, along with fellow members of the group, they occupied a lane of Madison Avenue in Manhattan to protest President Richard Nixon's veto of an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act that stated that "no person shall, on the sole ground of disability, be excluded, denied the benefits of, or discriminated against under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."


Later, at the suggestion of Ed Roberts, a leading disability activist in the western United States, Human joined the independent living movement that was growing in Berkeley, California at the time, and founded the American Coalition for People with Disabilities with fellow disabled people, urging the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare to sign the regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
When the signature was not obtained even during the transition from the Ford administration to the Carter administration, in April 1977, together with over 100 disabled colleagues, they occupied the San Francisco federal government building for 24 days and applied pressure from various sides, including hearings, press reports, and a visit to the White House, finally obtaining the signature of Joseph Califano, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.
However, even after signing, the lives of people with disabilities did not change much.
Humans have always been at the forefront of the struggle, leading to the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in a broader scope and guarantees the rights of people with disabilities within the framework of civil rights law.
In 1990, George H.
This is what Human wrote about the moment President W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act:
“At the age of forty-one, I finally became an equal citizen.” (p. 246)

Since then, Human has served as a disability rights administrator in the Clinton and Obama administrations, rising to the highest government positions as a person with a disability, and has been a leader in the global disability movement, serving as the World Bank's first Disability and Development Advisor.
He worked to improve systems and awareness to ensure that the rights of people with disabilities were not excluded from all government and institutional work, and he also worked to establish facilities and services that enabled people with disabilities, including himself, to work in any capacity.
Looking back on this whole process, Human said, “I am the person I wanted to be” (p. 289).
This long story of a child struggling to accept his differences, confronting an unjust society, becoming a citizen, and finally living as himself, gives us a glimpse into the direction of the struggles of disability activists and those involved in the struggle who still stand on the streets today.
It is about living as myself, raising my voice, and living as a citizen.


How to organize people and continue the struggle
A 24-day occupation and the culture of communication and respect that blossomed within it.

If Judith Heumann's life were to be made into a film, the narrative's climax would be the 24-day occupation of a federal building in San Francisco in 1977, which led to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare signing into law the regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Over 100 disabled people who entered the sit-in protest without any preparation became each other's eyes, ears, arms and legs to get through each day.
Considering each person's disability type, health condition, and available communication method, a committee was formed to handle things like procuring food and medicine, and media relations, and important decisions had to be made only after obtaining everyone's consent.
The meeting never began without a sign language interpreter, and it never ended until everyone had spoken.
Slow speed and awkward pronunciation were not a problem.
The scene where protesters, who were isolated with food and medicine prohibited and even hot water and phone service cut off, communicate with protesters outside their windows through sign language is a beautiful scene of people gathered under a common goal mobilizing their individual abilities and resources to cooperate.

Then an idea occurred to me.
We had a secret weapon.
It was sign language.
We gave all the presentation materials and messages to the hearing-impaired protesters and took them to a window overlooking the square where our supporters were holding an all-night vigil.
When the deaf protesters and sign language interpreters outside showed interest, they signed our message through the window.
Deaf protesters and sign language interpreters outside picked up the message and relayed it to those who needed to hear it.
It was a beautiful sight.
- Pages 167-168

Human was a man of unwavering conviction who never backed down from his goals, but he was also a man who sincerely persuaded and moved his colleagues.
Rather than making grand promises, he encouraged the protesters by saying, “Will you join us for just one more day? If we hold out for just one more day, we can make a difference” (p. 160). Ultimately, of the ten cities that began protests together, only the San Francisco protesters held out until the end, maintaining a force of over 100.


Having built strong bonds within the movement through communication and respect, Humane also recognized the need to connect the disability movement with other civil rights movements outside of it.
Unlike their parents, who grouped together by disability type or approached only limited topics such as the rehabilitation or education of children with disabilities, Human and his colleagues believed that their movement should be a solidarity of the weak against the powerful.
So, we actively collaborated with other civil rights groups, including black people, labor unions, the gay community, and churches, and emphasized that the rights of people with disabilities should also be treated as civil rights issues.
The Black Panthers, a black activist group, brought warm meals every night to the "crippled occupiers" inside the San Francisco federal building, symbolically showing how various civil rights movements must join hands to create a better world.

The Civil Rights Acts of 1964 included provisions to eliminate discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin, but did not address disability.
Disabled people are not included in the category of citizens.
After years of struggle, persuasion, and collaboration by human and colleagues, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the world's most comprehensive civil rights law guaranteeing the rights of people with disabilities, was finally enacted in July 1990.
This book is a biography of one person, Judith Heumann, but it can also be read as a history of the American disability movement, which grew at the intersection of several civil rights movements.
It could serve as a kind of mirror for the Korean disability movement, which has grown along a similar trajectory.


