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This original 3 minute silent narrative film was created for a visual communication class and tells the story of college student with a disability and their long walk through campus to get to their final destination, filled with mundane trials and tribulations of topography that able bodied students might not notice. The film offers a thoughtful take on the practicality and reality of Geneseo\u27s branding as it follows a student with cerebral palsy on his walk to the Office of Accessibility

Jones, Nia

Healy, Samuel

Proceedings of GREAT Day 
Volume 16 Article 4 
An Interview with Disability Activist Samuel Healy 
Nia Jones 
SUNY Geneseo 
Samuel Healy 
Follow this and additional works at: https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/proceedings-of-great-day 
Recommended Citation 
Jones, Nia and Healy, Samuel () "An Interview with Disability Activist Samuel Healy," Proceedings of 
GREAT Day: Vol. 16, Article 4. 
Available at: https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/proceedings-of-great-day/vol16/iss1/4 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the GREAT Day Collections at KnightScholar. It has been 
accepted for inclusion in Proceedings of GREAT Day by an authorized editor of KnightScholar. For more 
information, please contact KnightScholar@geneseo.edu. 
An Interview with Disability Activist Samuel Healy 
Cover Page Footnote 
Sponsored by Lee Pierce, PhD 
This article is available in Proceedings of GREAT Day: https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/proceedings-of-great-day/
vol16/iss1/4 
26
An Interview with Disability 
Activist, Samuel Healy
Nia Jones
sponsored by Lee Pierce, PhD 
Abstract 
This original 3 minute silent narrative film was created for a visual communica-
tion class and tells the story of college student with a disability and their long walk 
through campus to get to their final destination, filled with mundane trials and 
tribulations of topography that able bodied students might not notice. The film 
offers a thoughtful take on the practicality and reality of Geneseo’s branding as it fol-
lows a student with cerebral palsy on his walk to the Office of Accessibility.
What inspired and/or motivated you to make this short film? 
I was very close with Dr. Lee Pierce, a professor in the Communication Department, 
during my time at Geneseo. She has since become a mentor and dear friend. During 
my time at Geneseo I realized how much of a trip it was to get to the Office of Ac-
cessibility. I noticed that in the administration building, there would be signs for the 
Financial Aid Office and the Department of Academic Planning and Advising, the 
Career Design Center, and more. All of these signs were promoting money, careers, 
and administrative information, but included nothing about the Office of Accessibil-
ity, which was incredibly ironic. I made the film because I noticed that there was a 
conflict in Geneseo: communication. Especially the visual communication, branding 
and marketing, and how they promote how much they ‘value’ students and faculty 
with disabilities and their direct implementation of that vision and branding in how 
they lay out the Office of Accessibility. The film shows the lack of care that is given to 
the Office of Accessibility. I think the fact that the office is hidden away in the base-
ment raises a completely different issue. Every placement of accessibility in Geneseo 
feels and looks like an afterthought, and that’s what really angers me the most. I no-
ticed the problem and I wanted to address it loudly, without fear of being censored. 
What did you hope that viewers would take away from your short film? 
I hoped that they would understand the daily obstacles disabled students and faculty 
members face on this campus. I wanted viewers to become more aware of their sur-
roundings. The message here was: “How do you value us? What are the intentions of 
this work?” Viewers were supposed to question and interrogate how Geneseo brands 
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Jones and Healy: An Interview with Disability Activist Samuel Healy
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itself to the public, especially to its current and incoming students. Geneseo needs 
to show us [the Geneseo community] what they are doing to fix these problems, and 
how it will benefit every member of this community. 
Did you create this for a class that you had to present it for? 
Yes. It was for a class and because I had an interest in creating something that deserved 
to be spoken about. It was also part of my Geneseo senior seminar. This film was 
meant to be my demonstration of communication, knowledge, language, vocabulary, 
and their practical applications. It was meant to be something I could go on with in 
my professional life, in my career, to point to something that I created that is directly 
relevant to skills that I possess.
Shortly after my presentation, a student looked me dead in the face, and said, “You 
know, there was a back entrance to the Office of Accessibility, right?” I just accepted 
it. At the time, I wanted to ask them, “Why are you defending the institution? Why 
are you continuing to make excuses?” It really opened my eyes to how people view 
this situation. They have never had to think about it. So, why would they? It doesn’t 
pertain to them. And I think most people are in their own world and worried about 
