In 1985, a little-known proclamation recently brought to my attention by marketing and disability strategist Tari Hartman Squire declared the first “National Disability in Entertainment Week.” Long before hashtags, streaming services, or historic Oscar wins for Deaf actors, the proclamation acknowledged what so many of us had always known: the stories we tell—and who gets to tell them—shape everything from policy to perception.

Forty years later, it is a moment worth remembering, but not for the sake of nostalgia.

It’s the perfect moment to reflect and to ask: How far have we come? And more urgently, where do we still need to go?

Let’s be clear: For most of human history, disability was a diagnosis. That was the only option. A box to check. A medical problem to be fixed. But today, if you ask culturally engaged, community-rooted folks what “disability” means to them, diagnosis has become the least likely response. In its place, you’ll hear words like: history. Constituency. Culture. Creativity. Access. Identity. Pride.

That evolution didn’t happen by accident. It happened because disabled people made it happen—by naming, claiming, and reframing disability on our own terms.

And yet, despite decades of activism, art, and increased visibility, public understanding still lags. Too often, disability awareness campaigns define us by what we’re not: “Not broken.” “Not a tragedy.” “Not a burden.” While well-intended, this negation-based framing actually reinforces the stigma it’s trying to challenge.

Euphemisms like “special needs” and “differently abled” or perhaps the silliest of the lot, “handicapable” might make nondisabled folks more comfortable, but they do nothing to make society more accessible, equitable, or just. They flatten experience, delay progress, and obscure reality.

Here’s the shift I urge you to consider adopting:

We are defined by disability rather than diminished by it.

That’s a net positive.

Here’s why:

Disability fosters and facilitates adaptation, improvisation, and innovation not in spite of, but because of the attitudes, barriers, and nonsense we navigate. That’s not pity. That’s perspective. That’s power.

To put it another way: we’re not overcoming disability. We are becoming because of it.

On Monday, July 28 on behalf of ReelAbilities and in celebration of Disability Pride Month, I return to Turner Classic Movies (TCM) with Eddie Muller to spotlight three classic films that illustrate and celebrate how disability enriches, rather than detracts from, cinematic storytelling: Compensation (1999), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), and Ship of Fools (1965).

This marks my fourth collaboration with TCM, and each time, the goal has been the same: not just to curate films, but to confront assumptions, and celebrate a largely unknown history that is in danger of being lost. Spoiler alert: Disabled people have always worked in entertainment; you just didn’t know it because they couldn’t talk about it for fear of losing their jobs.

Thankfully, that’s changing. We not only can, we do, now.

In many ways, that mirrors the larger arc and necessary progression of disability representation. An anniversary is more than a date on a calendar. If we embrace it, the occasion can also be a rare chance to put the past in perspective, spotlight the strides we’re making today, and collectively imagine a more inclusive future. Whether on screen or in society, disability stories—told with imagination and honesty—have the power to surprise and disrupt, change thinking, shift culture. That’s the work and the opportunity.

So, as we mark the 40th anniversary of a nearly forgotten proclamation that dared to dream bigger, let’s honor where we’ve been, showcase where we are, and build a more inclusive future.

Let’s tell the truth.
Let’s use the words: disabled and disability, loudly and proudly.
Let’s shift the spotlight, raise the bar, and flip the script.
Let’s create a future where disability is embraced as a natural part of human existence. Not feared as a deficit, but valued as an added dimension.

Because the next 40 years?
They start with what we do—and how we show up—right now.

Opinions expressed are solely those of the writer(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Able News at The Viscardi Center and/or The Viscardi Center.