Disabled women have not received help from the women's movement.
The precarious tightrope walk of being a woman, disabled person, and activist

Judith Heumann had to fight not only as a person with a disability, but also as a woman.
Even when I made legitimate demands, I was told that I didn't know how to compromise or that I was selfish because I was a woman.
Even among disability activists who came together to create an equal world, they were often criticized and had their positions taken away without reason.
When the San Francisco protesters on the West Coast sent a delegation to Washington, D.C., during the Section 504 protests, the East Coast protesters were uncomfortable with the West Coast leadership, which was predominantly female, for being combative and ignoring the conventions of civil resistance.
Even when I founded the World Organization for People with Disabilities with fellow activists Ed Roberts and Joanne Leon as co-presidents, a few years later the board appointed Ed Roberts, a man, as sole president without any formalities or explanations.
A non-disabled male boss I met at the World Bank persistently harassed Human, a disabled woman who was the most vulnerable.


Humans realized that they were always facing the same problem, and that it was a very fundamental problem.
Just as her mother was a fighter for her disabled daughter to have equal opportunities, but relied on her father, Human herself was an uncompromising fighter and a good daughter at the same time.
As a leader of a social movement, she had to appear strong, but not so strong that she seemed unfriendly as a woman.
Although all women lived two truths, disabled women, including Human, did not receive support from the women's movement.
Even though 80 percent of women with disabilities experience sexual abuse in their lifetime, it is not treated as a women's issue.
We had to overcome multiple layers of discrimination.


As women, we have always done the right thing, done thousands of things right, and kept all our promises.
We led 150 people to occupy a federal building in San Francisco and change laws for people with disabilities.
But we were not in the position of responsibility.
People said we were pushing too hard.
I never once said that to Ed.

This situation had quite an impact on me.
Of course, my girlfriends who live in California took my side.
But I always felt like I was walking a tightrope.
Like we all, I had to grow internally.
As disabled women, we have not received any help from the women's movement.
We have always tried to ensure that our issues are given importance and supported by the women's movement, but they have generally been ignored.
We were basically just ourselves.
- Page 233

But Human says that only when all vulnerable and marginalized people join together can we move towards a more equal world.
Because we all have multiple identities, and we are all vulnerable and marginalized in some way.
Anyone who feels precariously torn between multiple intersecting identities may find a small escape in Human's story.


We, everyone, especially the marginalized, must work together.
There has always been and still is no barrier to the broader civil rights movement.
Visible and invisible disabilities cut across all minorities.
We are African American, Latino, Asian American, Native American, gay, straight, or transgender, middle class, rich, or poor, Hindu, Christian, or Muslim.
We cannot choose which marginalized groups will move forward.
Ultimately, we all need to move forward together, caring for our families and the world.
- Page 300

Cherish democratic government
Run for office and vote

'We' and 'together' are the words Judith Heumann uses most often.
As if he is trying not to forget the danger of an 'autobiography' that places himself at the center of the story, he constantly emphasizes that "any story that changes the world is always a story created by many people together" (p. 20).
It is true that the roles of several activists and politicians, such as Judith Heumann and Ed Roberts, stand out in the history of the American disability movement since the 1970s, which is covered in this book.
But behind their decisions and actions, there has always been the cooperation and dedication of countless people with disabilities and activists.
A leader like Human is born when people who believe that this fight is for them come together and take action.


Behind each name I mention in this book are thousands of others reaching outward.
We created a committee and created and created another committee.
Everyone had a role to play, and everyone was a master.
Why? Because I believed each and every one of us had a role to play in creating change.
We knew that our success depended on collaboration.
Our strength comes solely from people who feel a sense of unity with the movement and have a sense of ownership.
I still work this way today.
- Pages 299-300

It will take a long and arduous struggle to fully guarantee the rights of the weak and minorities in society, but it only takes a moment for them to be damaged and regress.
Immediately after being elected president, Donald Trump began to roll back laws and programs designed to support people with disabilities.
On his first day in office, he touched on Obamacare, then shut down the Americans with Disabilities Act page on the White House website.
His first attorney general attacked the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which supported the education of children with disabilities.
In response to this movement, disability activists launched a multifaceted resistance movement, including a "lying down protest" in front of the house of the Senate majority leader.
The attempt to repeal Obamacare ultimately failed.


Human describes a series of events that followed Trump's election, saying that it is up to each individual citizen to decide what kind of society they want and what kind of government they form.
And we emphasize that we have a means called 'democracy' to make society fair, give everyone a voice, and protect the rights of the marginalized.
Just as our human and disabled colleagues have gradually moved a society that seemed unmovable, making it what it is today, even if it seems like nothing will change right away, if we persistently raise our voices together, we can eventually create change.
This is what this book demonstrates and appeals to everyone who seeks to create a better world beyond the disability movement.


Our government is constantly changing.
Government is created by people, and changes are made by people.
This fact gives us a choice.
Will we be the ones creating trustworthy governments, or will we simply accept whatever comes our way? (…) If we cherish democratic government and invest consistently in it, we can solve the problem of inequality.
You must resist the temptation to give up when it feels complicated.
Because democracy is complex and the process necessarily takes time.
(…) run for election.
Take part in the vote.
“Vote as if your life depended on it.
“Because your life really depends on it!” - pp. 292-299