Judith Heumann, activist who led US disability rights movement, dies aged 75

The savvy, wheelchair-using civil rights activist Judith Heumann, who led a movement to reimagine what it means to be disabled in the US, died on Saturday at a hospital in Washington DC.

Heumann had been hospitalized for a week dealing with heart issues that may have stemmed from her lifelong challenge with polio, the Associated Press reported. She was 75.

Heumann, who founded the Independent Living Movement, was perhaps most recognized in recent years from her appearance in the documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, which chronicled the forgotten history of a freewheeling summer camp called Camp Jened in upstate New York for teenagers with disabilities in the 1970s.

After Ilse challenged those restrictions, Judy was eventually allowed to enter the building.

Her experience at Camp Jened inspired a groundswell of US political activism and sparked a movement of young activists with disabilities who fought for civil rights protections at a time when they were treated like second-class citizens.