[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”B001T5D6LK” locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UsIAjblzL._SL160_.jpg” width=”110″]The first installment of the [easyazon-link asin=”B001T5D6LK” locale=”us”]Twilight[/easyazon-link] saga has a disabled character in a somewhat minor role: Gil Birmingham as wheelchair-using Native American Billy Black, de facto chief of his tribe and good friend of police chief Charlie Swan. Billy Black visits Charlie and his flat screen TV often to watch sports, driving to his house independently in a pickup truck. (He probably has hand controls, though any adaptations he needs are not shown.) Once at his friend’s house, though, he must be hauled up the stairs to get in. Charlie does so with good grace, though any fully grown wheelchair user will tell you it’s a rare friend indeed who will go to such efforts to bring you in for a visit.
According to the series of books, Billy Black became a wheelchair user due to complications from diabetes.
Gil Birmingham has also voiced another disabled Native American character: Wounded Bird in Rango. And Robert Pattinson fans can find him playing a wheelchair user in The Haunted Airman.