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
Mad At School
Narrative Prosthesis
Studying Disability Arts & Culture
Crip Kinship
Also here’s my thesis book list if you want even more resources
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)