About the Film

Samuel Habib (he/him) co-directed the Emmy Award winning My Disability Roadmap, a 2022 New York Times Op-Doc. The film was a Critics Choice nominee and featured at festivals including Hot Docs, Doc NYC, and Hot Springs. Samuel was also a story consultant on the nationally broadcast film Mr. Connolly Has ALS, and has presented nationally on disability rights. He is a community college student and works at the Westchester Institute for Human Development. Samuel experiences GNAO1 Neurodevelopmental Disorder, a rare genetic disorder that caused his cerebral palsy, epilepsy and speech challenges.

Lydia X. Z. Brown (they/them) is a scholar-activist, attorney, and organizer whose work focuses on interpersonal and state violence against disabled people at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, faith, language, and nation. They are currently Director of Public Policy at the National Disability Institute, focused on achieving financial freedom and economic justice for people with disabilities, and faculty in disability studies at Georgetown University and American University. Lydia is also the founding Executive Director of the Autistic People of Color Fund. Their current passion project is Disability Justice Wisdom Tarot.

Judy Heumann (she/her) was widely regarded as “the mother” of the Disability Rights Movement. Judy was instrumental in the development and implementation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Judy served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education. President Obama appointed Judy as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State.

Keith Jones (he/him) is the President and CEO of SoulTouchin’ Experiences and co-founder of Krip-Hop. He is a Black community activist and entrepreneur with cerebral palsy and advocate for independent quality living in the community. Keith received an Emmy Award for his music and lyrics for the title track of the 2020 Netflix documentary, Rising Phoenix. He has been recognized for his emerging leadership by the state of Massachusetts and President’s Commission for Employment for People with Disabilities.

Andrew Peterson (he/him) navigates life with permanent brain damage from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Andrew found his strength through distance running at age eight and has competed among elite athletes, including at the Boston Marathon. He speaks about respect, acceptance, and inclusion from coast to coast. He was featured in an ESPN SportsCenter documentary nominated for a Sports Emmy and GLAAD Award. Today he still runs and now coaches and is the first Indiana high school head coach with a disability.

Ali Stroker (she/her) is a Tony Award winner for her role as ‘Ado Annie’ in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! She made history as the first actor in a wheelchair to appear on Broadway in Deaf West’s 2015 revival of Spring Awakening. She’s a series regular in the Netflix series, Echoes, and starred in the Lifetime holiday film, Christmas Ever After. Ali recurred in the final season of Netflix’s Ozark and is recurring in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. She co-wrote the novels, The Chance to Fly, Cut Loose!; and wrote the children’s book, Ali and the Sea Stars.

Bob Williams (he/him) co-founded CommunicationFIRST in 2019, after retiring from a four-decade career in federal and state government and the nonprofit sector, most recently as Director of the U.S. Independent Living Administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Bob was HHS Secretary Donna Shalala’s principal advisor on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). For over 60 years, Bob has relied on an array of AAC strategies, including a series of speech generating devices over the past three decades.

Maysoon Zayid (she/her) is a comedian, writer, and disability advocate. She is a Princeton Fellow and co-founder/co-executive producer of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival. She has appeared alongside Adam Sandler in You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, and is a recurring character on General Hospital. She was a full-time On-Air Contributor to Countdown with Keith Olbermann and a columnist for The Daily Beast. She is the author of the bestselling memoir Find Another Dream and Scholastic’s Shiny Misfits graphic novel.

Co-Director

Samuel Habib (he/him) co-directed the Emmy Award winning My Disability Roadmap, a 2022 New York Times Op-Doc. The film was a Critics Choice nominee and featured at festivals including Hot Docs, Doc NYC, and Hot Springs. Samuel was also a story consultant on the nationally broadcast film Mr. Connolly Has ALS, and has presented nationally on disability rights. He is a community college student and works at the Westchester Institute for Human Development. Samuel experiences GNAO1 Neurodevelopmental Disorder, a rare genetic disorder that caused his cerebral palsy, epilepsy and speech challenges.

Co-Director & Producer

Dan Habib (he/him) produced and co-directed the Emmy Award winning My Disability Roadmap, a 2022 New York TImes Op-Doc featured at Hot Docs, Doc NYC, and Hot Springs. He is the Director / Producer / Cinematographer of the nationally broadcast (public television) documentary films Intelligent Lives, Who Cares About Kelsey?, Mr. Connolly Has ALS, and Including Samuel. He served on the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities under President Obama. He is currently the Inclusive Communities Project Director at the Westchester Institute for Human Development.

Executive Producer

Sara Bolder (she/her) co-produced the 2021 Oscar®-nominated documentary, Crip Camp, which won the 2020 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and a 2021 Peabody Award. Sara is a veteran sound editor, working on Star Wars: Episode One and The English Patient, and winning Golden Reel Awards from the Motion Picture Sound Editors for Best Sound Editing for Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan.

Executive Producer

Jim LeBrecht (he/him) co-directed and co-produced the 2021 Oscar®-nominated documentary, Crip Camp. Jim has over 40 years of experience as a sound designer and mixer, with 180 film credits. He co-founded FWD-Doc, an organization that supports documentary filmmakers with disabilities, and he is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Co-Producer

Erica Lupinacci (she/her) is the Associate Producer of the Emmy Award-winning New York Times Op- Doc, My Disability Roadmap. She is the co-creator and producer of Webby Award honoree, Trust Me, I’m Sick, streaming on Participant. Erica has lupus and her disability advocacy work has been featured in HuffPost, WebMD, Insider, Cosmopolitan, NowThis News, AwesomenessTV, and more.

