The feature documentary includes 20 on-screen contributors. 19 are disabled people, and the one non-disabled contributor is a Person of Color. Half of our disabled contributors also live at additional intersections, including race, gender, religion, sexuality, ethnicity, and trans identity.

Main Contributors

Teal Sherer

Teal Sherer is a Seattle-based actor and wheelchair user. In the film, she reflects on her journey through the Hollywood film industry, the physical barriers and stereotypes she has encountered, and her work creating more authentic disability stories, including through her web series My Gimpy Life.

Cherylee Houston

Cherylee Houston is a Manchester-based actor, wheelchair user, and disability advocate. Known for her long-running role in Coronation Street, she discusses inclusive casting, accessibility on set, and her work with TripleC to create more opportunities for disabled people in front of and behind the camera.

Wendy Lu

Wendy Lu is a New York-based journalist who wears a tracheostomy tube. She is an editor at The New York Times and the author of the novel Casting April. In the film, she discusses disability representation in mainstream journalism, newsroom education, and how lived experience can shape more accurate reporting.

Steven Verdile

Steven Verdile is a New York-based disabled media creator and designer. Through his creative projects with The Squeaky Wheel, he explores how humor, authorship, and creative control can challenge ableist assumptions and reshape disability representation.

Cara Reedy

Cara Reedy is a journalist with dwarfism and the founder of the Disabled Journalists Association. A former broadcast journalist, she speaks about leaving mainstream news spaces, building collective power among disabled journalists, and creating structures that support more accurate disability coverage.

Day Al-Mohamed

Day Al-Mohamed is a blind filmmaker, producer, and storyteller based in Washington, D.C. In the film, she emphasizes the importance of disabled people working not only on screen, but also in key creative and production roles behind the camera.

Evan Sweeney

Evan Sweeney (he/they) is a queer disability activist, Sex and Disability Educator, and author of Queers on Wheels who has spent over two decades centering pleasure and autonomy in the disability community. As the founder of Cripping Up Sex and a 2026 Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellow at Brandeis University, Evan advances sexual liberation through accessibility auditing, inclusive workshops, and policy advocacy. In the film, he discusses his experience as a non-verbal content creator.

Cheryl Green

Cheryl Green is a chronically ill, disabled Portland Oregon-based access artist, former filmmaker, and a co-founder of POD Access. She speaks about audio description and explains that accessibility should not be treated as an afterthought, but as an integral part of artistic creation.

Experts

Beth Haller

Beth Haller is a Disability Studies professor and creator of GADIM. Her work focuses on disability, media, and representation, and she brings academic context to the film’s examination of how media portrayals shape social attitudes.

Ngozi Marion Emmanuel

Ngozi Marion Emmanuel is a Nigerian media and disability scholar based in Leicester, UK. Her work includes a toolkit for improving disability representation, particularly in film, and she contributes expertise on how media creators can move beyond stereotypes.

Richard Amm

Richard Amm is a disability scholar based in London. His master’s dissertation developed tools for media creators to improve the portrayal of disabled people in fictional film, offering practical approaches for more accurate representation.

D’Arcee Charington Neal

D’Arcee Charington Neal is a Black queer, actor, disabled scholar, and English professor. He brings an intersectional perspective to the film’s discussion of disability, identity, media culture, and representation. Most recently, D’Arcee appeared in Apple TV’s film, Being Heumann.

Good Practice Examples

Raúl Krauthausen / Sozialhelden

Raúl Krauthausen is a Berlin-based disability rights advocate and founder of Sozialhelden. His work focuses on disability mainstreaming, media visibility, and shifting public conversations around accessibility and inclusion.

Nic Novicki / Easterseals Disability Film Challenge

Nic Novicki is an actor, comedian, and creator of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge. His work supports disabled filmmakers and performers by creating opportunities for disabled-led storytelling in film and entertainment.

Shaina Ghuraya / Superfest

Shaina Ghuraya is a filmmaker, wheelchair user, and Director of the Superfest Disability Film Festival. Her work highlights disability-led film culture and the importance of accessible festivals, programming, and creative spaces.

Allexa Laycock / Rooted in Rights

Allexa Laycock is the Director of Rooted in Rights, a program of Disability Rights Washington that supports disabled people in telling their own stories through media. Her work reflects the film’s larger argument that disabled people must be able to shape the narratives that affect their lives.

Narrator

Karina Sturm

Karina Sturm is the film’s narrator and central guide. As a journalist with a non-apparent disability, she brings a personal and professional perspective to the film’s core question: who gets to tell stories about disability, and what happens when disabled people take control of those narratives themselves?