How Disability is Depicted in Film and on Television

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I don’t remember the first time I saw an actor in a wheelchair. This is probably because I didn’t start using a mobility aid for my multiple sclerosis until 2011 and didn’t become a full-time wheelchair user until 2014. After that, everything changed. It’s like when you buy a new car in a particular color. All of a sudden you see that car absolutely everywhere. As an avid watcher of movies and television, I have now become hyperaware of disability representation in the media.

Historically, the inclusion of a wheelchair user or someone with another disability in a movie or TV show often centers around that person’s disability. These forms of representation also frequently include the tired clichés of suffering, unhappiness or overcoming obstacles against all odds. It’s rare to come across a disabled character in media today where their disability is completely incidental to the plot or where they’re at least played by an actor with a similar disability.

Fortunately for us, every so often a film or television studio gets it right by casting an actor with a disability for a role that avoids cringy tropes. Unfortunately, many still don’t. Following we share a few that have nailed it, failed it or are just meh.

Disability Representation in Film

Nailed it: One of these rarities recently came to pass with a Lifetime movie called Christmas Ever After. The star of the movie is Tony Award-winning singer and actor Ali Stroker, who is also a wheelchair user with an SCI. It’s a typical Lifetime holiday romance with a happily-ever-after ending. What isn’t typical at all is the fact that the main character’s disability has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. In an interview with People magazine, Stroker said, “I wish I had seen stories like this. I wish I had seen myself represented in that narrative. It would have made such a difference in my life.”

Failed it: Probably one of the most notorious recent examples of bad — if not downright horrible — disability representation is the 2016 film Me Before You. It’s the story of a young woman (Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones), who becomes a caregiver for a wealthy young banker (Sam Claflin from The Hunger Games). Not only is Claflin not a wheelchair user in real life, but his character decides to commit suicide when he realizes that life as a paralyzed wheelchair user is not worth living. It’s hard to imagine a worse combination for an authentic representation of a disabled character.

Meh: The Upside, a 2017 remake of a 2011 French film called The Intouchables, depicts a completely incompetent and out-on-parole caregiver (Kevin Hart) attempting to assist with the physical needs of a wealthy quadriplegic (Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad). As expected, Cranston took a lot of heat for playing a disabled character as a nondisabled actor. There are also many aspects of being significantly disabled of that are glossed over throughout the film. That being said, Cranston’s character does effectively communicate the frustrations of having even the smallest freedoms taken away after an accident, and the difficulties of establishing romantic relationships. Personally, I thought the movie was really funny; but I also had to force myself not to focus too hard on the authenticity because I knew I would come away wanting.

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Disability Representation in Television

Nailed It: One of the reasons I fell in love with Netflix’s space exploration drama Away is the show’s willingness to get into the nitty gritty of adjusting to life as a new wheelchair user. Although one of the main characters, Matt Logan, is played by a nondisabled actor (Josh Charles of The Good Wife) out of necessity, the show’s creators and writers do an amazing job of getting the little details right, from physical rehabilitation to home adaptation, as well as the emotional trauma that starts piling up. Plus, the show’s star, NASA Commander Emma Green, who is Logan’s wife (played by Hilary Swank), sees psychologist Dr. Putney, played by real-life wheelchair user Michael Patrick Thornton.

Also in the Nailed It category is NCIS: New Orleans. There are so many variants of NCIS and CSI that it can be challenging to tell them apart. However, I’m particular to the New Orleans version because the character of Patton Plame (Daryl “Chill” Mitchell) is a wheelchair user both on and off the screen. He helps his team solve cases as the “computer guy,” and the character is one of those unicorns where his disability is completely incidental and not the focus of an episode’s plot.

Failed It: Could the 2020 drama series Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector be more terrible? First, the studio cast Russell Hornsby, a nondisabled guy, to play Rhyme, a quad. The wheelchair was wrong, the setup was wrong, his function was wrong, his body language was wrong — all of it was wrong. Even the concept, based on the novel The Bone Collector was wrong. The idea is that since he’s a quadriplegic, Rhyme needed a police partner, Amelia, to be his, “eyes, ears and legs as they tracked the cunning killer,” as TVLine.com cringingly put it.

Meh: The long-running sitcom Mom, which is in its eighth year, has consistently picked up awards like the Emmy, People’s Choice and Critics’ Choice. The show follows a mother and daughter and their closest friends, all of whom are in Alcoholics Anonymous, which doesn’t sound funny, but leads to hilarious antics as the women learn to not be as narcissistic or generally dysfunctional. One of the main characters, Bonnie (played by Allison Janney), falls in love with and marries a bar owner, Adam Janikowski, who uses a wheelchair. Adam’s spinal cord injury doesn’t have anything to do with the show and is depicted pretty well over all, but he’s played by nondisabled actor William Fichtner. There aren’t even any cheesy flashbacks of Fichtner walking to justify his taking the job from a real wheelchair user.

These selections are only a few examples of movies and TV shows featuring characters with disabilities, some much better than others. While there are many more I could have addressed, especially in television, actors with disabilities are still woefully underrepresented in Hollywood. While 20 percent of the U.S. population has a disability, only 2 percent of characters do on screen. Furthermore, 95 percent of TV characters with disabilities are played by nondisabled actors, according to a 2017 study by the Ruderman Family Foundation.

There are more TV shows and original films on streaming services featuring people with real-life disabilities than ever before (hint: check out Run on Hulu). However, much work still needs to be done.

See also: The Cobra Kai Way: How to Cure Your Spinal Cord Injury