ASU student a superhero in fight for better disability representation in comics

In the 2000s, when many young people were spellbound by a book series about a wizard named Harry Potter, Maya Sarraf was captivated by comics — specifically those featuring characters like Oracle (formally known as Batgirl) and others with disabilities. 

For a student like Sarraf, who has dyslexia, ADHD and OCD, the comic books were an easy read and more relatable.

These days, the Arizona State University fourth-year student continues to be connected to comics — albeit in a more academic way. 

Sarraf is developing a project centered on the portrayal of individuals with disabilities in comics — an apt undertaking to explore during Disability Awareness Week, March 18–22.

Sarraf’s disability studies capstone project will draw attention to inaccurate, dismissive and stigmatized portrayals of comic book characters with disabilities. 

Sarraf’s study will be coupled with a workshop offering ASU students with disabilities the opportunity to create an entirely new comic series that authentically and respectfully reflects their lives and perspectives. 

The workshop will take place from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on April 10 in room 261 of the University Center Building on the West Valley campus. Students interested in participating can register here.

“Projects like Maya’s are important because they provide insight into how disability is constructed as a social phenomenon,” said Patrick Bixby, faculty lead for the disability studies program in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. 

“They help us to identify the various assumptions that are attached to disabilities by media representations, but also to reconceive or even reimagine what disability means and to celebrate the place of disability culture in our society,” Bixby said.

Part of the impetus behind Sarraf's study is that she doesn’t often see her disabilities depicted in the comics she reads.

“Especially OCD,” she said. “I never see an accurate — well, I shouldn't say never — but there's rarely an accurate representation. That's one of the reasons why I think a project like this is really important.”

Sarraf acknowledges that there are many characters in the comic panels with other disabilities. Marvel Comics' Daredevil is blind, Hawkeye is deaf and Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, is a prosthetic user. In DC Comics, Oracle is a paraplegic.

Sarraf says that the problem with the disabled characters in pop culture comic books is not that they don’t exist — rather that they are represented in ways that reflect attitudes and stigmas surrounding disabilities.

Sarraf discovered a pattern of ignorant and often dismissive portrayals by long-term comic writers without disabilities. 

“Disabilities that are being represented (in comics) are oftentimes inaccurate,” said Sarraf, who is majoring in forensic psychology and minoring in disability studies in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. 

“That can be really harmful rhetoric to a disabled person reading it and a nondisabled person who might start attributing these tropes or stereotypes to the disabled people in their lives,” said Sarraf, who is also majoring in neuroscience at The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Take Oracle, for example. When Batman’s protege was left paralyzed by the Joker, there was a lot of talk about making her a fringe character or writing her out of the script completely.

“Which is harmful language in itself,” said Sarraf, who graduates in May. “(It implies) that disabled characters aren’t included after they become disabled.” 

New writers will often erase the disabilities or try to treat them. In the case of Oracle, authors came up with a chip that miraculously removed her need for a wheelchair.

“The stereotype is that a person with a disability needs to be cured,” Sarraf said. “That either disabled people are not happy with their lives or that they're looking for a cure. That's not necessarily true and yet it's a very prevalent rhetoric.”

Sarraf says there is a lack of knowledge about disabilities among comic book writers who sometimes dismiss or minimize disabilities such as dyslexia and ADHD.

Writers will imply that people with dyslexia “just can’t read well,” or that those with ADHD are just “a little hyper,” Sarraf said.

“But it contributes to this overall mentality of how people view these disabilities, and they're really harmful,” she said. “People just don't understand how difficult it is to take a test, for example — to read a question and understand it. Sometimes I have to read a question 10 times just to understand what I am being asked to do.”

All of this underscores the importance of writers being informed about disabilities. 

“Even if you don’t have the disability that you are writing about, it is really important to be educated about what you are representing,” Sarraf said. 

Sarraf, who currently works as a research assistant in three ASU labs, plans to help with people who share the same disabilities that she has, whether it's OCD, dyslexia or ADHD.

She added a minor in disability studies because there are pervasive ideas about disabilities and she doesn't understand every one of them.

The disability studies program has been offered at ASU since 2019. It showcases ASU’s ongoing commitment to provide current and relevant educational opportunities that ultimately empower students to better serve their community. 

“It’s really important for someone who also works in that field to unlearn any unconscious bias because they are so prevalent in our society,” she said.

That’s why she is working to help create a comic strip written completely by people with disabilities. 

Majia Nadesan, Sarraf’s advisor, says individuals with disabilities have rarely been able to represent themselves.

“Even in films, people with disabilities have historically been marginalized and represented by nondisabled people — like 'Rainman,' for example," said Nadesan, a professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. 

“Those representations, because of their narrowness and incompleteness, have been perceived as amplifying marginalization. So, to counter that, pluralism and sort of self-determination over representations are the antidotes.”

Nadesan applauds the idea of a community of people creating a narrative that will represent others with disabilities in an affirmative way. 

“I think it’s a great project,” she said.

She notes the educational components of the project will enhance Sarraf’s skills in scientific research — collecting data, analyzing it and systematically thinking about alternative kinds of representations — “affirmative representations that don’t just reject but reimagine ways that are more genuine or inclusive,” she said.

“I’m curious to see what the story (of the new comic strip) is going to be,” she said.