Disability Media Recs!

(My favorite things I’ve reviewed or researched, sorted by category)

You can learn more about my reviews & disability media rep here

The categories below, in order, are General, Superhero/Otherworldly, Comedy, Romance, Comfort Media/Fun To Yell At, Classics, Nonfiction, Kids, Middle Grade, and Holiday is at the bottom.
If it’s an autism thing, I will specify if the rep is explicitly stated, canon, or coded. If it’s a disability thing, I will specify which disability/ies.

General

  • TV Shows

    • Autism

      • Heartbreak High (explicit)

      • Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (explicit)

      • Young Royals (explicit)

      • Dead End: Paranormal Park (canon)

      • The Chosen (canon)

      • Sex Ed (coded)

      • Heartstopper (coded)

      • Our Flag Means Death (coded)

      • Derry Girls (coded)

      • Bones (coded) 

      • Criminal Minds (coded, + some explicit cases)

      • Lessons In Chemistry (coded)

    • Disability TV show

      • Switched At Birth (d/Deaf)

      • See Education (wheelchair user)

      • West Wing (d/Deaf)

      • Special (Cerebral Palsy)

      • Only Murders In The Building (d/Deaf)

  • Films

    • Autism

      • The Imitation Game (canon)

      • La Meglio Gioventù (explicit)

      • Mary and Max (explicit)

      • I Am Sam (explicit) 

      • Legally Blonde (coded)

      • Benny & Joon (canon)

    • Disability 

      • The King’s Speech (speech disorder)

      • The Peanut Butter Falcon (Down syndrome)

      • Champions (developmental/intellectual) 

  • Books

    • Something to be Proud of (autism/wheelchair user)

    • The Rose Code (autistic - canon)

    • Lessons In Chemistry (autistic - coded)

    • My Sister’s Keeper (cancer/chronic illness)

    • True Biz (d/Deaf) 

Superhero/Otherworldly

  • Autism TV Shows

    • Umbrella Academy (explicit & coded)

    • D20 Fantasy High (canon)

    • Nimona (coded)

    • Stranger Things (coded)

    • Over the Garden Wall (coded)

    • Gravity Falls (coded)

    • Hazbin Hotel (coded)

    • Good Omens (coded)

  • Autism Films

    • Wonder Woman (coded)

  • Disability Books

    • Six of Crows (mobility, PTSD, chronic pain)

    • Cinder & the rest of the Lunar Chronicles series (migraines, prosthesis, blindness, madness)

  • Disability TV Shows

    • Echo (d/Deaf + limb difference/prosthesis) 

    • Hawkeye (Hard of Hearing, also Echo is involved)

    • Agent Carter (prosthesis/cane user)

  • Disability Films

    • The Bourne Identity (memory loss)

    • The Silent Hour (d/Deaf)

Comedy

(these are all tv shows)

  • Autism

    • Community (explicit) 

    • The Cleaner (explicit)

    • Any of Hannah Gadsby’s comedy specials (explicit)

    • The Onion’s Autistic Reporter (explicit)

    • Please Like Me (canon) 

    • Bottoms (coded) — this one is a movie!

    • Parks & Recreation (coded)

    • Abbott Elementary (coded)

    • Bob’s Burgers (coded)

    • Friends (coded)

    • The Office (coded)

    • Only Murders In The Building (coded)

    • Brooklyn Nine-Nine (coded)

    • The Good Place (coded)

    Disability 

    • Speechless (Cerebral Palsy)

Romance

  • Films

    • Autism

      • Fire Island (coded)

    • Disability

      • CODA (d/Deaf)

  • Books

    • Autism

      • Truthfully, Yours (explicit)

      • Act Your Age, Eve Brown (explicit) 

    • Disability

      • Tone Deaf (d/Deaf)

      • Love From A to Z (MS)

      • Get A Life, Chloe Brown (Fibromyalgia)

Comfort Media

(look, it’s outdated, it has serious issues, but it brought me joy anyway. Proceed with caution) 

  • Autism

    • Please Stand By (explicit) 

    • Temple Grandin (explicit)

    • Adam (explicit) 

    • Miracle Run (explicit) 

