Since founding the civil rights organisation, Disability In Action, in 1970, Heumann has been at the very core of the disability rights movement in the United States. In 2010, Judy was nominated by President Obama as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the US Department of State, previously serving as the World Bank's First Advisor on Disability and Development. Earlier this year, she was the central feature of the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary Crip Camp.  Her memoir, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist was published earlier this year.