Disability Rights Activist. She was the daughter of Jewish immigrants who came to the United States in the 1930s. Due to contracting polio at 18 months old, she used a wheelchair for most of her life. She did not view her disability as a problem, stating, "Disability only becomes a tragedy for me when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives—job opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example. It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair." This reflected her experiences fighting for her rights and the rights of other disabled people from a very young age, beginning with the opportunity to attend school, after the local public school did not permit her to attend, claiming her wheelchair was a fire hazard. She was required to be home-schooled or to attend a special school for disabled students, before winning the fight to attend a standard public high school in 1961. She completed a bachelor's degree in speech therapy in 1969, and a master's degree in public health in 1975. During this time, she organised rallies and protests with other students with and without disabilities, demanding ramp access to her classrooms and the right to live in a dormitory. In 1970, she successfully sued the New York State Board of Education after she was denied a teaching license based on continued claims that her wheelchair was a fire hazard in schools. She became the first wheelchair user to teach in New York City. Public support of Heumann during this time lead to the founding of Disabled in Action (DIA), an organisation which advocated for protection of people with disabilities by civil rights laws. She was an early adopter of the Independent Living Movement. She helped to develop the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In 1977, she organised the longest-ever sit-in at a US federal building when the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare refused to sign Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was the first U.S. federal civil rights protection for disabled people. Over 100 people refused to leave the building for 28 days, with the Black Panthers bringing them meals and supplies throughout the protest. As a result, Education of All Handicapped Children and Section 504 were signed into law. Heumann co-founded the World Institute on Disability in 1983, serving as co-director until 1993. Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed her as the first director of the Department on Disability Services, overseeing the Developmental Disability Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration. She was appointed by the Clinton Administration as Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services at the United States Department of Education, serving from 1993 to 2001. From 2010-2017, she served as the Special Advisor on International Disability Rights for the U.S. State Department under Barack Obama. She received numerous awards and accolades for her work, including seven honorary doctorates. She and her husband, Jorge Pineda, were married in in 1992.