In the May 22nd episode of Andrew Gurza’s Disability After Dark podcast, Ryan O’Connell says that he wants to be like the “disabled Oprah.” “You get a job, you get a job, you get a job,” he tells Gurza. O’Connell is referring to the way he hired disabled actors in the second and final season of Special, a Netflix show he writes, stars in and executive produces. “I don’t know how long I will be in the position to give people jobs and so while I am in that position, I want to give all the jobs … because I know that’s the only way people accrue opportunity and gain power in this society.”

Special is based on O’Connell’s 2015 memoir, I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves, about his life as a gay man with cerebral palsy. The first season, which is made up of eight short-form 15-minute(ish) episodes, premiered on Netflix in 2019 and received three Emmy nominations. In season 2, which was released in May, the episodes are “a luxurious, sexy, full 30 minutes,” says O’Connell on Disability After Dark.

Special explores the complexities of being disabled with honesty, humor and heart. Early in the series, the character Ryan is hit by a car. When his boss assumes his limp and poor hand dexterity is from the accident, Ryan doesn’t correct her. He keeps his cerebral palsy, which is way less accepted in our ableist society, a secret. Special is also celebrated for its authentic portrayal of gay sex. In the third episode of season 1, Ryan hires a sex worker to lose his virginity. The scene is raw and tender and captures a reality that, like disability, is rarely represented on TV and film.

After Ryan comes clean about having cerebral palsy at the end of season 1, he embraces his disability in season 2. He finds community through a disability support group called the Crips — who are planning their upcoming event Crip Prom. Nicole Lynn Evans, who has roles on NBC’s Superstore and Freeform’s Good Trouble, plays Natalie, one of the Crips. “When I booked the job, it was such a huge moment for me,” says Evans, who has osteogenesis imperfecta, a brittle bone disorder. She is also a little person. “I see so much of myself reflected in Ryan’s character, like his journey of learning to accept and love his disability.”

Though it was shot during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, filming Crip Prom was a highlight for O’Connell. “It was so amazing not to be the minority in a room for once,” he tells Gurza. Evans agrees. “We were all dressed up and had so much fun. It was great to be on set working with so many talented actors with disabilities,” she says. “Everyone was tested for COVID and had PPE. I felt safe.”

While Netflix has no plans to make more episodes of Special, there is no denying the impact it has had on expanding disability representation. “Ryan pushes the envelope so much but even pushed it again when he said I am going to have people of different ethnicities and disabilities in the second season, and I want them to be celebrated,” says Andy Arias, who has cerebral palsy and is an actor. Arias also works on national policy for people with disabilities and facilitates United Spinal Association’s Rolling with PRIDE LGBT+ monthly discussion group. “Special is opening a door for people like me, who are Latinx, disabled and gay.” Arias’ favorite scene in season 2 is when Ryan hooks up with a guy that fetishizes his disability. “I love how they handled that storyline. Devotees are something we talk about within the disability community, but we never see it represented in entertainment.”

O’Connell tells Gurza that he hopes Special motivates other disabled people, if they are creative, to work on their own projects and know that their voice has value. “I hope, I hope, I hope that the conversations around disability continue to deepen and people continue to see us as multifaceted, complicated, amazing people. And give us fucking jobs,” he says.

In the meantime, O’Connell has no plans to slow down in his quest to bring disability to the mainstream. He sold a show to HBO Max called Accessible about group of disabled teenagers at boarding school. If it gets made, it would feature a mostly disabled cast. O’Connell also wrote a novel during quarantine, Just by Looking at Him, about a gay disabled television writer who falls down a rabbit hole of sex worker addition. It is being adapted into a movie that O’Connell would star in.