Disability rights still have a long way to go in modern society, people with disabilities continue to speak out for their humanity to be heard. On television, for example, disability is still not as widely represented as it should be, with very few main characters having a visible disability. The rising popularity of the Special Olympics has striven to popularize "inclusion and community, where every single person is accepted and welcomed, regardless of ability or disability."
Movies have done a better job in representing disabilities on screen, although these representations still skew towards grand stories, eschewing the reality of the everyday person with a disability.
Imperator Furiosa (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) is a war captain who works for the totalitarian dystopian leader, Immortan Joe. Despite being a very strong war captain, Furiosa has kept her morality. Hence, she decides to save his concubines, "The Five Wives," from Joe's abusive household, knowing that she was risking her life by doing so.
Furiosa is one of the top leaders in the Citadel because her mechanical arm does not stop her from being a great war captain. Furiosa is skilled in warfare and uses her brain and skills to get out many dangerous situations.
Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump)
Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) has significant health issues as a child, in particular, a crooked spine that required the use of leg braces which made a young Forrest struggle to walk, and virtually unable to run. He also seems to face some cognitive challenges, which the movie does not specify.
As the protagonist of the film, Forrest takes the lead on the many adventures it shows, playing college football, ing the army, winning the Medal of Honor, and becoming the financially successful captain of a shrimping boat.
Philippe (The Intouchables)
The Intouchables is based on the true story of Corsican French businessman, Philippe Pozzo di Borgo, who became a quadriplegic after a paragliding accident, and his Moroccan caretaker, Abdel Sellou. In the movie, Philippe hires Driss to become his caretaker. Although Driss has a criminal past, Philippe does not care, because Driss is the only person who does not treat him with pity.
The two become very good friends, because Driss pushes Philippe out of his comfort zone, even pushing Philippe to meet the woman he has been conversing with over the internet. The Intouchables breaks the conventions of characters with disabilities, showing an already independent Philippe before Driss comes into his life.
Professor X (X-Men)
Professor X (Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy) is the leader and founder of the X-Men and the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Professor X created the X-Men with a goal of bringing about peace and reconciliation between humans and mutants in a world that still fears mutants. He is a very powerful telepath and a brilliant scientist.
Professor X leads the X-Men not through force, but through comion, understanding, and his caring nature. He aims to teach these qualities to his proteges, too. The Professor is defined by far more than his paraplegia and lives the exciting life of a superhero.
John Merrick (The Elephant Man)
Based on the true story of John Merrick, an Englishman who had suspected Proteus Syndrome, The Elephant Man finds Merrick (John Hurt) working in a Victorian London freak show, suffering abuse under his cruel ringleader. Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) at the London Hospital asks for Merrick to be brought to the hospital for examination, but the Doctor is warned that the hospital does not take in "incurables."
Merrick's story is one of how his disease caused him extreme abuse at the hands of most people in society. He is deemed the "Elephant Man," and spends his life trying to make society see him as a human being. The movie highlights how discriminative, and often cruel, society can be.
Pandit Omkar Nath Dhar (Wazir)
Two men, Pandit (Amitabh Bachchan) and Daanish (Farhan Akhtar) who have both lost their daughters to crime and corruption find solace in their accidental friendship. Pandit, who is a wheelchair , believes that his daughter Nina's death was not an accident as he was told. He believes that a government minister murdered his daughter.
The expert chess player was also Daanish's daughter, Noorie's teacher. Daanish soon begins investigating Nina's death, culminating in his discovery that Pandit was not only a chess mastermind but was an expert at manipulating people. Pandit, unable to enact revenge for his daughter's death, uses his intellect to spearhead it.
Stephen Hawking (The Theory Of Everything)
Another biographical movie, The Theory Of Everything is the story of Stephen Hawking's life, adapted from the novel called Travelling To Infinity: My Life With Stephen by his ex-wife, Jane Hawking. The movie tells the story of Hawking learning that he has motor neuron disease. It details Hawking's rise to fame as a physicist and the growth and troubles in his family as he loses his ability to walk, battling a terrible disease that attacked his motor neurons and was often quickly fatal.
In the movie, Hawking, now using a voice synthesizer, gives a speech to students advising that there is always hope in life, no matter how difficult one's life might be.
Ray Charles (Ray)
Ray (Jamie Foxx) is a biographical musical epic about the life of Ray Charles and how he came to become one of the greatest blues musicians in the world. The movie begins with Ray's childhood and the trauma he experiences watching his brother drown.
This trauma would haunt him for most of his life. It would also detail how Ray dealt with losing his sight as a child. Ray tells a story of a man whose pain, tragedies, successes, and happiness overshadowed his disability and how music helped the musician to soar above his pain.
Laila (Margarita With A Straw)
Margarita With A Straw is an LGBTQ+ coming-of-age story about a teenager with cerebral palsy Laila Kapoor (Kalki Koechlin) who begins to question her sexuality when she meets Khanum (Sayani Gupta), a visually impaired young woman. Laila is stunned by Khanum's independence and joie de vivre and quickly falls in love with Khanum.
The movie depicts the two women relying on each other as caregivers, but also falling in love at the same time. It is groundbreaking for showing two women with disabilities, from traditional backgrounds, coming together as lovers in the end.
Anne Sullivan (The Miracle Worker)
Anne Sullivan (Anne Bancroft) was Helen Keller's (Patty Duke) teacher, celebrated for her incredible work with Keller. Blind and deaf after battling scarlet fever, Helen Keller was unable to communicate with the world as a young child until Anne Sullivan decided to teach her.
Anne, who also graduated from the Perkins School for the Blind after losing some of her sight due to childhood illness (and gaining partial sight back after surgery), is sent to work with Keller to help her learn to communicate. Keller, frustrated at her inability to communicate, is becoming increasingly violent and resists Anne's tutoring. But, Anne refuses to give up, having comion for a young girl who faces similar problems to hers.
