Celebrate Disability Pride Month With These Enlightening Disability-Centered Media

By: Lucas Fink By: Lucas Fink | July 12, 2022

July 1st heralded the arrival of Disability Pride Month, meaning that the occasion has never been more opportune to reflect on the media we consume and to what extent that media successfully and sensitively represents people with disabilities.

In the modern media landscape, though, it can be troublingly challenging to locate any major show, movie, or book that even engages disability tangentially. Per a recent University of Southern California study, only 2.3% of the top 100 highest grossing films from 2019 included characters with disabilities of any form.

Even given Hollywood’s disturbing deficiency in this arena, certain texts - often independently produced - that authentically platform disabled lives break into the mainstream. Below are some of the best movies, shows, books, and podcasts of recent memory that both offer honest renderings of disabled characters as well as educational content regarding disability history, activism, and strategies for allyship.

Films- CODA

This affecting Sian Heder drama swept the 2021 Academy Awards, taking home the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Actor for Troy Kotsur, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Heder follows teenaged Ruby, the only hearing person in an otherwise all-deaf family, as she attempts to reconcile her family’s working-class struggles with her lofty musical ambitions.

Disarmingly sincere and ultimately uplifting, the film works to portray those with disabilities as dimensional, nuanced characters as opposed to mere narrative ornaments.

Crip Camp

Directed by James Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham, this trailblazing 2020 documentary details the deeply inspiring, and too often untold, story of a summer camp for disabled kids and teens that, in the 1970s, played an unexpectedly crucial role in the fight for disability rights legislation. Enlightening from an historical education perspective and thoroughly heart-warming from an entertainment perspective, the film’s depiction of political resilience affords lessons that, today, are increasingly salient.

Sound of Metal

This 2019 Best Picture nominee directed by Darius Marder follows a heavy-metal drummer - ingeniously acted by Riz Ahmed - as he gradually begins to lose his hearing. Boasting other similarly brilliant performances from Paul Raci and Olivia Cooke, Sound of Metal offers a profoundly empathetic and humanistic illustration of the deaf community, one that isn’t exploitative or tokenistic.

TV Shows- Atypical

This Netflix coming-of-age comedy follows Sam Gardner - a teen on the autism spectrum - as he begins to navigate the tumultuous world of high school dating while evading his loving but overbearing mother (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh). Atypical is both poignant and irreverent, buoyed by solid writing and authentic performances from actors actually living with autism.

Special

Ryan O’Connor created, wrote, and stars in this semi-autobiographical dramedy about a gay man with cerebral palsy negotiating the many professional, social, and romantic perils of adulthood. At once stirringly raw and hilarious, Special is a brilliant example of the power of self-representation, of marginalized folk taking full creative control over their art.

Maniac

Created by Patrick Somerville - of HBO’s The Leftovers fame - this ambitious and underappreciated 2018 dark comedy miniseries documents the experiences of two unlikely friends - one with paranoid schizophrenia and the other with borderline personality disorder - and their participation in clinical trials for a mysterious new drug. Featuring knockout performances from Emma Stone, Jonah Hill, and Justin Theroux, the show brilliantly dismantles the normal/abnormal binary with a number of surreal dream sequences that use the trusted literary device of metaphor to powerfully and sensitively illustrate neurodivergence and trauma.

Book- Demystifying Disability

Written by disability activist Emily Ladau, Demystifying Disability is a much-needed guide filled with invaluable resources for those wishing to better understand the disabled experience and to step up their allyship, and even earned praise from disability activism legend and Crip Camp star Judy Heumann.

Podcast- Disability Visibility

Hosted by San Francisco native Alice Wong, this illuminating podcast platforms disabled viewpoints on current cultural and political affairs. With conversation topics ranging from bioethics to dancing with disabilities to poetry to cyborgs, Disability Visibility is a vital outlet for disabled perspectives on the most pressing subjects, perspectives that go too often erased or underemphasized.

