The Ride Ahead: Samuel and Dan Habib on Disability, Storytelling, and Inclusion ~ 1301

Samuel Habib
Disabled people should have their voices heard and we should be able to tell our own stories.

Dan Habib
There’s the film you envision making when you first conceptualize it. There’s the film you actually shoot, and there’s the film you find in the editing room—and they are three different films.

Tim Villegas
Hey friends. Welcome back to Think Inclusive—real conversations about building schools where every learner belongs. I’m your host, Tim Villegas. Today’s episode is about storytelling, mentorship, and the power of showing up as your full self. I’m joined by Samuel Habib and his dad, Dan. They are co-directors of The Ride Ahead, a documentary that follows Samuel’s journey into adulthood as a disabled person.

Samuel is a college student. You might know him from being featured in one of his dad’s films, including Including Samuel. When that film came out, it was 2007 and I was just starting my journey of understanding what inclusive practices really were for learners with extensive support needs. Dan is a longtime filmmaker and advocate, and I’d like to call him a good friend.

This film they’ve created—well, it is something truly remarkable. We’ll talk about the making of the film, the misadventures of traveling with a power wheelchair, and what it means to be seen, not just on screen, but in real life.

Before we meet our guests, I want to tell you about our sponsor. This season of Think Inclusive is brought to you by IXL. IXL is a fantastic all-in-one platform designed for K–12 education. It helps boost student achievement, empowers teachers, and tracks progress seamlessly. Imagine having a tool that simplifies what usually requires dozens of different resources. Well, that’s IXL. As students practice, IXL adapts to their individual needs, ensuring they’re both supported and challenged. Plus, each learner receives a personalized learning plan to effectively address any knowledge gaps. Learn more at ixl.com/inclusive.

All right. After a short break, it’ll be time to Think Inclusive with Samuel and Dan Habib. We will catch you on the other side.

Tim Villegas
Would you mind if I ask a follow-up question about the process of creating the film? Dan, you mentioned you didn’t write a script. So, in creating a documentary, is the main point just telling Samuel’s story? Did you have an idea of where you wanted to go, or did you just start taking as much tape as possible and then see where the story led?

Dan Habib
That’s a nuanced question, so I think I might need to address that. As we talked about, Tim, Samuel has put a lot of time and thought into dictating answers to a lot of questions we get and having the readiness device. But it’s a little harder to, in the moment, answer nuanced questions like that.

Basically, this is my 20th documentary, and I’ve done five big films. I’ve learned a few things along the way. What I’ve learned is: there’s the film you envision making when you first conceptualize it, there’s the film you actually shoot, and there’s the film you find in the editing room—and they’re three different films.

Our original concept was this is a film about Samuel’s journey into adulthood. We wanted him to tell his story, to learn from these incredible mentors, and we were going to make that happen by raising a lot of money and doing all the things we needed to do to get it off the ground. Then we just filmed a lot.

I don’t think we knew exactly where it was going. We just knew Samuel was going to keep growing older, having experiences, maturing, learning from these people, and hitting key junctures in his life—whether that was a challenging medical procedure, going to college (which we show in the film), going to a cousin’s wedding and having mixed feelings about that because it’s something he wants as well.

In the editing room, you build a storyline that is both real—it’s about Samuel’s evolution into adulthood—but it doesn’t have to be in chronological order. You can mix and match scenes as long as they continue to show the arc of the film, which is Samuel evolving as a person, becoming older. Then you look for that elusive ending to the film—how is this film going to end? What is the penultimate moment?

Once we went out to St. Louis and had this incredible experience with the GNAO1 neurodevelopmental disorder community, which is Samuel’s disability, and had this moment where Samuel was mentoring all these young kids after being mentored by others, it just felt like a very emotionally real and captivating moment. That became a really powerful ending for the film.

Tim Villegas
Thank you for sharing that, Dan. Really appreciate it. Samuel, how do you feel about being a person with a disability?

