Feb. 21, 2012

State Department Adviser Speaks on Disability Rights

Judith Heumann, special adviser for international disability rights at the U.S. Department of State, speaks to an audience at Catholic University. (Photo by David Bauman)

Approximately 1 billion people - or 15 percent of the world's population - live with a disability, according to the World Report on Disabilities.

Judith Heumann, special adviser for international disability rights at the U.S. Department of State, cited this statistic from the report by the World Bank and the World Health Organization during a Feb. 16 talk at The Catholic University of America. She noted it shows "we are not talking about a small population" who live with a disability.

Heumann, who spoke about the importance of the disability rights movement to more than 100 attendees, said many children with disabilities in developing countries are not attending school and a large number of disabled adults in the United States and Western Europe are unemployed.

"One of the issues around disabilities is that those of us with visible disabilities don't have a choice in hiding it," she explained. "Others who have invisible disabilities choose not to disclose them because of fear. It may trigger an assumption that you're not capable of doing the job."

For Heumann, however, the word disability is a word of "empowerment." Heumann is an expert on disability policy and an internationally recognized trailblazer in the disability community who has been involved in the movement for more than 30 years.

"It's like the women's movement or the African-American movement," she said. "For me, it's disability rights."

Having a disability is "a part of who we are," Heumann said. "The question is: Are we living in a society where who we are is something that is respected or are we hiding who we are because of discrimination?"

After her talk, Heumann took questions and comments from the audience.

"Judith Heumann's lecture was a celebration of humanity," said Leszek Sibilski, adjunct professor of sociology. "In the room we had men, women, undergraduates, graduate students, faculty members, every possible race and ethnicity, disabled and non-disabled, and we were all united and captivated by listening to one of the most influential human rights leaders on how to solve social global problems together."

"She did a wonderful job helping everyone understand fully the challenges that people with disabilities face every day and how things have changed over the years," added Emily Lucio, CUA director of disability support services.

Sibilski's Global Disability Policies class co-sponsored the event with the Office of Disability Support Services.