Write for Everyone

Movies and books have such varied ways of including people with disabilities. If they're included at all.

Sometimes if someone has a disability, it's on;y there for show and doesn't really affect the character at all.
Like Hiccup. He's one of the only heroes in animated movies with an obvious physical disability - a missing leg. The scene where he finds out his leg is missing is so powerful. But in the following movies, you can never really tell that he's missing a leg.
But at the same time, you can never really tell that he's missing a leg. Only in the TV series would you see him stumbling and having trouble with it.

(Toothless does have quite a bit of trouble with his handicap though. I'm mostly discussing human disabilities here)

In a similar vein is Long John Silver. In some versions of Treasure Island, his peg leg slows him down. In Treasure Planet, not so much (except when the gears are wrecked). His cyborg arm, leg, and eye are all very useful. More so than a normal arm, leg, or eye would be. I don't think that really glorifies handicapped people, since he admits that losing those parts of himself was a sacrifice, and it definitely seems to be a painful memory. And his leg is messed up at the end of the movie too.


Also Ed and Al, from Fullmetal Alchemist. Ed has amazingly effective prosthetic limbs. Though they also have their downsides in extreme hot and cold weather. Even if they get damaged, they can be repaired.


On a side note, there's the Princess Kushana, form Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. She also seems to be missing both an arm and a leg, but it doesn't slow her down because she also has some remarkable prosthetics.

Then Hector from Coco has a distinct limp. It never really slows him down though. And it seems to have mostly recovered by the end of the movie. Or maybe his leg just got bandaged better.


In many cases, the people with the disability are magically healed at the end.

I think this was a made-for-TV movie, called Nico the Unicorn. During the whole movie, the boy has a limp. Other kids make fun of him, or talk down to him without meaning to (both of which are unfortunately common in real life)). And of course at the end of the movie the unicorn heals him.



rerrrr
(Okay, this is too funny. My cat just stepped on the keyboard and typed "rerrrr." I wonder what that translates to in feline)


Back on topic. Sorry.

In Avatar, Jake definitely has a disability. As long as he's human. The moment he's in his Avatar body he can run and climb and everything. Which is wonderful to him, of course. At the end of the movie, he abandons that human body and gets to live with the strong Na'vi body.

Professor X is also confined to a wheelchair (in the old cartoon version, he has a flying wheelchair?).


Are you sensing a theme? All of these involve missing or injured legs (sometimes arms).
But there are some that include disease too.

In The Fault in Our Stars, the two main characters have cancer. Hazel has to haul around an oxygen tank, and Augustus has a false leg (though you really can't tell in the movie version). That's for when they can actually get around places.


In The Wind Rises, Nahoko has tuberculosis.

And both of these stories have a very realistic portrayal of the disease. The people live and love, but they face the very real, serious consequences of what they have.


Finally we have people that are born different, but luckily aren't injured or sick. Some people might consider these disabilities, but I guess I'm kind of weird because I think it depends on how you look at it.
In Willow and also Game of Thrones, there are dwarf characters. Willow sometimes has trouble keeping up with the tall people who don't seem to care that he has shorter legs. And Game of Thrones does a realistic job of showing how many people relate to dwarfism. He also has to get special saddles for riding horses and such.
(And of course there's Bran - he's another realistic portrayal of someone with a disability).

In the anime/manga "A Silent Voice," there's a girl who's deaf. She probably could get along pretty well, if she weren't surrounded by so many nasty people. She is bullied very badly. And it takes an awful toll on her.


What's my point for this post?
Well, this is hardly a comprehensive literature review. And I'm not really sure what my point is. I think it's important to have disabled characters. Everyone deserves to see heroes like them. I also think there should be more variety than only people who have trouble walking. And if they have a disability, it should count (not, for example, a missing leg that never gives them any trouble at all).
Should a disability be glorified? Of course not. No one should glamorize suffering. But there are so many accounts of people with diseases or injures that have turned their lives around, whether or not they recovered. Just because a person has an injury or disease doesn't mean that they can't do amazing things.

Do your research, and use respect.