I was impressed with a recent Simpsons (“Stealing First Base,” Season 21, Episode 15) that featured a blind student named Kevin. When the two fourth-grade classes had to merge (two students to a desk), Kevin accidentally knocks class bully Nelson Muntz’s lunchbox to the floor. As Nelson raises his fist, Kevin apologizes and walks round the desk, white cane in hand, to pick it up. Seeing Kevin is blind nearly brings Nelson to tears (his sensitivity is among the series’ funniest leitmotifs, e.g. his Andy Williams adoration), and he immediately warns everyone not to mess with him and later blurts to Kevin, “You’re not a freak, and I won’t let you think that about yourself!” When Kevin responds coolly that he doesn’t think he’s a freak, Nelson sobs, “So brave!”

I loved that. Most comic uses of blindness are mishaps and conceptual slapstick that exploit perceived limitations. In the Simpsons’ episode, the ridicule targets that cloying compassion and lavish praise often heaped upon those with visual impairments. When Kevin, on Nelson’s cue, delivers a reticent “Ha ha!” aimed at Bart, Nelson beams, “That was great! That was really great!”

It was great to see a blind person portrayed as ordinary, with the processing of people’s misconceptions and lowered expectations the main stumbling block in an otherwise normal life. The episode is available on Hulu.