'Doctor Who's' Ruth Madeley to Play Famed Disabilty Activist Judy Heumann

British actress Ruth Madeley is set to portray the iconic American disability rights activist in the forthcoming Apple Films feature, Being Heumann. The film tells the story of Judy Heumann, the woman known as the "Mother of the Disability Rights Movement," who played a pivotal role in bringing about the legislation that led to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Heumann, who lost her ability to walk at age two after contracting polio, encountered discrimination throughout her life. She sued the New York Board of Education for being denied a teaching license because of her disability and subsequently became the first wheelchair user to teach in New York public schools. She co-founded the civil rights organization, Disabled in Action, and served in leadership roles in both the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Being Heumann is set to dramatize the famous 25-day sit-in she led at a U.S. Federal Building in San Francisco in 1977, when protestors refused to leave until the government enforced Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required all federal spaces to become accessible. Heumann passed away in 2022, but not before writing the memoir upon which this film is based. (Also titled Being Heumann, it was published in 2020.)