Learn About Six Amazing Women with Disabilities

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and Women’s History Month! Join the Center for Learning and Leadership/ UCEDD in recognizing amazing women with disabilities who strive to advocate for others. These women are pioneers who have helped pave the way for women with disabilities and have fought against adversity to achieve their goals. Read about them below, and click the links for more information.

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Rosa May Billinghurst, dressed in long dress and hat, sits in her adapted tricycle. She is surronded by a group of women Suffragettes, looking towards the camera.

Judith Heumann has short brown hair and oval glasses. She is nicely dressed in a red top.

Nancy Ward smiles, wearing a blue and green floral shirt. She has brown hair and black glasses.

Liz Wientraub stands in front of the United States Capitol. She is wearing glasses and a black t-shirt with

Claudia Gordon, an African-american woman with short dark hair smiles at the camera. She is nicely dressed in a floral skirt and black blouse.

Mia Ives-Rublee sits in front of a microphone, smiling. She has short dark hair in a modern cut and is wearing a red shirt.

Rosa May Billinghurst

A prominent suffragette with disabilities, Rosa May Billinghurst fought for women’s rights and visibility using an adapted tricycle. She was a prominent voice in the British women’s rights movements in the early 1900’s, and fought for women despite the challenges that stood in her way. Police would pull her from her tricycle and sabotage the wheels of her device, but that did not stop her from helping women win the right to vote. View an online exhibit of her life and work here.

Judith Heumann

Judith Heumann contracted polio in 1949, and dedicated her life to advancing inclusion of individuals with disabilities. She has served as the World Bank’s first Adviser on Disability and Development, as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education, and has served as a delegate to the United Nations’ World Conference on Women in Beijing. She is currently serving a senior fellow with the Ford Foundation. Read about her here, and view her Ted Talk here.

Nancy Ward

Nancy Ward was a founding chair of Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE), a national self-advocacy organization, and is respected nationally as a leader in the people-first movement. She started her self-advocacy work with People First of Nebraska, and now serves in Oklahoma as the Voting Rights Advocate for the Oklahoma Disability Law Center. Ms. Ward also serves as a member of the Oklahoma UCEDD-LEND Consumer Advisory Committee and advises our work. Read more about her role in the self-advocacy movement here, and listen to her talk about forming SABE here. 

Liz Wientraub

A nationally recognized advocate, Liz Wientraub is the Senior Advocacy Specialist at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities. She is the hose of Tuesdays with Liz: Policy for All, a video series where she helps make policies understandable for all. Ms. Weintraub has worked with the Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL) and has received various awards for her advocacy work. In 2018, she advocated for people with disabilities during the hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Read about her here and watch her testimony here.

Claudia Gordon

Claudia Gordon, Esq. is the first Deaf female African-American lawyer in the United States, and has served in many roles since graduating law school. From 2009 until the end of his Presidency, she served under President Obama with the Department of Labor. She is currently a director of Government and Compliance with Sprint Accessibility, a unit within the Sprint Corporation. Read about her here.

Mia Ives-Rublee

An activist and athlete with osteogenisis imperfect, Mia Ives-Rublee is a civil-rights champion. As an adapted athelete, she competed internationally in track, fencing, and crossfit. With her Master’s in Social Work, she now serves as a research assistant in UNC Chapel Hill and is the founder and coordinator of the Women’s March Disability Caucus. Read about her here.

More information:

Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month

Women’s History Month

Tuesday’s with Liz

Claudia Gordon

The Bold Beauty Project – arts project featuring women with disabilities