Samuel Habib
I’m proud to be a part of the disability community. I enjoy having an awesome team of support people every day. The only thing I don’t like about having a disability is that my genetic disorder has made it more difficult to drive my chair by myself and use my communication device, and it caused my seizure disorder.

Dan Habib
I think that’s a really important thing for your community, Tim. Samuel, you’ve lived with a disability your entire life. It has been your identity your entire life. And Samuel says in the film, “I would not take away my disability. I don’t want to be cured.” But there are some things that get in the way of him living his life—like his movements, or now the fact that he has lost a lot of ability to drive his wheelchair because of his disorder.

I think that’s really powerful, especially for young disabled kids and their family members to see that Samuel is proud of being disabled, proud of being part of the disability community. That’s something people need to hear—to have that sense of culture and community.

Tim Villegas
I’d like to jump ahead, if it’s okay. We can get back to the question about dealing with condescending people. But specifically with your communication device—because you talked about the technology that you use, Samuel—using AAC (augmentative and assistive communication) can be very time-consuming and frustrating. How did you try to capture that in the film?

Samuel Habib
My communication device is so important in my life, so it’s with me all the time. But it is really slow and frustrating to use, especially because it’s gotten harder to move my arms because of my GNAO1 neurodevelopmental disorder. It is really hard for me to talk.

That’s why we put the scene in the film where I’m speaking out the words one by one, and my dad is repeating them. Then we show him programming them into the device. I think that shows that it takes a long time to get the words into my device. We also showed Bob slowly typing his words in his scene. We also wanted to show that I communicate better with people who are patient and who talk to me in an age-appropriate way.

Dan Habib
The Bob that Samuel refers to is Bob Williams, another legend in the disability field. We had an incredible chance to get to know, meet, and interview him.

Tim Villegas
The giants in the disability community that you interviewed, Samuel—it’s unbelievable. Just an amazing lineup of people and community that you captured in the film.

You mentioned people speaking to you in an age-appropriate way. How is it dealing with people who are condescending? Have you adapted any particular strategies on how to deal with that?

Dan Habib
Beyond cursing more? Maybe that’s part of it.

Samuel Habib
I want to curse at people who talk down to me—like the woman at the airport in the film—but I did not because I’m afraid that people would get mad at me. Next time I will say, “Talk to me like I’m an adult.” I am learning a lot from people with disabilities. It’s not easy to be an adult with a disability, but I’m learning from them how to be a better disability rights advocate for my life and for other people with disabilities.

Dan Habib
Samuel is a very kind person, and you’re kind of a conflict-averse person. You don’t like to have conflict. You don’t really like to have arguments, so it’s hard when somebody does something that feels very condescending or rude. It’s hard to just say “F you.” Maysoon would say that. Judy Heumann would probably find a funny way—and has found funny ways—to deflect that. There are some great stories you can tell.

But like you said, you’re learning to be strong and react honestly and clearly without necessarily being mean or rude to people, because that’s not your nature. That’s not what you want to do. But it’s hard. You see in the film how we try so hard to let this woman in the airport know there’s a way to talk to Samuel in an age-appropriate way, and she just doesn’t get it.

As family members and advocates like Samuel, you don’t want to fight that fight every day at every turn. It’s exhausting. You have to pick your battles. You have to figure out when you’re ready to be that advocate that day and fight that fight, or when you just want to walk away and go get a coffee and forget about it.

Tim Villegas
Samuel, do you have any tips on communicating with you or other people who have communication challenges?

Samuel Habib
Be patient and do not talk down to me. Ask me how I best communicate. Slow down the pace of the conversation to create more space for me to contribute. If you don’t understand me, ask me to repeat what I said. If I’m typing on my device, don’t start another conversation. Please wait for me to finish.

Dan Habib
I remember when Samuel first answered that question and typed that into his device. I said, that is so on point. That’s it. I think a lot of people I know who are AAC users or have communication challenges have said that really resonates with them.

Tim Villegas
Yes, I learned a lesson not too long ago speaking with someone who was using a communication device. I was catching myself looking at the person typing and kind of in my own mind predicting what they were going to say. And I realized, oh my gosh, this is not the right thing to do. I have to step back and just allow the person to say what they’re going to say without me trying to help them predict or interrupt them. So I really appreciate that advice.

