The right to truly live: Apple TV’s ‘Being Heumann’ pays tribute to the tenacity of disability activists (VIDEO)

Ruth Madeley shines in her portrayal of activist Judy Heumann in ‘Being Heumann,’ — Picture courtesy of Apple TV

By Erna Mahyuni

First Published: Friday, 06 Nov 2026 9:49 AM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 — Throughout human history, it has been a sad fact that rights have never been freely given so much as they have needed to be advocated and fought for.

Telling the stories of the people who keep fighting for those rights matters.

Being Heumann is a biopic about disabled activist Judy Heumann and her success, alongside other activists, in gaining approval for an important law safeguarding the rights of people with disabilities.

This law was Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which would ensure that the disabled would not be discriminated against in federally funded programmes.

It wasn’t achieved by polite letter writing or sedate speeches; Heumann and her cohort held a sit-in at the San Francisco office of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare that lasted 26 days.

That blockade still holds the record for the longest sit-in of a federal building in the US.

Wheelchair user Ruth Madeley brings a fine gumption to her portrayal of Heumann and Mark Ruffalo the “villain” of the story as always brings a gritty humanity to his portrayal of Joseph Califano as the-then US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Two of my friends, may their souls rest in peace, were disabled activists.

Few people I know are angrier than disabled activists and deservedly so.

The script is sharp in its addressing of the disrespect for the disabled and lack of understanding about disabled rights.

Califano brushes the activists off for asking for what he considered too much at a time when US President Jimmy Carter was campaigning on reducing the budget deficit.

That’s one of the biggest misunderstandings about disability rights.

Even in Malaysia people are often accused of “playing the disability card” like it’s some magic get out of jail pass.

The disabled do not want special treatment; they want access to everything that the non-disabled do, but take for granted.

Heumann in the film recounts being kicked off a plane, denied access to schooling and even being barred from teaching all due to being considered a “fire hazard.”

It took a long period of Heumann’s mother dragging her wheelchair up the stairs for Heumann to finally be allowed to go to school.

The story of Heumann and the rest of the Section 504 activists seems almost too farfetched, going without food and water for days (partly due to security barring provisions), enduring being cramped together in a truck as accessible transport was not available at the time but most of all, winning despite the physical odds and the disdain from higher-ups.

While some things in the film can be discomfiting and almost too real at a time when protections for the disabled are endangered in the US thanks to the demonisation of DEI policies, it is a story worth watching and deserved telling.

Yet it is also important for us, the viewers, to ask ourselves if we will do more than feel “inspired” by stories like Being Heumann.

Being Heumann will begin screening on Apple TV from November 13.

* This is the personal opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.