Netflix Shows That Represent People With Disabilities

When it’s cold outside (and even when it’s not) there’s nothing better than hunkering down for a bit of a Netflix binge. These shows are worth checking out if you’d like to see people with disabilities included on the screen...

The Healing Powers of Dude

The Healing Powers of Dude is being hailed as a series that’s breaking new ground regarding representing disability on screen. It’s the story of Noah, an 11-year old boy with social anxiety disorder navigating public school for the first time alongside his emotional support dog, Dude. Noah’s best friend is Amara who uses a wheelchair because she has muscular dystrophy. Funny, sweet and light-hearted – this is one for all the family.

The Society

An eerie, supernatural Young Adult series – when everyone else mysteriously vanishes from their wealthy town, the teen residents of West Ham must forge their own society to survive. The show features a deaf character, Sam who is played by deaf actor, Sean Berdy.

Crip Camp

Crip Camp is a joyous and exuberant Sundance Awards nominated documentary about Camp Jened, a ramshackle, freewheeling summer camp for teens with disabilities in the early 70s that transformed the lives of its campers and ignited a landmark movement as they became activists for the disability rights movement and fought for accessibility legislation.

Raising Dion

In this family sci-fi series a widowed single mum discovers that her son, Dion, has super powers and tries to figure out how to raise him safely and responsibly. The real star of the show however is Dion’s classmate, Esperanza, who has osteogenesis imperfecta and uses a wheelchair. Esperanza is played by nine-yearold Sammi Haney who actually lives with this condition.

Ozark

Marty, a financial advisor drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder money to appease a drug boss; This Netflix series is one that always makes it onto the ‘most bingeable’ lists and one of its most loved characters is Tuck, played by Evan George Vourazeris who just happens to have Down Syndrome.

The Politician

This dark comedy follows the tale of an ambitious student who will stop at nothing to become his high school’s student body president. The cast of the series is notably diverse – including, a deaf African American actress, a trans actor, and an actor with cerebral palsy – the great thing is that no one at the school treats these differences like they’re a big deal.

Atypical

Now in its third season, the heartwarming and often hilarious Atypical follows the life of Sam Gardner, a teenager on the autism spectrum. Keir Gilchrist who plays Sam is not autistic himself, but the series has incorporated actors who are on the spectrum as the series has progressed.

Wonder

Based on the New York Times bestseller, this movie tells the incredibly inspiring and heartwarming story of August Pullman, a boy with facial difference who enters the fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.