Disabled Women Make History: Naomi Hess

“We need a world that understands the challenges of being disabled, while also understanding how to support and empower people with disabilities to be their best selves without pitying and further marginalizing them,” Naomi Hess explained. Naomi, a recent Princeton University graduate who recently started working at the Administration on Community Living (ACL), is no stranger to experiencing challenges as a disabled woman - but she’s also no stranger to empowering herself and others.The Clarksville, Maryland native has been rolling around in her power wheelchair for most of her life, and clearing paths for people with disabilities who will come behind her.

While studying at Princeton, Naomi founded the student government disability task force, which allowed her to advocate for disabled students during the pandemic by regularly communicating with campus administrators about accessibility improvements. Her efforts led to the installation of an elevator in Nassau Hall, the oldest building on campus, and Naomi became the first person in a wheelchair to enter this extremely historic building. As if that was not enough, Naomi also worked with the Center for Jewish Life to run Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month Shabbat every February, and as an associate news editor for The Daily Princetonian, the campus newspaper, Naomi helped found an accessibility working group to make the newspaper more accessible to readers. For example, Naomi led a project to embed audio narration into every article.

As a recent graduate, Naomi is continuing to serve Princeton as the Young Alumni Trustee from the Class of 2022. “I feel so honored that my peers believed in me and elected me to this position. In this role, I get to give back to the university that gave so much to me,” Naomi explained. “I am grateful for the opportunity to help shape the future of the university while bringing my perspective as a disabled woman to every conversation about university proceedings.”

Now living in Washington, D.C., Naomi is working as a Management and Program Analyst at the ACL, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that protects the right of people with disabilities and older adults to live as independently as possible. “It’s really wonderful to work at ACL because so many of my coworkers have disabilities themselves. This is important on a policy level, because this means that disabled people are the ones writing policies and managing programs that affect the disability community. Having a disability makes me extra passionate about the work ACL does.”