“Nobody tells you how to be an adult, let alone an adult with a disability.”– Samuel Habib

Samuel Habib, 21, wants to date, leave home, go to college. But he drives a 350-poundwheelchair, uses a communication device, and can have a seizure at any moment. Determined to find his path forward, he seeks out guidance from America’s mostrebellious disability activists. Will they empower him to launch the bold adult life he craves?

Film Synopsis: Samuel Habib is a 21-year-old community college student with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, living in Concord, New Hampshire. For his entire K-12 education, he was included in regular classes, learning alongside non-disabled peers. He attended high school prom, played sports, got his high school diploma, and he’s pursuing a degree at a local community college. He’s interested in journalism and film as a career. But for Samuel and millions of other young adults with disabilities, the path beyond public school and into adulthood is a precarious maze. It’s difficult to meet new people and impossible to get his 350-pound wheelchair inside his friends’ homes and cars. He thrives on connection, but with his labored speech and use of a communication device, he can’t keep up with his fast-talking friends and family. He can have a seizure at any moment and requires 24/7 support, yet he wants to get married and have children someday. How to even start dating? “I want to figure out how to follow my dreams,” he says. “But no one tells you how to be an adult, let alone an adult with a disability.” Samuel is struggling to navigate the ableist bias of the physical and social environment. But he’s determined to avoid the statistical realities for most adults with disabilities: unemployed, isolated, and living with their families—or in institutional settings. He decides to travel to meet some badass adults with disabilities and make a film that charts how they built full adult lives—as a roadmap for himself and others

Also available at NYTimes Op-Docs My Disability Roadmap

This short film is an extended look at some of the themes explored in American Masters – Becoming Helen Keller, and hopes to provide an updated representation of modern DeafBlind role models today. Elsa Sjunneson is a DeafBlind professor and media critic, skilled fencer and hiker, and published author who has written for Marvel Comics. She is a Hugo Award and Aurora Award winner.

Audio Description & ASL

Extended Audio Description

In this new digital series, musician and disability inclusion advocate Lachi explores the cultural contributions of people with disabilities and how they transformed America. This pilot episode investigates the amazing life and accomplishments of deaf stunt legend and speed racer Kitty O’Neil.

Kitty O’Neil (1946-2018) was a racecar driver, stunt legend, and daredevil. Known as “the fastest woman in the world,” O’Neil broke the land speed record in 1976, clocking an average of over 512 mph in a three-wheeled rocket car across Oregon’s Alvord Desert. The first woman to join with Stunts Unlimited, the leading stunt agency in Hollywood, O’Neil was also a stunt double for the iconic stars of both The Bionic Woman (Lindsay Wagner) and Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter). And she did it all while being deaf.

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In the early 1970s, teenagers with disabilities faced a future shaped by isolation, discrimination and institutionalization. Camp Jened, a ramshackle camp “for the handicapped” (a term no longer used) in the Catskills, exploded those confines. Jened was their freewheeling Utopia, a place with summertime sports, smoking and make-out sessions awaiting everyone, and campers experienced liberation and full inclusion as  human beings. Their bonds endured as many migrated West to Berkeley, California — a hotbed of activism where friends from Camp Jened realized that disruption, civil disobedience, and political participation could change the future for millions.

Crip Camp is the story of one group of people and captures one moment in time. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other equally important stories from the Disability Rights Movement that have not yet received adequate attention. The filmmakers are committed to using the film’s platform to amplify additional narratives in the disability rights and disability justice communities – with a particular emphasis on stories surrounding people of color and other intersectionally marginalized communities. We stand by the creed of nothing about us, without us. For too long, too many were excluded, and it is time to broaden the number of voices and share the mic.

Explore The Crip Camp Website