Game of Thrones author George RR Martin spoke about accessibility at the Media Access Awards in 2013. He stressed the importance of characters with disabilities, and how these characters play a role in his larger story.

We have to start thinking of each other as people. All of us have goodness in us. All of us have evil in us. We’re all great characters in the real world. Everybody has done things that they’re ashamed of in their life, everybody has done things they’re proud of. This is true of whatever state we are in as human beings. We all have that common humanity. That’s what I’m striving to do, to remember that all the characters are human too.