Being Heumann Trailer: The True Story Behind a Protest That Changed Disability Rights in America

The new trailer for Apple’s Being Heumann retells the 1977 sit-in where disabled activists took over a federal building and refused to leave. Here’s the history behind it.

The premise of Being Heumann can basically be summed up as: You ignored us, so now we live in your office.

That’s a simplified version of what happened in San Francisco in 1977, but not by much. Disabled Americans had a federal law protecting them from discrimination. The government just hadn’t issued the regulations to enforce it. So Judy Heumann and around 100 other activists moved into a federal building and stayed for 26 days.

The movie is an Apple Original Film from CODA writer-director Siân Heder. Ruth Madeley plays Heumann and Mark Ruffalo plays Joseph Califano, the government official standing in her way. Dylan O’Brien, Madeline Delp, Daniel Durant (CODA), Ray Fisher, and a large ensemble of disabled actors fill out the cast. It’s based on Heumann’s memoir, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, written with Kristen Joiner. Heder wrote the screenplay with Rebekah Taussig.

Watch the Being Heumann Trailer

Apple released the full trailer on October 12, and it gives the story a lot more room than the earlier teaser. There’s anger, but there’s also humor, flirtation, and the logistical headache of running an occupation where everyone has different needs.

It looks like a movie about activists who get to be actual people. That shouldn’t be notable, but here we are.

Being Heumann opens in select theaters on November 6 and starts streaming on Apple TV on November 13. It runs 2 hours and 7 minutes and is rated R.

So Who Was Judy Heumann?

If the name isn’t familiar, that’s part of why this movie feels overdue.

Heumann was born in 1947 and contracted polio at 18 months old. She began using a wheelchair, and when her parents tried to enroll her in kindergarten at five, the school called her a “fire hazard.” Instead, the district sent a teacher to the house for 2.5 hours a week. She didn’t start school until fourth grade, and she was put in a segregated classroom for disabled students.

Years later, she wanted to teach. She passed the written and oral exams for a teaching license but failed the medical exam because she couldn’t walk. So she sued the New York Board of Education. The board reconsidered, and she became the first wheelchair user to teach in New York.

That would be a satisfying ending for most biopics. She was just getting started.

The Law Existed. The Government Wasn’t Enforcing It.

The movie centers on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which banned disability discrimination in any program receiving federal funding. It was the first federal law to treat disability as a civil rights issue.

There was one problem. The regulations needed to enforce it hadn’t been issued, and four years went by. Schools, hospitals, and other institutions that would have to spend money on accessibility were pushing back.

By 1977, the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities had given Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano an ultimatum: sign the regulations without weakening them, or step down. He didn’t. Protests started in cities across the country on April 5.

26 Days Inside a Federal Building

Only the San Francisco sit-in lasted. Around 100 protesters occupied the HEW offices at 50 United Nations Plaza, and they didn’t leave for 26 days. Wheelchair users, Deaf and blind protesters, and people with other disabilities took part. Committees handled food, hygiene, medical needs, and publicity.

The occupation also showed exactly what they were fighting about. People slept on the floor. Some needed help changing positions overnight to avoid bed sores. Organizer Kitty Cone built a makeshift refrigerator for medications by putting a box around an air conditioning unit. After a few days, police shut off the hot water and cut the phone lines, so someone inside signed out the window to supporters outside.

All of this happened while the government was still debating whether accessibility was too expensive. That’s the whole fight: accessibility decides who gets to take part in ordinary life.

The Community Behind the Protest

The support went well beyond the people inside. The International Association of Machinists backed the protesters and later paid for a delegation to go to Washington. The local Black Panther Party dropped off a hot meal every day, plus supplies for two more meals. The Brick Hut lesbian cooperative and Glide Memorial Church helped too.

Civil rights wins usually get remembered as the work of one leader, which makes for tidier history and tidier movies. Real movements are messier. They need people cooking food and interpreting sign language. Heumann was a leader, but she wasn’t the whole story, and the trailer seems to get that.

They Took the Fight to Washington

A few weeks in, a delegation that included Heumann traveled to Washington, D.C. to pressure the Carter administration. Accessible transportation wasn’t available, so the Machinists rented a box truck that could carry about a dozen wheelchair users. They rode in the back, in the dark.

Neither President Carter nor Califano would meet with them. But news of the sit-in reached national coverage, the pressure grew, and Califano signed the Section 504 regulations.

Who’s Who in the Cast

Madeline Delp plays Kitty Cone. Michael Patrick Thornton (The Good Doctor) plays Ed Roberts, a pioneer of the independent living movement. Antwan Tolliver plays Brad Lomax and Andrew Pilkington plays Hale Zukas. Dylan O’Brien plays Evan White.

The ensemble is also being described as the largest group of disabled actors ever in a single production. The trailer looks crowded, chaotic, and communal, which is how the actual movement was.

Judy Heumann Didn’t Stop in 1977

The 504 sit-in made Heumann nationally known, and she stayed in disability advocacy for decades. She served as Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services under President Clinton, then as the World Bank’s first Adviser on Disability and Development. In 2010, President Obama appointed her the State Department’s first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights. She also worked on the Americans with Disabilities Act. She died in 2023 at 75.

I knew Heumann was an important disability rights activist before watching this trailer. But I didn’t realize how disruptive she and the people around her were.

I can’t wait to watch Being Heumann!