Consulting Producer

Andraéa LaVant (she/her) is a nationally and internationally respected disability inclusion expert. She was the impact producer for Netflix’s Oscar®-nominated film, Crip Camp. Andraéa is founder and president of LaVant Consulting, Inc., a social impact communications firm, and has been featured on Good Morning America, NBC, Essence.com, the Root, Paper Magazine, and more.

Editor

James Rutenbeck (he/him) is a nationally renowned filmmaker and editor, including the Emmy Award-winning My Disability Roadmap, Intelligent Lives, and his own 2022 film A Reckoning in Boston (Independent Lens). His films have screened at Cinema du Réel, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and Flaherty Film Seminar. James is a two-time recipient of the Alfred I. duPont Columbia Journalism Award. He is the father of an adult son with autism, Anthony.

Composer

Max Avery Lichtenstein (he/him) has written scores and songs for narrative features such as James Marsh’s The King, Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven, and Alison Maclean’s Jesus’ Son. His scores can be heard in documentaries including the Academy Award®-nominated Mondays at Racine, the Emmy-winning Very Semi- Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait of New Yorker Cartoonists, and Jonathan Caouette’s groundbreaking autobiography Tarnation. Max lives with multiple sclerosis.

Contributing Musician

Keith Jones (he/him), aka Fezo da Mad One, is a co-founder of Krip-Hop, a movement that uses hip-hop music and other forms of artistic expression to allow disabled people to communicate and share their experiences. He received an Emmy Award for his music and lyrics for the title track of the 2020 Netflix documentary, Rising Phoenix. Keith is the President and CEO of SoulTouchin’ Experiences.

Social Media Manager

Kylie Miller (she/her) is an audio journalist and social media specialist based in New York City. Kylie is the former producer of Signal Award winning podcast The Heumann Perspective, hosted by the late disability rights legend Judy Heumann. She also works on social media for activist and recording artist Lachi, the documentary Fire Through Dry Grass, and the Judy Heumann legacy pages. Kylie holds a B.A. from Goucher College and is pursuing an M.A. in Audio Journalism at New York University.

Animators

Soul Proprietor is an award-winning boutique animation studio based in rural Vermont founded in 2015 by Ben Luce (they/them) and Xilia Faye (she/her). They specialize in 2D animation for documentaries, short films, television series, and music videos. Ben and Xilia, both on the autism spectrum, have created animations for Tales from the Trip, Nickelodeon, Disney/Marvel, Netflix, HBO, ESPN, Google, Intel, Comedy Central, and MTV.

Post Production Sound

IMRSV Sound is an award winning post-production sound house and recording studio with locations in Berkeley and Oakland, CA. They specialize in sound design, mixing, and music composition across multiple mediums. They take pride in their innovative approaches to enriching storytelling through sound, because they firmly believe that a captivating narrative holds the potential to positively impact the world. For more information, visit www.imrsvsound.com

Elijah Armstrong (he/him) 27, received his bachelor’s from Penn State and his Master of Education Policy and Management from Harvard, where he was president of the Black Student Union. Elijah received the 2021 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award and used the funds to start the Heumann-Armstrong Award for Education Activism. Elijah is an epileptic who was denied accommodations in high school. He is starting at Stanford Law School in the fall of 2024.

Alexander Freeman (he/him), 34, Alexander Freeman is an award-winning producer and director with cerebral palsy. He is the writer, producer, and director of MY OWN NORMAL. He has won multiple awards for his documentary THE WOUNDS WE CANNOT SEE. He is the songwriter of WAITING FOR YOU TO COME ALONG and MY OWN LIFE. He graduated from Emerson College. He is the owner of the production company, Outcast Productions as well as the founder FilmAble, a community of disabled entertainment professionals who are available to work.

Taylor Freeman (she/her) 21, is a senior at Clemson University as part of the college’s Clemson LIFE Program. Taylor recently co-starred in the 2021 short film Artistic alongside former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch. She was awarded the 2021 Self-Advocate Award (under 21) by the Down Syndrome Association of Atlanta and the 2021 Self-Advocate Everyday Hero by the National Down Syndrome Congress.

Tia Holmes (she/her) 27, is a Charlotte, NC based Technical Consultant with four years of experience in Software Engineering. She is a founding member of “I am Norm,” a social impact campaign for Including Samuel. Tia has presented at various disability related conferences, talking mainly about her experiences with an inclusive education and her story as a Vietnamese-American woman with Cerebral Palsy. A 2019 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she co-chaired UNC’s disability rights advocacy student group and went on to lead the Disability ERG at her first corporate job out of college.

Anna Landre (she/her), 25, is a wheelchair-user, activist, & researcher who works in disability policy, disability culture, & movement-building. Her work has been covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Vogue, and others. Last year, she was ranked the 4th most influential disabled person in the UK on the Disability Power 100, winning the Politics & Law category. In her spare time, Anna enjoys frequenting art exhibitions, eating Latin American food, and reading in parks (London weather permitting!).

Galen Spiegler (he/him) 29, is the Keene, NH based author of “The Ability Almanac: 365 Tidbits of Crip Wisdom In Bite-Sized Pieces” who earned his degree at Wright State University in Dayton, OH area. He is currently pursuing a master’s in mental health counseling, and he plans to pursue a doctorate in clinical and organizational psychology, aiming to “revolutionize how we hire people to work with people with disabilities.