Disability Representation in Media

Welcome! This website is a place where you can explore how people with disabilities are shown in movies, TV shows, and other media. You can search to find characters with different disabilities or get recommendations for new stories to watch or read. My goal is to show all the ways disability is currently represented, and I hope this helps inspire even more and better stories in the future. Submit a character or feedback here!

Disability Types

A list of disability types and their definitions, as used on this site:

Neurological:

This type of disability affects the brain, spinal cord, or nerves, which control how your body moves, thinks, and feels.
Musculoskeletal:

This type of disability affects your muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, or tendons, making it hard to move or support your body.
Special Sense Organs (Sensory):

This type of disability affects your senses, like sight, hearing, taste, smell, or touch, as well as balance.
Respiratory (including speech organs):

This type of disability affects your breathing system, including your lungs and airways, and can also involve problems with speaking.
Cardiovascular:

This type of disability affects your heart or blood vessels, making it hard for blood to flow properly through your body.]
Reproductive:

This type of disability affects the repoductive system, the organs involved in having children.
Digestive:

This type of disability affects your stomach, intestines, and other organs that help your body break down food and get nutrients.
Genitourinary:

This type of disability affects your urinary system (kidneys, bladder) or genitals.
Immune:

This type of disability affects your immune system, which is your body's defense against infections and diseases.
Circulatory:

This type of disability affects the system that moves blood around your body, including your heart, blood, and blood vessels.
Hemic:

This type of disability affects your blood, such as problems with red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets.
Lymphatic:

This type of disability affects your lymphatic system, which is part of your immune system and helps remove waste from your body.
Skin:

This type of disability affects your skin, hair, or nails, often causing long-lasting problems.
Endocrine:

This type of disability affects your endocrine system, which includes glands that make hormones that control many body functions.
Intellectual:

This type of disability involves significant limitations in a person's ability to learn, reason, solve problems, and adapt to everyday life.
Mental Illness/Psychological:

This type of disability affects a person's thinking, feelings, mood, and behavior, making it hard to function in daily life.
Neurocognitive:

This type of disability affects a person's mental abilities like memory, thinking, problem-solving, or attention, often due to brain changes.
Learning Disorder:

This type of disability makes it difficult for a person to learn certain skills, such as reading, writing, or math, despite having average intelligence.
Fantasy/Fictional:

This refers to a disability that only exists in fiction, not in the real world. It includes disabilities related to non-human anatomy or senses, as well as magical curses.
Cancer:

This refers to a disease where abnormal cells grow out of control and can spread to other parts of the body.
Terminal:

This category is used when the character's disability resulted in their death.
Other:

This is used when a disability doesn't fit neatly into other categories, or its exact type isn't known or specified.
(whump):

Not a unique type of disability; only used as further reference. This refers to a sudden injury or physical/emotional harm that causes immediate pain or damage.

Accommodation Types

A list of accommodation types and their definitions, as used on this site:

Medication:

Medicines taken to help control or treat health problems, including those that affect the mind.
Examples: Insulin, medicines for depression, medicine for seizures, inhalers, medicines for mental health.
Medical Device or Equipment:

Special tools or machines used in healthcare to keep someone healthy, check on their body, or make them feel better.
Examples: Oxygen tanks, breathing machines, heart helpers, pumps for medicine, kidney machines.
Mobility Device:

Tools that help people move around or get from one place to another when walking is difficult.
Examples: Wheelchairs, canes, walkers, crutches, small electric scooters, leg braces, special shoe inserts.
Assistive Technology:

Special technology tools that help people with challenges in seeing, hearing, speaking, or moving.
Examples: Hearing aids, special ear implants (cochlear implants), software that reads what's on a computer screen, devices that help people communicate (AAC devices), software that makes things bigger on a screen.
Therapy:

Professional treatments given by experts to help improve a person's physical, mental, or emotional health.
Examples: Physical therapy (for movement), occupational therapy (for daily tasks), speech therapy (for talking), CBT (a type of talk therapy), talk therapy, getting strength back (rehabilitation).
Support Services/Animals:

People or specially trained animals who help individuals with disabilities in their daily lives.
Examples: Service animals (like guide dogs), help from another person, sign language interpreters, helpers, live text for what's being said (CART captioning services).
Reasonable Accommodations:

Changes made to a place, rules, or tasks to make sure everyone has an equal chance to do things.
Examples: Different work times, changes to rules, changing job duties, working from home, sign language interpreters or people who read aloud.
Lifestyle Changes:

Different ways a person lives their life or changes their habits to help manage their health challenges.
Examples: Special diets, exercise programs, ways to handle stress, good sleep habits, steps to stop using harmful substances, ways to change how you act.
Fantasy/Fictional:

Magical or futuristic examples of help that only exist in stories, not in the real world.
Examples: Robot suits (from sci-fi), magical aides, superpowers.
Other:

Different ways of helping or tools that don't easily fit into other groups but still make a difference for someone's well-being.
Examples: Personal ways to deal with things, help from family or friends, fitness trackers used to help health, natural or different types of cures.

Submit a character or feedback here!