Dan Habib
It took us a fairly long time as a family to get to that point. Especially our extended family. This does not come naturally to a lot of people—to create the kind of space that is needed for someone who uses a device to type or takes a long time to speak. Even people like my wonderful parents—my mom turned 96 today, my dad will turn 94 in a couple weeks. When they were in their early nineties, they finally kind of figured it out. It’s never too late.

Tim Villegas
That’s right. Never too late. More space to communicate. Okay, so let’s talk about intimacy and dating. People with disabilities are people, so they want to have relationships. What are some challenges for you, and how do you want to navigate relationships?

Samuel Habib
People don’t see me as a boyfriend or dating material, and sometimes they don’t see me as old enough to have sex. Obviously, that is not true. So that can be frustrating. But even though it can be frustrating, I am still putting myself out there to meet the girl for me. I am on dating apps like Hinge, Bumble, and also Dateability and Ellie. I’m also going out to places where people my age hang out. Accessibility is definitely an obstacle when it comes to getting into people’s homes for parties or certain bars, but the biggest obstacle is definitely ableism.

Dan Habib
From the parent perspective—and I think a lot of other parents or family members can relate to this—there are so many things in Samuel’s life that we’ve been able to actively support: your education, your access to housing and a living space, to employment (like us working together), to community, and advocating for a more accessible state and country. But we cannot wave a magic wand and make a dating life happen for you. Nobody can really do that.

I think a lot of young people are struggling with this—not just people with disabilities—but it can be one of the biggest challenges of transition for people with disabilities who really want those relationships. They can be elusive for a lot of different reasons. Samuel has expressed to us that it’s one of the most challenging parts of his transition to adulthood—the difficulty of really getting into a dating groove and everything that he wants to come with that.

Tim Villegas
Well, I wish you the best of luck with that.

Dan Habib
There’s always somebody for everybody. You just gotta find them. I do think for a lot of reasons, people with disabilities have told me it tends to happen a little later for them. It tends to happen more in the late twenties. But that’s not comfort for you.

Tim Villegas
You’re not that patient.

Samuel Habib
No, I’m sure that’s not what I want to hear.

Tim Villegas
Exactly. You briefly touched on all the mentors you interviewed during the film. They gave you lots of great advice. Is there one piece of advice that you’ve most taken to heart and that may benefit other young adults with disabilities?

Samuel Habib
The advice I got from Maysoon was, “You are not alone. Find your community.” That was powerful advice because I’ve always had a strong community, starting with Beaver Meadow Elementary School and right through Concord High School. I’m continuing to find my community at my summer job at a concert venue, at work at the Westchester Institute for Human Development, in the disability justice community, and in my hometown of Concord.

Tim Villegas
I think that’s great advice for everybody. I’m so glad that has resonated with you and hopefully that resonates with our audience as well.

Tim Villegas
In a minute, I asked Samuel what he’s been up to lately—between college, film work, and a summer job at a concert venue, he’s got a lot going on. And we’ll dive into what inclusive education really looks like and how school leaders can make it happen. But first, I want to tell you a little bit about the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education.

MCIE partners with educators and school systems to promote authentic inclusion, foster change, and support the implementation of inclusive practices. Whether it’s district-wide transformation, customized learner planning, or professional learning and coaching, MCIE walks alongside educators every step of the way. And here’s the best part—our work begins with a conversation. So if you are ready to create schools where every learner belongs, visit mcie.org and get in touch, and let’s start that conversation today.

Tim Villegas
You mentioned a couple things just now about your employment. You said you work at a concert venue, and you work at the Westchester Institute on Human Development. Did I get that right?

Samuel Habib
I continue to work part-time at the Westchester Institute for Human Development, doing film work and presentations. The past few years I’ve been in college at NHTI, the local community college in Concord, New Hampshire, working towards my Liberal Arts Associate’s degree. This January, I started attending Southern New Hampshire University, a four-year college with a major in history. I also have a summer job at a music venue in New Hampshire called Meadowbrook, scanning tickets. I got to see a bunch of free shows through my film work, school, and the job. I am hoping to continue to make new friends.

