‘echo’ reverberates as another winner for disability representation in hollywood
Last night, I watched the first episode of Echo, the just-released Marvel miniseries airing on Disney+, and came away enthralled. I admit to not knowing much of the mythos behind the Maya Lopez character, but decided to check it out mainly because Lopez is a Deaf protagonist. It isn’t every day you see something from a major Hollywood studio feature a disabled person as the lead. It should be noted that besides being Deaf, Lopez has limb differences and uses a prosthetic leg.
Marvel has a trailer for the series posted on its YouTube channel.
I can’t wait to finish the series (it’s only five episodes). I enjoy Marvel material and superheroes—although I’m far from encyclopedic on the MCU—but what was so enthralling about Echo to me was to see someone who looks like me feature so prominently on screen. I’ve felt this way before, as I watched CODA on Apple TV+ and came away gleeful at the opportunity to have watched a piece of entertainment that more or less accurately depicted my own lived experiences growing up as a CODA. It gives me immense, almost unbridled, joy to be able to watch Lopez, played by Alaqua Cox, who’s Deaf, and understand what she’s saying in American Sign Language without needing to rely on the subtitles. What’s more, it’s heartening to see the supporting cast use ASL to communicate with Lopez. All told, whatever plagues the storyline—I, for one, remain perplexed because I don’t know what exactly Echo’s powers are since they weren’t addressed off the bat—the authenticity and earnestness with which the Deaf community is portrayed is damn impressive.
If you’re a reader of my column at Forbes, you’ll know I’ve posted a lot of coverage over the years that sits at the intersection of disability, technology, and Hollywood. That’s what happens when the world’s biggest tech companies decide on leveraging their massive war chests to roll their own streaming video service. I’ve long beat the drum that disability coverage in the news media is piss-poor, what with the penchant to highlight inspiration porn about disabled people “overcoming” our own bodies. Yet on film and television, the tide is slowing but surely turning for the better. Netflix has titles such as Deaf U, Mech Cadets, and All The Light We Cannot See. That CODA won the Best Picture Oscar in 2022, along with Troy Kotsur winning Best Supporting Actor, truly was a watershed moment for disability representation. That Apple carries a host of disability-centric content on its TV+ roster—think the aforementioned CODA and See and the Michael J. Fox documentary Still, amongst others—is a direct reflection of the company’s institutional ethos to make its products accessible to and inclusive of members of the disability community. Whatever one thinks of See as a piece of art and its entertainment value, the fact it so strongly puts blindness at the forefront of the story is not at all insignificant or trivial. It’s something to applaud and to notice, even if the show itself bores you to tears or has glaringly obvious plot holes.
Echo is deserving of being treated much in the same way. It isn’t beyond reproach as a television show, but the representational gains are immensely important. It matters for disabled people.
I’d subscribe to Disney+ just to watch Echo. I highly recommend it.
