Disney Is Making A Movie Focusing On A Girl With Cerebral Palsy

Disney+ has announced that it will adapt the Sharon M. Draper novel “Out of My Mind” into a movie in the coming months. Disney Branded Television, Big Beach, Participant, and EveryWhere Studios LLC will work on the project, with Amber Sealey directing a screenplay written by Daniel Stiepleman. Like the novel, the film will focus on a non-verbal, wheelchair-using girl with cerebral palsy named Melody, played by Phoebe Ray Talyor. Melody struggles to find acceptance from her peers and opportunities at school, leading to conflict.

The production team is populated with multiple people from the cerebral palsy community and several experts in augmentative and alternative communication devices, giving the film the authenticity it needs to approach the issues tackled in the plot. Director Amber Sealey hopes that the film will play an important role in disability awareness and inclusion and move ongoing conversations about diversity and disability forward in a positive direction.

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A Controversial Novel

While there are few who argue that “Out of My Mind” was written with bad intentions, many in the disabled community have little praise for the book. “Out of My Mind” was written in 2010 and uses a surprising amount of outdated language, including slurs. Much of the book’s focus is on Melody’s intellectual capabilities, with a persistent theme of “Melody is disabled, but it’s okay because she’s actually really smart.”

Critics have suggested that this seems to promote a system of valuing individuals based on intelligence. The book’s depiction of other disabled individuals (like Melody’s classmate with Down Syndrome) reduces them to near caricatures, while the description of educational support offered to Melody differs significantly from actual programs offered by schools in the United States.

According to the Cerebral Palsy Family Network, as many as 1 in 323 babies born in the United States are diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. This means that the lack of effective educational resources offered by Melody’s school is incredibly unrealistic, as the school and district would likely have educated other children with the same condition.

When combined with the lack of textual challenges to the barrage of negativity that Melody’s peers and even parents direct towards her and her condition, many in the cerebral palsy community have suggested that the popularity of the novel “Out of My Mind” might not have a net positive impact on the treatment of real people with disabilities.

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Moving the Conversation Forward

Unlike the 2010 novel, the script for “Out of My Mind” will be exposed to a complex production process that features many people active in the cerebral palsy and augmented communication communities. This means that the film’s script can evolve beyond the dated and controversial source material.

While it’s not important that the film has a happy ending or that Melody’s peers are all nice to her, having a film where insults and slurs are identified and addressed as not being okay, where Melody is valued because of her humanity and not her intelligence, and where the actual educational opportunities provided to students with cerebral palsy are more accurately depicted will help move social conversations surrounding disabilities in a positive direction.

With the incredibly talented director, screenwriter, producers, and actors who have signed on to the project, this film has a major chance of making big waves and helping people with cerebral palsy everywhere feel valued, accepted, and understood.