Councilmember Frumin Introduces Bill to Rename Connecticut Ave Bridge In Honor of Disability Rights Advocate Judy Heumann

MEDIA ADVISORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 4, 2025

Contact: Kevin Caudill – (202) 741-2134; kcaudill@dccouncil.gov

Councilmember Frumin Introduces Bill to Rename Connecticut Ave Bridge In Honor of Disability Rights Advocate Judy Heumann

Heumann, who passed in 2023, was a resident of the nearby Kennedy-Warren apartments and used the bridge almost daily. 

WASHINGTON, DC – DC Councilmember Matthew Frumin (Ward 3) introduced legislation today that would designate the Connecticut Avenue Bridge over the Klingle Valley as the Judith E. Heumann Memorial Bridge. Councilmembers Anita Bonds (At-Large), Robert C. White, Jr. (At-Large), Brianne K. Nadeau (Ward 1), and Charles Allen (Ward 6) co-introduced the resolution.

Judy Heumann was a pioneer of the disability rights movement, who passed away on March 4, 2023. A polio survivor from the age of two, Heumann lost the ability to walk and subsequently used a chair for mobility. Among her many achievements, Heumann led the historic 1977 504 Sit-in in San Francisco; helped develop the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; served in the Clinton and Obama presidential administrations; and founded multiple non-profits, including the seminal World Institute on Disability. She also served as the World Bank’s first Adviser on Disability and Development from 2002 to 2006, and in 2007, became the first director for the DC Department on Disability Services.

She lived for three decades with her husband in the Kennedy-Warren apartment building in Cleveland Park, using the Connecticut Avenue Bridge over the Klingle Valley almost daily to connect with her many friends, patronize the shops and restaurants in her community, attend her house of worship, and access public transportation. The community, including residents of the Kennedy-Warren, initiated the call to rename the bridge the “Judith E. Heumann Bridge”, and Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3C passed a resolution in support of the renaming.

“I believe Judy Heumann, who helped shape how people with disabilities connect with their communities in profound ways, is an apt namesake for the bridge that helped connect her to her community in Cleveland Park.” – Councilmember Frumin.

A copy of the legislation can be found below.

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