Please join us on Tuesday, June 16, 2015 for a telephonic press briefing with Judith Heumann, Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State. Special Advisor Heumann will provide an overview of her recent travels in the Asia Pacific and an update on U.S. government policy and programs focused on international disability rights. This July, the United States will celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA. Special Advisor Heumann will provide a preview of how the U.S. government plans to mark the ADA 25th Anniversary both domestically and internationally.
Judith Heumann is an internationally recognized leader in the disability community and a lifelong civil rights advocate for disadvantaged people. She leads the U.S. comprehensive strategy to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities internationally. The United States, as part of our foreign policy, works to remove barriers and create a world in which disabled people enjoy dignity and full inclusion.
Details:
Speaker: Judith Heumann, Special Advisor for International Disability Rights, U.S. Department of State
Date: June 16, 2015
Time: 9:00am Singapore time, 10 :00am Tokyo time, 8 :00am Bangkok time
Language: English
Ground rules: On the Record
RSVP: Please RSVP to GireCL@state.gov by 5:00pm Singapore time, Friday, June 12th.
Bio:
Judith Heumann is an internationally recognized leader in the disability community and a lifelong civil rights advocate for disadvantaged people. She has been appointed Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State. She previously served as the Director for the Department on Disability Services for the District of Columbia, where she was responsible for the Developmental Disability Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration.
From June 2002- 2006, Judith E. Heumann served as the World Bank’s first Adviser on Disability and Development. In this position, Heumann led the World Bank’s disability work to expand the Bank’s knowledge and capability to work with governments and civil society on including disability in the Bank discussions with client countries; its country-based analytical work; and support for improving policies, programs, and projects that allow disabled people around the world to live and work in the economic and social mainstream of their communities. She was Lead Consultant to the Global Partnership for Disability and Development.
From 1993 to 2001, Heumann served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education. Heumann was responsible for the implementation of legislation at the national level for programs in special education, disability research, vocational rehabilitation and independent living, serving more than 8 million youth and adults with disabilities.
For more than 30 years, Heumann has been involved on the international front working with disabled people’s organizations and governments around the world to advance the human rights of disabled people. She represented Education Secretary, Richard Riley, at the 1995 International Congress on Disability in Mexico City. She was a US delegate to the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. She has been active with Disabled Peoples’ International, Rehabilitation International and numerous Independent Living Centers throughout the world. She co-founded the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley California and the World Institute on Disability in Oakland California.
Heumann graduated from Long Island University in 1969 and received her Masters in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. She has received numerous awards including being the first recipient of the Henry B. Betts Award in recognition of efforts to significantly improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. She has received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Long Island University in Brooklyn, an Honorary Doctorate of Public Administration from the University of Illinois, Champaign, and an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from the University of Toledo.
Logistics:
- Callers will join the conference call 10 minutes early.
- The operator will ask for your name, press affiliation, and location.
- Special Advisor Heumann will give brief opening remarks, and then the moderator will open the floor to questions.
- Participants on the conference call will be instructed to push the “*” and “1” buttons on their phones to enter the question queue. If you experience technical difficulties during the call, you may email girecl@state.gov.
