I Call Upon the Power of The Internets!

[alianora]

Hi, my favorite people! I need some help, please.

As a special ed teacher, I get rather..irrationally excited when I come across a story, book, tv show, or movie where there is a major character with a disability. I would really love to find more, but to do so, I need your help.

If you happen to know of a book - kid's book, picture book, novel, whatever - a tv show, asian drama, movie, pamphlet, song, WHATEVER - that has a person with a disability as a MAJOR CHARACTER (not main, necessarily, just major), would you please tell me about it?

Now, to clarify: I'm not looking for things like "Radio," or "Riding the Bus with My Sister," so much as I'm looking for things like "Sue Thomas, F.B.EYE," or "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." But whatever you can think of, please share.



Here's my very partial list, which I hope you will help me add to:

Deaf:
Sue Thomas, F.B.EYE - tv - main character
Summer Snow - jdrama - brother
She's All That - tv - brother
Hear No Evil, See No Evil - movie - main
Orange Days - jdrama - main


Blindness:
Hear No Evil, See No Evil - movie - main
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken - movie - main
Blade Trinity - movie - major character


Emotional/Behavioral:
Torey L Hayden books


Autism:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - book - main
Kristy and the Secret of Susan - book - main
Marathon - jmovie - main


Developmental:
What's Eating Gilbert Grape - movie - brother
The Other Sister - movie - main
South Park - tv - Timmy
I Am Sam - movie - main


Downs Syndrome:
Life Goes On - tv - main

Physical:
Vorkosigan novels - Bujold - main - dwarfism, brittle bones, possible bipolar
South Park - tv - Jimmy
Summer Snow - jdrama - main - medical heart condition
The Station Agent - movie - main - dwarfism
Joan of Arcadia - tv - brother - paraplegic



Drama people, I would LOVE to know of more dramas with people with disabilities.

Comments

[magelette.livejournal.com]

The Babysitter's Club books involving Matt Braddock, who's deaf.
Or Kristy and the Secret of Susan, about an autistic girl

Two of my short stories feature a girl who has Asperger's. "And A Chook Shall Lead Them" and "Sliding Down the Pohutukawa Root."

I also found this list: http://www.springfieldlibrary.org/reading/disabled.html

Hope that helps a little bit!

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

I cant remember how major of a character Matt is..will have to go look back into BSC, because it's been YEARS since Ive read them.

ooh! Kristy and the Secret of Susan! I forgot all about that one!

where would i find the shorts, dear one?

ooh, cool list! Thank you!

[magelette.livejournal.com]

Sliding Down the Pohutukawa Root
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1697

And a Chook Shall Lead Them is part of an anthology, but there is an e-Version of it
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1229

Matt wasn't a huge character, but he did get his own book in Jessi and the Secret Language

[magelette.livejournal.com]

More: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/learning-disabilities/reading/5316.html

Logan from Dark Angel was paraplegic and in a wheelchair.

Whatserface from Birds of Prey -- comic or shortlived tv show, take your pick -- was also paralyzed and wheelchair bound

Annie, the blind girl on Dark Angel for one episode (second season), played by Dee from BSG.

Ike from Young Riders is mute.

Did anyone mention Corky from Life Goes On with Downs Syndrome?

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

Hee! I was just adding Ike to the list!

and im not looking for one episode people, so much as major characters throughout.

hmm..the little girl in a Stephen King movie is blind..the one in the airport? what the heck is that called? *ponders*

and yep, figures I would forget Corky. duh.

[caitn.livejournal.com]

The Stephen King movie is called "The Langoliers."

And there was a Hallmark channel movie on TV recently called "Front of the Class." The main character had Tourettes.

[rinalin.livejournal.com]

MARATHON!!!!!

HOW COULD YOU NOT THINK OF MARATHON!

NINO FEELS BETRAYED!

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

MY COMPUTER ATE MARATHON BEFORE I EVER GOT TO WATCH IT!

thank you! *adds*

[gajenx.livejournal.com]

Hello I am Bree's husband and she asked me to add to your list there. I have a degree in Hearing Impaired Education . From my own collection for People who are Deaf or HH (Hard of Hearing) you have the book "Deaf Like Me", there is the play "Children of a Lesser God" and you can check this link out to see what Marlee Matlin does, since she is a major Deaf actress http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0559144/. There is also the books "Deaf child Crossing", "Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture", "deaf Heritage", and "Train go sorry" Also since Thomas Edison was deaf in his left ear anything with him could fall into the HH or Physical Impairment areas

If you want a child that would qualify as OHI due to illness is Sadako and the 1000 Paper cranes, though depending on your state should might instead be 504.

also They now know after exhuming the body Albert Einstein's brain had the genetic marker to show he was on the ASD spectrum.

Then for famous people who are ADD/ADHD you have Jim Carrey, Prince Charles, cher, Tom cruise, Walk disney, Whoopi Goldberg, and Ozzy Osbourne. for a list of some famous people with ADD/ADHD you can go to http://www.adhdrelief.com/famous.html.

Then for Emotional/Behavior stuff you have one of the U.S.'s most famous poets who was diagnosed to be clinically depressed Edger Allen Poe.

I hope this helps some.

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

Oh, wonderful! Thanks! Train Go Sorry was the one I was destroying my brain trying to remember the title of earlier today. And, of course, Marlee - we all love Marlee!

Im mainly looking for fiction at this point, but I hadnt heard that Edison had markers for ASD spectrum, although Im not surprised.

Thanks for the help!

[gajenx.livejournal.com]

Not Edison but Albert Einstein is who I mentioned was shown to have ASD, I think Asbergers (sp?).

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

Clearly, I shouldnt try to type and read other comments at the same time. :) I knew it was Einstein, just mistyped! thank you!

[princess-dexter.livejournal.com]

I don't know how suitable these will be, but here's some:

- There's a guy in the jdrama version of Cat Street who has a stutter and I think a kind of nervous thing, so he communicates through dance or something (I can't remember, the jdrama kind of bored me) so you could check it out.

- Would you consider Rui from the various Hana Yori Dango incarnations as having autism? It's probably more pronounced in Meteor Garden but I can't remember if you've seen that or not.

- I haven't seen it yet but I've been reading summaries for the jdrama Innocent Love and I hear that one of the characters is mentally impaired after a coma or something? I'm not sure if that fits the disability thing since it didn't occur at birth, but it might help. Plus you'd get to see IL for the lulz! I'm totally downloading it later, it seems hilarious FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS.

- I haven't seen it yet but the main guy in Tree of Heaven is mute, although I think he regains his speech after falling into a taboo-filled love affair with his step-sister.

I feel like there should be about 203492834 kdramas with this issue, but apparently not.

- There's a movie called Pumpkin where the main guy has both physical and developmental disabilities, but it's okay because Christina Ricci gets a crush on him regardless.

- The sister in Code Geass (anime) is blind and in a wheelchair, but I never finished the series so I can't remember exactly why.

- I don't know if you've read Isobelle Carmody's excellent YA fantasy series, The Obernewtyn Chronicles, but one of the major characters is blind. You should definitely check them out, they're a great story.

- I feel a bit dirty reccing this, but one of the VC Andrews series has a deaf cousin in it. The first book is Melody and it's actually my favourite VC Andrews series. Shhh!

I feel there should be more but that's all I can remember at the moment, if any of these help then I'm glad to be of service! I'm off to watch a few eps of WWL now so I can catch up to you - I got your emails but haven't replied yet because I didn't want to read spoilers for ep 4. Have you gone past that yet? YAY MULLET TIME!

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

I wouldnt consider Rui to be on the spectrum, but I havent seen Meteor Garden, either. I should probably do that, one of these days.

I havent seen Cat Street, but it sounds..interesting?

oh, yes, Innocent Love! coma, then TBI. ive been reading wolfie's write ups and LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY. she proposed by THROWING HER PANTIES ACROSS THE POOL. that will never stop being awesome.

there SHOULD be tons of kdramas..where are they all? oh, and the little girl in Sam Soon is an elective mute, too.

Pumpkin scares me a little. i want to see it..but i really really dont...

oooh, i havent read that series. MUST OBTAIN.

AAAAH, VC ANDREWS. ISNT KOREA ENOUGH TRAUMA FOR YOU? :)

WWL: heee! the mullet compels you! ep 4 is REALLY cute in many ways. i havent watched ep 5, because 4 made me happy, and i dont want to angst to return just yet. so, im still watching Invincible Shan Bao Mei and marveling at how i still find Nicholas Teo attractive when he's being such an asshole. and a fruity dancer! will watch ep 5 tomorrow, though, really.

[settiai]

Blindness:
Early Edition - tv - Marissa Clark (not the main character, but in the main cast for all four seasons)

Down Syndrome:
Life Goes On - tv - Corky Thatcher (brother of main character)

Physical:
Dark Angel - tv - Logan Cale (in a wheelchair for much of the series)

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

excellent! thank you!

[settiai]

Also, have you seen the Highlander television series? The character of Joe Dawson uses prosthetic legs (and occasionally a wheelchair); the actor who plays him lost his legs in a car accident.

[settiai]

And I keep thinking of more...

Blindness:
Fantastic Four - comics/movies - Alicia Masters
Star Trek: The Next Generation - tv - Geordi LaForge

Dyslexia:
Heroes - tv - Matt Parkman (one of the main cast)
The Cosby Show - tv - Theo Huxtable

Dawn and Whitney, Friends Forever, one of the Babysitters Club stories, features a girl with Down Syndrome as well.

[steplianna.livejournal.com]

Okay,

TV shows:
Life Goes On - Corky, main character who has Down Syndrome - lasted several seasons.

Picket Fences - had Marlee Matlin for multiple seasons who is deaf. Also any other work she has done.

Blind Justice - main character is a blind police detective - lasted 13 eps


TV movies:
House of Cards (1993)- with Kathleen Turner and Tommy Lee Jones. KT's daughter experiences a traumatic event and begins exhibiting severe autistic. There's a lot of excellent footage of other actually autistic people in the movie aside from main chars.

Miracle Run (2004)- with Mary Louise Parker and Aidan Quinn. Her twin boys are born autistic and it's a semi biographic dramatization of their lives up through high school.


Movies:
Daredevil with Ben Affleck who is a blind superhero.


This is all I can think of at the moment, but there's a lot of them out there...

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

Blind Justice made me want to beat my head against the table. You dont get a dog automatically if you're blind! and it's HARD to work with a dog. I spent most of it wanting to see the assistive tech he was using.

oh, figures I would forget Life Goes On. Duh.

thank you!

[spitefairy.livejournal.com]

Not the entire show, but in the first and second season of The West Wing there was the character Joey Lucas, a deaf pollster that helps out the campaign, I understand the actress, Marlee Matlin, (who is actually deaf) also has a large arc in The L Word.

I'm sure I'll think up more as it churns in my brain, but that's the only thing that I can think of off the top of my head.

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

ooh, yay! Thank you!

[spitefairy.livejournal.com]

Oh, Oh, thought up more!

The terrible TV Show Becker has a blind main character, don't know if the actor is actually blind.

One of the main characters in Highlander, played by Jim Burnes, has prosthetic legs, (it was explained as a landmine accident in the TV show).

Oh, any X-Men movie/show with Professor X in a wheelchair, and the various other X-Men generally have some kind of disability that goes with their powers, schizophrenia, blindness, etc.

Unbreakable, Samuel L Jackson is in a wheelchair.

Comedy Option: Neo in end of the Matrix. Second Comedy Option: Various one-armed people in Arrested Development.

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

Comedy Option: Neo in end of the Matrix

*snort* you are BAAAD. :)

thank you!

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

First - love Orange Days. Such a good show. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is a great novel.


Others: (I included cancers and immune diseases)


Aishiteiru to Ittekure - jdrama; the male lead is deaf (also written by Kitagawa Eriko, who wrote Orange Days)

Beautiful Life - jdrama; female lead is in a wheelchair and has an unnamed illness. Also written by Kitagawa and stars Kimura Takuya

Taiyou no Kisetsu - jdrama; female lead has a large limp due to a car crash. Not what most would think of as a disability, but it plays a major part in some of the story, especially the end.

Kimi ga Kureta Natsu - jdrama (special); the son of the two main characters battles cancer.

Myu no Anyo Papa ni Ageru - jdrama (special); the main character has CIDP

One Litre of Tears - jdrama; female lead battles spinocerebellar degeneration


Tears of Happiness - chinesedrama; a remake of One Litre of Tears. Aired this past summer, but I don't think it has been subbed.


Algernon ni Hanataba o - jdrama; based on the novel Flowers for Algernon. Several minor characters with mental disabilities; the main character's best friend/foster sister is also mentally disabilied and remains so.

Hello, God - kdrama; also based on Flowers for Algernon

Josee, the Tiger and the Fish - jfilm; female lead has CP


Crying Out Love At the Centre of the World - jdrama and a jfilm (different casts); female lead battles leukemia

My Girl - kfilm; based on Crying Out. . .


Snow Queen - kdrama; female lead has a disease that effects her immune system, I think. I can't remember what she had.


Happiness - kfilm; I believe both the female and male lead had a disease, but I cannot recall what


Kamisama, Mou Sukoshi Dake - jdrama; female lead has HIV. It was made in 1998 and really shows how Japan tends to treat whose with diseases/with disabilities

Thank You - kdrama; the little girl, daughter of the female lead is HIV+

Daisuki!! - jdrama; female lead has the mind of an 8-year-old


Hitotsu Yane no Shita - jdrama; the youngest brother is in a wheelchair; a female character has an illness that could kill her.


A Moment to Remember - kfilm; female lead develops Alzheimer's

A Moment to Remember/Watashi no atama no naka no keshigomu - jdrama (special); a remake of the kfilm

Boku no Aruku Michi - jdrama; male lead is autistic





I'm sure there are many more, as Korean dramas and Japanese dramas love giving their leads disabilities

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

you are AWESOME. thank you so much! *rubs hands together greedily*

have you see Daisuki!? i have an ep downloaded, but i get a little nervous watching shows about "special people" sometimes. because they get rather preachy and annoying, instead of showing the public how people with disabilities are just NORMAL PEOPLE. ahem. sorry, off the soapbox.

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

I'm just sorry I could only give you Asian films/dramas. And, I'm sure that some weren't what you were looking for, but I would rec them all for a good drama/film.


I have seen Daisuki! and yes, it can get a bit preachy. But, I think all jdramas that deal with the disabled/those with diseases can get a bit preachy. Which is odd considering how many of the older people in Japanese society view the disabled/those with diseases. But, it is a good show. The woman who is disabled is shown being taught by her mom and at the center she goes to. She is shown as a good mother, who is willing to learn. She's show to have friends, a loving family, even a job toward the middle of the series.


instead of showing the public how people with disabilities are just NORMAL PEOPLE.

Speaking as someone who is disabled, I am right there with you. However, I have to say that jdramas,kdramas, their films do do a good job (usually) of showing the disabled characters as regular people.


Oh, another rec:


Oasis - kfilm; the female lead has severe cerebral palsy. (I think she's meant to have Spastic quadriplegia) The film won many awards and is a beautiful love story.


I am sure there are more, and may be back later with others.

[natfudge.livejournal.com]

Jericho - Features Shoshannah Stern who is deaf... Nearly all the characters have the ability to sign to her. She was also in the first season of Weeds.

Also, go through IMDB key words... You'll find a bit of everything.

[cavalaxis]

Malcolm In The Middle - Malcolm's best friend is in a wheel chair.

And Marlee Maitlin had a major recurring role on West Wing as a pollster who actually used a translator.

Whistler is the blind phreak genius in the movie Sneakers (Robert Redford).

Monk is OCD, agoraphobic.

Professor Xavier of X-Men is a paraplegic.

Daredevil is blind.

Johnny Smith of Dead Zone walks with a limp and has a physical therapist as one of his supporting characters.

Dexter is a sociopath who has found unique coping methods. Oh wait, scratch that one.

[gajenx.livejournal.com]

I forgot this fact though she is not deaf or HH herself, Camryn Manheim is a nationally certified interpreter for the Deaf and used to volunteer and work at some hospitals signing for mothers who are deaf and having babies

Also on house one of the main characters is suppose to have some neurological disorder that will slowly strip away her ability to control her body and cause her to be unable to control her limbs and speech.

Also http://www.d.umn.edu/~cspiller/stutteringpage/famous.htm has famous stutters. I know you are more wanting fiction over nonfiction though.

Another movie that has a big subplot around a person who is mentally disordered is Love Actually. The brother of the character that Laura Linney plays has some mental issue, since he is institutionalized in the movie.

[anxietygrrl.livejournal.com]

Barbara Gordon/Oracle from DC Comics! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Gordon)

Hm, wait, I see she was mentioned upthread. Well, she's unstoppably awesome, so I'll mention her again.

Oh, and Toph from Avatar: the Last Airbender. She's blind and kicks ass.

[sodahands.livejournal.com]

Benny and Joon? Joon is played by Mary Stuart Masterson and it's a really cute movie.

