Fighting for Yes! The Story of Disability Rights Activist Judith Heumann

As a girl in 1950s New York, Judy Heumann loved books and music, but because she used a wheelchair she heard the word no again and again: from a principal who called her a fire hazard, from schools that kept disabled students apart in the basement, and later from the city's Board of Education, which refused her a teaching license. Judy went to court, won the right to teach, and joined other disability rights activists in a 1977 sit-in that would not end until the government signed the rules for Section 504, a law that laid the groundwork for the Americans with Disabilities Act. Maryann Cocca-Leffler's picture book biography, illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger, closes with a note from Heumann herself. It was a 2023 Orbis Pictus honor book.