The mission of the World Bank is to alleviate poverty, but Judith E. Heumann says that's not possible unless the organization considers the wide-ranging needs of people with disabilities.

		More info Ms. Heumann's lecture, "Including the Voices of Disabled People in the International Development Agenda," will be at 1 p.m. tomorrow in the Barco Law Building's Teplitz Memorial Courtroom, 3900 Forbes Ave., Oakland. For information call 412-648-1373.

"Disability has to be part of every development discussion," said Ms. Heumann, a disability rights pioneer who since 2002 has been the World Bank's first advisor on disability and development. "Disability is neither a curse nor a blessing. It is a normal part of life."

In most places, the disabled are the "poorest of the poor," said Ms. Heumann, who will present the second annual Thornburgh Family Lecture on Disability Law and Policy at 1 p.m. tomorrow at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

The lecture series was established by former Gov. and U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and his wife, Ginny, vice president of the National Organization on Disability's interfaith Religion and Disability Program. They have long been active in disability rights efforts, at their own initiative and on behalf of their son who has an intellectual disability.

"It's hard to think there'd be a [disability rights] movement without [Ms. Heumann]," said Katherine Seelman, associate dean for disability programs at Pitt's School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, co-sponsor of the lecture.

Born in Philadelphia in 1947 and raised in Brooklyn, Ms. Heumann contracted polio when she was 18 months old.

Like many disabled children of that time, she was denied access to public school, and her parents had to fight for her admission. As a young college graduate, she encountered another round of discrimination when she sought a teaching position in the New York Public Schools; she successfully sued the New York Board of Education.

Ms. Heumann soon became more deeply involved in advocacy. While a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1970s, she joined forces with the leaders of the emerging disability rights movement there.

The disability rights movement advanced a new paradigm -- that barriers are not created by disability, but by society's response to it. In this view, people with disabilities have a right to participate in all facets of life, and society has a responsibility to remove the barriers that exclude them.

Ms. Heumann helped write legislation that led to the creation of Independent Living Centers nationally and co-founded the World Institute on Disability. She served for eight years in the Clinton administration as assistant secretary for the Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

"She's a very unusual person who walks an important line," said Dr. Seelman. "She's a great advocate and has done many sit-ins, but she also realizes that social and educational policy is instrumental to helping people with disabilities become included."

Ms. Heumann's position at the World Bank reflects her long-standing interest in international disability issues. Approximately 10 percent of the world population -- 600 million people -- has some form of disability, and most live in poor countries.

The link between disability and poverty is clear, and runs both ways: Disability causes poverty, and poverty often causes people to become disabled.

Most nations, including the United States, share a common agenda of disability issues: physical access, creating a safety net for the most vulnerable individuals, employment, education, transportation, and -- last but not least -- reducing stigma.

In many developing countries, political conflict and natural disaster are additional issues. In some nations, as few as five percent of children with disabilities attend school.

While the United States began to address its disability barriers in the 1970s, progress in developing countries has more recent. "Growth has occurred, but there is a long way to go," said Ms. Heumann.

"The countries of the world have a lot to learn from one another," she added. "It's not just what [the United States] has to share, but what we can learn from each other. The built environment here is accessible, but we still have barriers. Employment is the biggest barrier we have."

Despite the many remaining barriers, Ms. Heumann hopes her talk will leave her audience with a sense of empowerment about what can be done.

"The problems are immense," she said, "but they are problems that can be solved."