Photography by: David Livingston/Getty Images

Celebrate Disability Pride Month With These Enlightening Disability-Centered Media

By: Lucas Fink By: Lucas Fink | July 12, 2022 | People, Lifestyle, Culture, Celebrity, Art, Movies, Entertainment,

July 1st heralded the arrival of Disability Pride Month, meaning that the occasion has never been more opportune to reflect on the media we consume and to what extent that media successfully and sensitively represents people with disabilities.

In the modern media landscape, though, it can be troublingly challenging to locate any major show, movie, or book that even engages disability tangentially. Per a recent University of Southern California study, only 2.3% of the top 100 highest grossing films from 2019 included characters with disabilities of any form.

Even given Hollywood’s disturbing deficiency in this arena, certain texts - often independently produced - that authentically platform disabled lives break into the mainstream. Below are some of the best movies, shows, books, and podcasts of recent memory that both offer honest renderings of disabled characters as well as educational content regarding disability history, activism, and strategies for allyship.

Films- CODA

This affecting Sian Heder drama swept the 2021 Academy Awards, taking home the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Actor for Troy Kotsur, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Heder follows teenaged Ruby, the only hearing person in an otherwise all-deaf family, as she attempts to reconcile her family’s working-class struggles with her lofty musical ambitions.

Disarmingly sincere and ultimately uplifting, the film works to portray those with disabilities as dimensional, nuanced characters as opposed to mere narrative ornaments.

Crip Camp

Directed by James Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham, this trailblazing 2020 documentary details the deeply inspiring, and too often untold, story of a summer camp for disabled kids and teens that, in the 1970s, played an unexpectedly crucial role in the fight for disability rights legislation. Enlightening from an historical education perspective and thoroughly heart-warming from an entertainment perspective, the film’s depiction of political resilience affords lessons that, today, are increasingly salient.

Sound of Metal

This 2019 Best Picture nominee directed by Darius Marder follows a heavy-metal drummer - ingeniously acted by Riz Ahmed - as he gradually begins to lose his hearing. Boasting other similarly brilliant performances from Paul Raci and Olivia Cooke, Sound of Metal offers a profoundly empathetic and humanistic illustration of the deaf community, one that isn’t exploitative or tokenistic.

TV Shows- Atypical

This Netflix coming-of-age comedy follows Sam Gardner - a teen on the autism spectrum - as he begins to navigate the tumultuous world of high school dating while evading his loving but overbearing mother (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh). Atypical is both poignant and irreverent, buoyed by solid writing and authentic performances from actors actually living with autism.

Special

Ryan O’Connor created, wrote, and stars in this semi-autobiographical dramedy about a gay man with cerebral palsy negotiating the many professional, social, and romantic perils of adulthood. At once stirringly raw and hilarious, Special is a brilliant example of the power of self-representation, of marginalized folk taking full creative control over their art.

Maniac

Created by Patrick Somerville - of HBO’s The Leftovers fame - this ambitious and underappreciated 2018 dark comedy miniseries documents the experiences of two unlikely friends - one with paranoid schizophrenia and the other with borderline personality disorder - and their participation in clinical trials for a mysterious new drug. Featuring knockout performances from Emma Stone, Jonah Hill, and Justin Theroux, the show brilliantly dismantles the normal/abnormal binary with a number of surreal dream sequences that use the trusted literary device of metaphor to powerfully and sensitively illustrate neurodivergence and trauma.

Book- Demystifying Disability

Written by disability activist Emily Ladau, Demystifying Disability is a much-needed guide filled with invaluable resources for those wishing to better understand the disabled experience and to step up their allyship, and even earned praise from disability activism legend and Crip Camp star Judy Heumann.

Podcast- Disability Visibility

Hosted by San Francisco native Alice Wong, this illuminating podcast platforms disabled viewpoints on current cultural and political affairs. With conversation topics ranging from bioethics to dancing with disabilities to poetry to cyborgs, Disability Visibility is a vital outlet for disabled perspectives on the most pressing subjects, perspectives that go too often erased or underemphasized.

Tags: san francisco media book movies streaming movies books web-og entertainment podcasts television Apple News lucas-fink

Photography by: David Livingston/Getty Images

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Celebrate Disability Pride Month With These Enlightening Disability-Centered Media

Celebrate Disability Pride Month With These Enlightening Disability-Centered Media