Rebekah Taussig Co-Writes Being Heumann, a Film About Disability Rights Activist Judy Heumann
30 Sep 2026
Rebekah Taussig has brought her perspective as a disability advocate and storyteller to Being Heumann, a new film about pioneering activist Judy Heumann. Taussig co-wrote the screenplay with director Siân Heder, whose previous film, CODA, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
In its review of Being Heumann, Collider highlights the film’s portrayal of the 1977 Section 504 sit-in, when disabled activists occupied a federal building to demand enforcement of civil rights protections. The review praises the screenplay’s humor and humanity, particularly in scenes that show the activists supporting one another through the long occupation.
For Taussig, the project is another way to challenge narrow stories about disability. The author of Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body, she uses personal experience, research, and storytelling to ask who has access, whose voices are heard, and how the spaces we build affect people’s lives.
Those questions matter in healthcare, too. Having spent much of her life navigating medical systems after childhood cancer, Taussig speaks about the difference between being treated as a condition and being seen as a whole person. In her presentations for healthcare audiences, she connects accessibility and disability representation with a more thoughtful, patient-centered approach to care.