Fun To Yell At

(…seems self explanatory)

  • Regarding Henry (memory loss) 

  • Purple Hearts (diabetes)

  • Me Before You (autistic coded + paraplegic)

  • Gigi & Nate (paraplegic + service monkey)

Classics

(these are all autistic-coded)

  • Books

    • Anne of Green Gables

    • The Great Gatsby

    • Pride & Prejudice

    • Northanger Abbey 

  • TV Shows

    • Star Trek

    • M*A*S*H

    • Andy Griffith 

Nonfiction

  • Memoir

    • Signs of Survival (d/Deaf Holocaust) 

    • Autism In Heels (a bit outdated, but good start)

    • Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space

    • The Asperkid’s (Secret) Book of Social Rules (a bit outdated, but good start)

  • Academic 

  • Documentaries

    • Crip Camp 

    • Deaf U

    • Code of the Freaks

Kids

  • Autism

    • Books 

      • A Day With No Words (explicit)

      • My Brother Otto (explicit)

      • Why Johnny Doesn’t Flap (explicit)

      • All My Stripes (explicit) 

      • Amelia Bedelia (coded)

      • Little Bird (metaphor, but canon)

      • Ramona Quimby (coded)

    • TV shows 

      • Thomas & Friends (explicit - recent series)

      • Moomin Valley (explicit - recent series)

      • Fancy Nancy (explicit) 

      • Julia from Sesame Street (explicit) 

      • Arthur (Carl episode - explicit)

      • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (canon - recent series) 

      • She-Ra (canon)

    • Short Film

      • Loop (explicit)

    • Films

      • Matilda (coded) 

      • Lilo & Stitch (coded)

      • The Wild Robot (coded)

  • Disability

    • Books 

      • Thank You, Mr. Falker (dyslexia) 

      • Junkyard Wonders (SpEd)

      • El Deafo (d/Deaf) 

      • What Happened To You? (limb difference)

      • Can Bears Ski? (HoH/deaf)

    • TV shows 

      • Bluey (ADHD)

      • El Deafo (d/Deaf) 

      • Goldie & Bear (wheelchair user)

    • Films

      • How To Train Your Dragon (limb difference)

      • Finding Nemo (limb difference, memory loss) 

      • Moana (cane user/elderly)

      • Luca (limb difference) 

      • Happy Feet (developmental disability? Kinda? He’s a penguin)

Middle Grade

  • Autism

    • Books

      • A Kind of Spark (explicit)

      • Show Us Who You Are (explicit)

      • Rain Reign (explicit)

      • Rules (explicit)

      • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (canon) 

      • Gallagher Girls series (coded) 

      • Hank Zipzer (coded + ADHD/dyslexia)

      • Percy Jackson (coded + ADHD/dyslexia)

    • TV shows 

      • Monster High (Twyla - explicit)

      • A Kind of Spark (explicit) 

      • The Owl House (canon)

      • Geek Girl (canon) - this is about a 16 year old, so maybe age up to early high school

    • Films

      • The Princess Diaries (coded)

  • Disability

    • Books

      • Because of Mr. Terupt (TBI, SpEd)

      • Wonderstruck (d/Deaf)

    • TV shows 

      • The Dragon Prince (d/Deaf)

      • Avatar The Last Airbender (blindness) 

      • Best Foot Forward (prosthesis/limb difference)

    • Films

      • McKenna Shoots For The Stars (wheelchair user)

      • Warriors of Virtue (leg brace) - it’s a 90s film that isn’t great but the rep is good and it’s a fun time

      • Out of My Mind (cerebral palsy, wheelchair, AAC usage)

Holiday (primarily Christmas)

  • Disability

    • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (the 1960s one accidentally explains how disability works under capitalism it’s great)

    • Falling For Christmas (memory loss)

    • A Christmas Prince (wheelchair user - played by a non-disabled actor but it’s a fun film)

    • Noelle (deaf)

    • It’s A Wonderful Life (hard of hearing and wheelchair user)

  • Autism

    • A World Record Christmas (explicit)

    • A Christmas Story (coded)

    • How the Grinch Stole Christmas (coded)