Dan Habib
My wife Betsy—Samuel’s mom—and I joke that that’s our retirement job. We hope that we could work there and just scan some tickets and then go see the show for free. I was with family the other night supporting him. Usually his direct support professionals do it, but we didn’t have anybody available, so I went and supported him during the Zac Brown Band, which was really fun. We watched a few numbers and then Betsy and I went back and saw the whole show the night afterwards. You’ve seen James Taylor and Train and the Pixies, and you’ve got like 20 shows lined up for this summer. So it’s a good gig.

Tim Villegas
Oh my gosh. That sounds like a dream summer job right there. That’s amazing.

The people that listen and watch are school leaders and educators. What advice do you have for school leaders or future educators to create spaces that value and include all students?

Samuel Habib
Don’t segregate. Create a sense of belonging. Have high expectations for all students. Make the entire building and extracurricular activities accessible. All of my schools have been inclusive, and that made a big impact on my education and my work now as a filmmaker.

Dan Habib
Tim, if I could just give you some praise—I listened to your podcast series on inclusive schooling and it was really interesting and really well done. I would venture to guess that a lot of what you found in those schools reflects what Samuel just said: don’t segregate, include students in all aspects of not just the school curriculum but extracurriculars, have high expectations, presume competence. Those seem to be a lot of the themes you found as well.

Tim Villegas
Yeah, it’s really interesting. If I can go on a little bit of a tangent, Samuel—the people I talk to who work in inclusive schools and the leadership, they’re all on board and on the same page and moving forward with inclusive practices. It’s like they don’t even realize how unique they are. Whenever I’ve asked, “Do you understand how unique and exceptional you are?”—because not everyone decides to do this. More often than not, and I’ve heard it in the films you’ve made, Dan, their response is, “This is just who we are. This is what we do.”

It’s so interesting that it really is a decision to be inclusive. And the mindset—being already there or working on it—is what leads to inclusive practices and successful outcomes for students. It seems so simple. Over and over again, that’s what we find out.

Dan Habib
Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s true. And just to play off that, I was telling Samuel that we just bumped into his elementary school teacher the other day—Barbara O’Brien—who plays very prominently in our first film, Including Samuel. She’s a master teacher and a brilliant inclusive educator who has believed in that her whole career for decades.

She says a lot of newer teachers aren’t being taught the skills, or it takes a while to learn the skills to do it successfully. I don’t want to minimize how challenging education is, especially in the post-COVID era. Every educator I know has said it’s gotten a lot harder. It really has. So I don’t want to underestimate that.

It is challenging to have an incredibly diverse group of learners in your classroom. But if you have values and leadership that say, “This is what we do. This is what’s right for our kids, it’s right for our community,” then you make it a priority to find a way to make that work. It’s a non-negotiable. You just don’t segregate kids with disabilities.

So I think Samuel saying “Don’t segregate”—that’s it. That’s the core of it. You don’t segregate kids just because they have disabilities. If you start with that as your premise, then it’s hard work and it’s complicated sometimes, but you figure out the rest of it.

Tim Villegas
Right. Exactly.

Tim Villegas
So this is a great film—The Ride Ahead. How can people host screenings of the film, and what are some resources available for people who want to do a screening event?

Samuel Habib
Thanks for asking about that. On our website, www.rideaheadfilm.com, we have a “Host a Screening” page. You can find information there about our education kit, which has all of the accessible versions of the film, plus extended interviews between me and my mentors. The kit also has an awesome discussion guide and a life planning tool. If you go to our resources page, you can download the discussion guide and life planning tool for free. The “Host a Screening” page also has information about our community screening campaign. Public K–12 schools and smaller nonprofits can apply for a free education kit to host a screening as part of that campaign.

