In 2022, Troy Kotsur won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Sian Heder’s CODA, becoming the first deaf man to win an Oscar for acting. Back in 1987, his CODA co-star Marlee Matin won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Randa Haines’ Children of a Lesser God, becoming the first deaf person to win an Oscar. The thirty-five years in between have been marked by an intentional rise in the representation of differently abled individuals. Mainstream representation is often marred by controversy, due to tokenism or the employment of an able-bodied performer, like the case of Maddie Ziegler playing an autistic character in Music directed by Sia. However, some films and TV shows have had the clear intent of creating a space for people with disabilities like the most recent casting of Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Echo becoming the first deaf protagonist in the MCU. Cox herself is deaf and Maya has a narrative arc that is not focused on her disability but is consistently affected by it. However, she is not the first deaf actress in the MCU, Lauren Midloff played the deaf character Makkari in Eternals directed by Chloe Zhao. Both of these characters only converse in ASL and many do not consider this a form of tokenism.
Authenticity should always be the priority for representation, and a great example of this is the character of Isaac (George Robinson) in Netflix’s Sex Education. Robinson is tetraplegic and uses a power-assisted wheelchair. His character’s disability has been written around him, incorporating his wants and needs in the creative process. In the latest and final season of the show, there is a subplot dedicated to the difficulties caused by Isaac’s disability, specifically the necessity of lifts in his school building, which is crucial for him to access the upstairs. The school has only one malfunctioning elevator, which restricts Isaac’s access to all the facilities. The story culminates in a protest by the students and the fixing of said elevator. Isaac’s role in the series began with him introducing a love triangle dynamic between two of the main characters, followed by becoming best friends with one of them. So, his story focuses on all aspects of his identity and not just his disability while still consistently addressing the ways it affects his life. This kind of intentional storytelling creates meaningful representation.The trend of focusing on creating fleshed-out characters with disabilities, who have more to their stories than the impact of their disabilities on their lives is heartwarming to see, especially when it is coupled with the casting of performers with these disabilities as that ensures employment for people from the differently abled community. The occasional outlier can still be found, like with Sound of Metal directed by Darius Marder, where Riz Ahmed, a hearing actor, plays a drummer in a band who loses his hearing through the course of the film. The casting choice does not, however, feel inherently questionable because of the sensitivity with which the story is told, including its use of sound design to communicate the loss of hearing, and also because the character has hearing to begin with. The situation is not black and white, and most importantly, the rise of representative casting and intentional storytelling over the last few years has led to a steady incline in the visibility of disability.