what they need to do. They don’t think about these issues because they are not nega-
tively impacting their lives. You don’t really think about it until it is in your face. This 
was a driving factor behind the creation of the film. 
You talked about Dr. Lee Pierce and how they acted as an advocate for you. 
Have there been any other faculty members or staff who advocated for you 
during this process, and in what ways did they advocate for you? 
Dr. Meredith Harrigan and Dr. Christine Merrilees also advocated for me during this 
process. My relationship with Dr. Harrigan and Dr. Merrilees, along with their guid-
ance and assistance really helped me during my time at Geneseo and the process of 
this film. I remember the impact that both of those instructors had on me. I will never 
forget how dialogic communication widens your perspective and forces you to think 
about things in a different way. It gives you a different perspective on accessibility and 
people; what people are thinking, understanding, and the best approach from that 
angle. I’m just glad I had them to guide me and support me with this project. 
Can you talk about the significance of the film having no sound? 
This was a visual communication course so it was all about what we could do with 
the visuals in our film to communicate a message. For me, obviously, the silence was 
very intentional. I think if it had sound, it would actually dampen the impact of the 
film. You leave it up to the audience member to put the pieces together. You let them 
fill in those gaps. And I think that is what makes the message resonate so powerfully 
in the film. The viewer is supposed to ask: “Where is he going?” I think the irony just 
hits you right in the chest when we eventually end up in the Office of Accessibility, 
which happens to be located in the basement of Erwin. I wanted the visuals to do the 
talking.
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What was the process of creating this film like for you? Did you think of 
specific places on campus to record places that might be more inaccessible 
than others? 
We wanted to highlight the hill near Erwin. Geneseo is full of these long, big hills. 
For most people, we wanted to highlight the lack of on-campus parking agencies 
and even in a handicap spot where I clearly made a point to indicate handicap park-
ing. This is where my spaces were. This is where I need to get to. There was a lot of 
intentional thought behind each shot. The point-of-view shot where I was walking 
down the stairs to the basement showed a clear hesitation in each step, and the slow, 
monotonous nature of it emphasizes that. Most people don’t have to think about the 
placement of their feet, the shakiness present in each step they are taking, of where 
another person might be, or uneven terrain. The intention behind the film was to slow 
that down and capture shots that would slow movement down to make viewers visual-
ize and understand what it might be like for somebody with a disability. 
I have always loved Geneseo because of the people that work here, because of what I 
have learned, how to learn it, and how to apply it. You get a slice of everything with 
Communication. From mass media to interpersonal to political to journalism to news 
and video editing and graphic design images. You could get a little bit of anything 
that you wanted at Geneseo. And most communication programs do not provide 
students with that. I really appreciate that approach from Geneseo, but it’s soured by 
these conflicts in their visual and spatial communication that stretch far beyond ac-
cessibility as well. 
Was film a familiar space for you to operate in? Have you done film projects 
in the past that have kind of led to your experience with this? And how did 
the project’s main idea contribute to that narrative? 
Film is not a space that I’m familiar with. A space I am familiar with is amplifying 
voices, writing, and research. When I start a new project, the guiding thought is 
always: ‘what is the best way to get a message across?’ This film and main idea came 
from my philosophy on communication. I believe in ruthless pragmatism, which is 
the most practical and easiest way to get a job done without emotions attached to 
it. I did the same thing for this film; what I learned from this film is that sometimes 
communication in life is not about what is right or wrong, it’s about what is utilized 
and is most effective at the moment. I believe with this film we were able to utilize 
the right shots, script, storytelling, and placement to help the audience understand 
the messages. 
The film urges the audience to recognize the problem that undermines the credibility 
of Geneseo as an institution when they speak about accessibility. People forget that 
Geneseo is a business first before it is an institution. All of the ideas and the film work 
was simply an assignment, but the storytelling, ideas, and everything else behind it 
was intentionally included in the film. We wanted to craft something tangible and 
real that can continue this conversation and be a constant reminder of an area that 
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Geneseo needs to improve on. Do they care about the students or equip you with the 
skills that you need? 
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An Interview with Disability Activist Samuel Healy

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