Dan Habib
Just a couple more notes to add to what Samuel said. We recently were able to publicly announce that the film’s going to be on PBS this summer. It premieres July 21st on a program called POV. Although the broadcast might be a little late for some people—it’s 10:00 PM on a Monday night—it’s going to be streaming for free on the POV website for two months after that.

We’re developing new additional educational materials—a watch party kit that people can download for free to host their own watch parties. Samuel mentioned the discussion guide and life planning tool—we’re really proud of those. We worked with our advisory board of young adults with disabilities and a lot of other folks to develop that discussion guide. It’s really robust and has some very interesting, provocative questions to go along with the film.

The life vision planning tool and planning kit was something we worked on with the folks who started the Charting the LifeCourse framework, which I think a lot of your community will be familiar with. It’s a life planning or person-centered planning framework, and we blended quotes and scenes from the film with that framework and put together a really great PDF that people can download for free to do life planning and life vision planning with young adults with disabilities.

We’re based at a nonprofit—the Westchester Institute for Human Development—so we make a lot of our materials available for free download. We’re really excited for people to start watching the film and using it in these ways.

Tim Villegas
All right, fantastic. We’ll make sure to put all that information in the show notes. Even if this publishes after the free period of The Ride Ahead on PBS, there will be other ways for you to watch the film and get access to those resources. Thank you. Appreciate that.

Okay. All right. We’ve covered a lot, but now it’s one of my favorite parts of every episode—the mystery question. I asked Samuel and Dan to imagine their dream musical jam session. Who’s on their fantasy lineup? Let’s find out.

So I wrap up every episode with a mystery question. The mystery question for us today is: Who would you want to have a private musical jam session with? We can all answer this question, but Samuel, if you can go first, that’d be great.

Samuel Habib
I would love to jam with Aloe Blacc. I love his songs “Wake Me Up” and “I’m the Man.”

Tim Villegas
All right. I like it. Who would I jam with? I was thinking about this today, and I just have to go back to—I’ve been a U2 fan forever. So I would love to jam with the band U2: Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. They’re some of my favorite musicians, so that’s who I’d want to jam with.

Dan Habib
Let’s see. Sure, I can come up with somebody. I’m going to answer both high school-age Dan and current Dan. High school-age Dan was really into Led Zeppelin and The Clash. So pick one—either Led Zeppelin or The Clash. I would jam with either of them any day. Although I think both bands are fully disbanded and probably half of them are dead. But still, if that’s possible—cool.

And then current-day Dan—this is not the ultimate band in the world, but my wife and I really like the band Lake Street Dive. They’re a great band. We were supposed to see them in April of 2020 and the show got canceled due to COVID, and we haven’t seen them since. So I want to get a chance to at least go to the concert, if not jam in person with Betsy and go see Lake Street Dive.

Tim Villegas
Lake Street Dive—are they a New England band?

Dan Habib
They’re actually out in the South somewhere, I think.

Tim Villegas
Oh, okay. I’ve never heard of them, so it gives me something new to listen to.

Dan Habib
I encourage people to check them out on Spotify or whatever you listen to music on. Lake Street Dive—they’re really good.

Tim Villegas
All right. Let’s do a bonus one—and this can be real quick. Have y’all gone to any baseball games this season?

Dan Habib
Yeah, we’ve got plans for a bunch more, but we’ve actually been to a few. Do you want to share something about a trip we took recently that involved a baseball game? This might be a little more than just baseball, but you can edit it as you see fit.

Samuel Habib
I had an awesome trip in late April to Kansas City and Lawrence, Kansas for my film work. We had two great screenings—one at Kansas University and one in Kansas City. We also caught a Royals game and visited the Negro League Hall of Fame, which has been a big bucket list destination for me for a while now, since I’ve listened to a lot of books about it. We also went to the World War I Museum and ate a lot of barbecue and burgers.

Tim Villegas
Oh, Kansas City barbecue is so good.

