Judith Heumann, a renowned disability rights advocate and pioneer, passed away on March 4, 2023, at the age of 75 in the United States. Her life and work had a profound impact on the disability rights movement across the world. Her efforts expanded the global impact of the ‘independent living’ movement. According to a Minnesota government document on A History of Developmental Disabilities, independent living means “means the opportunity to make decisions that affect one’s life and being able to pursue activities of one’s own choosing. Independent living does not necessarily mean living alone. Rather, it has to do with self-determination: making choices, being allowed to fail, and having access to appropriate services.” She was born in New York in 1947. She contracted polio at the age of 18 months, which led her to use a wheelchair. Despite the discrimination she faced due to her disability, she was determined to struggle for a dignified life. Heumann’s advocacy work focused on empowering people with disabilities to fight for their rights and to demand equal access to education, employment, and other opportunities. She was a founding member of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living and served as the organization’s deputy director from 1975 to 1982. During this time, she also helped organize the 504 Sit-in, a landmark protest in which disabled activists occupied federal buildings across the US. She was appointed the Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the US Department of State in 2010, a position she held for the next seven years. She played a key role in the development and adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Throughout her life, Heumann was a significant and undefeated voice for disability rights. She was a talented organizer, a skilled strategist, and a communicator, and her activism had a huge impact on the lives of millions of people with disabilities. She received numerous awards for her advocacy work, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1984 and the Henry B. Betts Award in 2017. Although her sphere of work was mostly within the United States, she has a global influence, as evidenced by the obituary brought out by the Disabled Students Association of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi: