Disability is Now a Trope, but is that Okay? 30+ Books that Overcome Stereotypes

For example, people with mental disorders and illnesses like dissociative identity disorder, schizophrenia, and the like have a hard time finding media that doesn’t portray them as villains, let alone as people who have nuanced feelings, emotions, and interests. Most of the time, characters with physical disabilities in books have to be the comedic relief to somehow “make up for their disability”, which is entirely why stereotypes shouldn’t exist. It narrows down the possibilities of disabled characters' storylines to these stereotypical plot pitfalls that convey a single narrative, ignoring all the facets that make us uniquely human. It takes away our agency and misconstrues our identity to the idea that we can only be “one thing”, that being a stereotype of said disability.

It also brings about a false sense of awareness about a demographic, because when you are only writing for popularity and not accuracy you may get things about the disorder wrong by perpetuating a stereotype about a disability. This makes it more difficult for able-bodied people to find truthful representation to expand their understanding, which leads to disabled people not being understood or heard because their symptoms don’t match up with what popular media says they are. Symptoms may affect a disabled person differently than they affect the character, so people whose only interaction with said disability was through inaccurate and stereotypical media may think a disabled person is faking it or wrong because they don’t match up with the character they’ve seen portrayed.

Look at the summaries of books to find if they have disability representation, but also look at reviews in order to get an unbiased opinion of how good the representation actually is. Make sure to get reviews from a trustworthy third-party, and prioritize reviews from people who may have the disability or have experience with a disability because someone without could say that it was an excellent book without realizing the representation was poor. Some positive things to look for are reviews that say it has a well-rounded, multifaceted character, or a character-driven novel. If you’re reading fantasy, sci-fi, or an alternate history, try looking in the blurb for “disability being normalized in this society.” In reviews about books featuring disabled characters, look for “I fell in love with the character because they had so much depth”. Disability is not a trope. Whereas “only one bed”  is a plot device, disabled characters aren’t something that should solely exist to move the plot along. Using these phrases helps put more weight on the characters, giving them agency within the story outside of the bounds of their disability.

Some good examples of good and accurate representation will be a novel that brings awareness of diverse experiences and how they can look differently for different people. It will normalize medical experiences and different bodies and abilities. A character will be known for their merit and not just for their disability, making them a more rounded character. The character won’t accept being treated as anything less than [insert word of choice here: human, capable, genius, etc] because they aren’t anything less. The book shouldn’t lean into the “less than” at all, honestly. Outside of the main disabled character, the book would also have supportive friends who are friends past being “helpers” for the disabled character. The cast of characters do not shy away from hard conversations, but they are not the only topics discussed (think of this like a Bechdel test for disability). The most important aspect, however, is a strong character that can stand on their own without the disability because the disability doesn’t take away a strong, well-written personality.

Booktok has been amazing at platforming more diverse stories, but I think that as with everything, it has room to improve. Authors have made it more of a priority to advertise that they write about minorities, disabilities, and cultures, among other things, which is a great start. Content creators have followed their lead and started recommending books that have awareness of diverse experiences and how they can look differently for different people, by recommending books that normalize medical experiences, different bodies, and differing abilities.

Authentic stories that aren’t written to fit a popular mold are also important. Casual diversity is something to be proud of and to incorporate into your stories, but sometimes it toes the line between performative and authentic. A lot of times authentic stories show the grittier side of things along with the joys of life. This way, it can help bring awareness to the tough truth of the matter that being chronically ill and disabled can be a source of difficulty. Authors should focus more on writing stories to start honest conversations about a disability rather than just writing a book focusing on all the good things (and not the bad) just so the reader can stay inside their zone of comfort. I will be the first one to say we need books about disabled joy, but when we do so, it must be authentic and believable; not just glossing over the realities of different disabilities because they aren’t “easy” to read.  

We can’t go into the author’s head and see their intent when writing a book, whether they wrote it for a trope or for authenticity’s sake, but typically one can tell by the writing. The writing will feel lived in, it will embrace the good and bad of the disabled experience, and it feels like the character is a real person rather than just a plot device. For example, Normally, it will be well-loved by those in the disabled community as well, if this is the case. As always, try to read own-voices (written by those who are that race, culture, or share that disability) novels if you can for any genre, but if you cannot, checking for those things may help you weed out the performative authors from those who are genuinely trying to give disabled characters a voice. 

Like my previous article about disability, I want to suggest novels that would be good places to start (or continue) your reading journey. The limits for this section differ only slightly from the article previously, in that it has to have at least 5k ratings, but under 30k ratings, to highlight the more hidden gems. The rest of the limitations remain the same: published in the last 10-15 years, 4 star or higher star rating on goodreads, fiction, and the disability is that of the main character.