Dan Habib
That baseball—between the Royals game and the wonderful Negro League Hall of Fame—there’s a lot there. We have a minor league team near us in Manchester, New Hampshire—the AA affiliate of the Blue Jays, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. We’ve been to a game there. Sunday we’re going to a WooSox game in Worcester, Massachusetts. They’re the AAA affiliate of the Red Sox. Samuel’s older brother Isaiah and my brother Josh are going, and we bought tickets to the Dodgers–Red Sox game at Fenway Park.

Tim Villegas
Oh, okay. I’ll be watching that one on TV.

I live in the Atlanta area, and my dad flew in from California to visit. We went to a Saturday night game at Truist Park to see the Dodgers and Braves. That was a treat—it was like a birthday present for me. Wonderful.

Dan Habib
We also—Samuel, do you want to add a little bit more about our other trip?

Samuel Habib
I went to spring training in Arizona with my dad and Uncle Josh the first week of March. We got to see the Dodgers, Rangers, Cubs, Padres, Giants, and Diamondbacks. It was cool to see them practicing up close—especially Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman—and get some autographs. One of the cool things that happened was we bumped into NASCAR driver Kyle Larson at the Dodgers game. He was there with his kids and posed for a picture with me. I love just looking out the window when we fly.

Dan Habib
Nobody else seemed to notice him. We were just walking around and I said, “Hey, that’s Kyle Larson.” Samuel being a huge NASCAR fan—we were like, whoa. He was very kind to us.

Tim Villegas
Oh, that’s wonderful. I love that. I’ve never been to any spring training games, so that’s kind of a bucket list item.

Dan Habib
Highly recommend it. Just as Samuel said—watching your guys, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts, taking batting practice, hitting home run after home run opposite field. Then of course, he gets into the game and hits a home run opposite field. It was pretty cool. We just love seeing these guys—the athleticism and camaraderie—up close.

Tim Villegas
Oh yeah. And you know, Mookie has his own podcast. I don’t know if you know that. It’s called On Base. I think it’s a Bleacher Report podcast. I love listening to it. He’s a really good interviewer.

Tim Villegas
Samuel and Dan Habib, thank you so much for being on the Think Inclusive Podcast. We really appreciate your time.

Samuel Habib
It was great to be with you today. Thanks so much for your questions and reactions to the film. We’ll keep you posted on The Ride Ahead.

Dan Habib
Yeah, thank you Tim. Really appreciate you having us on. It means a lot to us.

Tim Villegas
That was Samuel and Dan Habib. I’m so grateful for their honesty, humor, and insight. The Ride Ahead is a spectacular film, and it shows what’s possible when disabled people tell their own stories.

If you’re an educator, here’s one practical step: ask your students how they best communicate—and then wait and give them space. I guarantee it’ll be worth it.

That’s all the time we have for this episode of Think Inclusive. Please share this episode with someone who needs to hear it or watch it. Rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform and follow Think Inclusive wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, let’s roll the credits.

Think Inclusive is brought to you by me, Tim Villegas. I write, edit, mix, master—I basically wear all the podcast hats. This show is a proud production of the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education. Scheduling and additional production help from Jill Wagoner. Our original music is by Miles Kredich with extra vibes from Melod.ie.

Big thanks to our sponsor, IXL. You can check them out at ixl.com/inclusive.

And hey, here’s a fun fact: Dan and I met in real life in Atlanta when he screened his film Intelligent Lives. That was back in 2018, when producing this podcast full-time was just a dream. Well, Dan—dreams do come true.

We seriously love hearing from you. Are you using these episodes in your college courses? Sharing them with your team? Let me know at tvillegas@mcie.org. I read every single message, and yes, I geek out over them and share them with people.

If you’ve made it this far into the episode, you’re officially part of the Think Inclusive Inclusion Crew. Trying that one on for size.

Want to help us keep the good stuff coming? Head to mcie.org and click the donate button at the top of the site and toss in a few bucks—$5, $10, $20. It helps us keep partnering with schools and districts to move inclusive practices forward and supporting educators who are doing the work.

You can find us on the socials almost everywhere @ThinkInclusive.

Thanks for hanging out—and remember, inclusion always works.

From MCIE.