Author

Michael Ashley Stein

Professor Michael Ashley Stein is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School since 2005. Considered one of the world’s leading experts on disability law and policy, Dr. Stein participated in the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; works with disabled peoples’ organizations and non-governmental organizations around the world; actively consults with governments on their disability laws and policies; advises an array of UN bodies and national human rights institutions; and has brought landmark disability rights litigation globally. Dr. Stein teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard Extension School; holds an Extraordinary Professorship at the University of Pretoria Faculty of Law’s Centre for Human Rights; and is a visiting professor at the Free University of Amsterdam Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences’ Athena Institute. He earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School (where he became the first known person with a disability to be a member of the Harvard Law Review), and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University (funded by a W.M. Tapp Studentship).

Disability Law Tribute

Honoring Judy Heumann’s Legacy

So what would Judy have us to do to honor her iconic legacy? The short answer is that we must continue to march forth and keep fighting until every law, policy, program, organization, and activity not only acknowledges but meaningfully includes disability at every level and in every area of life. For Judy, meaningful inclusion meant much, much more than inserting “persons with disabilities” in a long list of marginalized groups. And by every level, Judy meant every level, from the highest decision-makers to the individuals with whom persons with disabilities interface every day. And every area of life meant not stopping at ensuring that every school is accessible and every teacher trained, but also that persons with disabilities are centered in existential issues, such as climate action. Like the best kind of mindful aunt, she would expect more of all of us.