There's a kdrama, 18 vs 29 where the main female character mentally reverts back to when she was 18 though I don't think that's exactly what you're looking for.

Oh the Thai movie Chocolate. The main character suffers from autism I think but she is really skilled in martial arts.

[hiiyaa.livejournal.com]

Black - Bollywood movie (really different from the usual BW and without songs actually). It's inspired by Helen Keller's autobiography so it is basically the story of a deaf and mute girl.

Itoshi Kimi e - jdrama. Main lead gets Behçet's disease and loses sight.

Edison no Haha - jdrama. Not disability but about a boy who is too intelligent for his age and how the school, and especially his teacher deals with it.

Nodame Cantabile - jdrama. Nodame could possibly be on the autism spectrum.

[anenko.livejournal.com]

-Geordi from Star Trek: TNG is blind.
-Matt from Daredevil is blind.
-Xavier from X-Men is in a wheelchair.
-Logan from Dark Angel is in a wheelchair.
-One of the doctors in ER has problems with her legs? I'm going off of commercials, here, as I never really got into the series. [And details! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Weaver)]
-Dr. House from House has a leg injury, and needs a cane.
-Toph from Avatar is blind; there's also a minor character (Teo) who is in a wheelchair.
- One of the secondary characters in Bleach is blind [Tosen; details (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soul_Reapers_in_Bleach#9th_Division)]

[spottedpenguin.livejournal.com]

I teach jr. high English, so I bring you two YA novels:

Rules by Cynthia Lord is about a pre-teen who makes a list of rules for her autistic brother to follow

So B. It by Sarah Weeks follows the life of a girl whose mother is mentally disabled (although I can't remember exactly what she is said to "have"...she is unable to communicate because of a severely limited vocabulary, but aware enough to realize she cannot care for her baby alone.)



Wasn't the little girl in Stephen King's Rose Red autistic...or am I just imagining that?

[caitn.livejournal.com]

In CSI (Las Vegas) the medical examiner Doctor Al Robbins has two prosthetic legs. IRL the actor had both legs amputated in 1978 after a car accident involving an 18-wheeler.

[eustacia-vye28.livejournal.com]

Does guest starring roles count? I've been watching a lot of CSI and CSI:NY on Spike HD, and there was an episode of CSI:NY with Marlee Matlin in it. Her entire family was deaf, and they were trying to find who was her daughter's killer. It did bring up the deaf/hearing divide in the hard of hearing community.

I'll try and think of other ones.

[fsop.livejournal.com]

I have one that I didn't see this morning when I browsed, and it's the only one I thought of off the top of my head that others probably wouldn't have said:

Yasha is a JDrama wherein the main character's best friend (from childhood) is blind.

[fsop.livejournal.com]

And noticing in the list, dwarfism under physical disablity, George R. R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series has it with a major character named Tyrion.

[libraryofalexa.livejournal.com]

To add to your list:
movie -- Ice Castles 1978 movie about a champion ice skater who goes blind in a terrible accident and still wants to skate
....hm, I can't seem to find it, but WAY back when I was in Gifted & Talented and we did a whole semester on different disabilities, and one of them was about a gymnast who was born without one arm (so they called her Lefty); we also watched filmstrips on people without both arms and one about a guy who was dating a blind woman so tried being blind for a day (he didn't do so well); there was also one about the people who did the first seeing eye dogs
--done ad nauseum, but The Miracle Worker is actually quite good the first time through
--did anyone mention Rain Man? Autistic Savant

books:
--there's a book that is about the little lame boy who is left behind by the Pied Piper (can't remember its name, though)

----The Secret Garden has a hunchback and a little boy who thinks he's crippled
-----Run, Don't Walk by Harriet May Savitz is about a girl who has become paralyzed from a swimming accident and her initial inability to accept that she has changed
-----"Brock" by Tanya Huff in the anthology Sun In Glory. Brock has down syndrome
---The Brain Ship series by Anne McCaffery. All of the ships have the brain of someone who wouldn't have lived otherwise.

I'm sure there's more, but my brain just went fluffy.

[libraryofalexa.livejournal.com]

Just remembered The Dollhouse Murders where the main character's sister is learning disabled (actual disease not mentioned)

No one has mentioned...

[(Anonymous)]

Jerri on The Facts of Life! ...or am I the only one old enough to remember that? She was fabulous Blair's cousin, but I don't remember exactly what her condition was. Cerebral palsy, maybe?

Your eldest,
N