This past year Nike released a new commercial that was titled “Dream Crazy”. It was intended to send a message, that despite any obstacles or challenges that are presented before you, no dream is big enough to achieve. It featured a wide range of athletes, across many sports and holding many different identities, including students with disabilities. When I first watched this video, I felt incredibly inspired. Seeing these athletes excel within their fields despite hardships they have faced is nothing short of amazing. The commercial was able to accomplish its goal of motivating its everyday viewer. However, now that I have gained a further understanding of disability justice and the issues that plague the disability community, I attempted to view this commercial again, with this new found lens. This time, I was able to point out a number of concerns that were present within the commercial. The most glaring one is the use of athletes with disabilities as a means of inspiration porn, to motivate the “normal” individuals. It also presents there disabilities as obstacles that must be overcome. With this new perspective, this commercial becomes just yet another exploitation of athletes with disabilities.

Athletes with disabilities are often times given this spotlight in the media only when it is convenient for this companies to use them as ways of furthering their brands and marketing. However, this does little to help shed light on many of the everyday struggles that these athletes face in being apart of sports team. From middle school to the pros, there are countless barriers in place that discourage and make it difficult for these students to participate in everyday sports. They are constantly othered as if they are not capable of competing due to their “disabilities”. As an able-bodied person, I don’t have any personal experience with these struggles as I myself never faced them. Through research and learning about the experiences of others I became aware of these issues. I’d be interested to hear more about your thoughts on this, especially from those that have personal experience. Please feel free to comment with your insight below.