Judith Heumann: Hello everybody. My name is Judith Heumann, but my friends call me Judy, and I wrote the book Rolling Warrior: The Incredible, Sometimes Awkward, True Story of a Rebel Girl on Wheels Who Helped Spark a Revolution, and I wrote this book with Kristen Joiner. For many years, people were telling me that I should consider writing a book because I had many stories to tell, and I didn't have the time. And in some way, I didn't have the confidence to be able to write a book and a book about me because I'm a pretty modest person, and I believe that much of the success that we've had in the disability community, creating a rights justice based movement has been the result of thousands of people working together. But finally, some people approached me about writing the book and said they could help me find someone to write the book with me. And so I was a little older at that point and I thought, "Okay, I've done enough in my life now that maybe my stories are of interest," because not only have I been working in the United States in many different types of jobs on disability rights, but I also had been traveling a lot around the world. So I had a broader perspective.

Writing this book was a challenge. It was a challenge because I needed to really reflect deeply about my life, and I had polio when I was 18 months old and like many other disabled people experienced a lot of discrimination as I was growing up. And for me, it was very important in this book that I was honest, meaning that I really wanted to accurately depict the stories of what I'd experienced, because I believe it's beneficial for other people who've had similar experiences of discrimination or different experiences to be able to share our stories together. So I think that was one of the both challenging and ultimately rewarding aspects of the book that we were able to come up with a book that tells the story of my life at the same time, that it is very inclusive of people that I am very proud to have worked with for many years.

I would like you to learn as you're reading. I'd like you to think about how my stories may be similar to yours, even though they're not identical, and to discuss how you might have approached things differently.

At the end of the day, I hope this book really enables you and your friends and family to have a clear understanding, a more in depth understanding of a population of people who have disabilities, where many people have thought that we are not equal and we cannot make equivalent contributions. I want people to read the book and laugh, laugh and learn and share, and then tell your own stories, whether you have a disability or not.