I was born with cerebral palsy, so when people ask me what happened, I get to say that nothing did: Actually, I got lucky. If you found this article helpful, please consider supporting our independent reporting and truth-telling for as little as $5 per month. Or, put another way, it’s incredibly arrogant to assume that the best thing that could happen to me is suddenly turning into you. The Magical Cure is a highly offensive trope, because it undergirds the notion that the greatest thing that can possibly happen to a person with a disability is to become “normal.” The greatest thing that can actually happen to a disabled person, though, is to be fully acknowledged as a multifaceted human being who need never feel ashamed about asking for accommodations that make life easier, or in some cases, possible. “Glee” never answered that question, and I didn’t have time to finish asking it before Devi’s disability was … cured. When I saw her, I had a familiar reaction reminiscent of my decade-old encounter with Artie Abrams from “Glee” (Kevin McHale): “Why can’t an actual wheelchair-user have been cast in this role?” There you are, with a “normal” body, and a “normal” gait, and a “normal” set of effortless abilities that you’ve never thought of as abilities-and then, in a moment, you have to reorient your life completely. Sudden paralysis is a big deal, maybe one of the biggest. Moments into the series premiere, the protagonist of “Never Have I Ever,” Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) ends up in a wheelchair, struck by unexplained paralysis.
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