Prompt: “Create an image of a person in a wheelchair at a football game.”
DALL-E

At first glance, this guy looks like he’s having a great time—but he’s parked squarely in the middle of an aisle. Honestly, some stadiums don’t offer much better options for wheelchair users, even with ADA regulations in place. I watch a lot of NFL games on TV, and I can’t recall ever seeing a wheelchair seating area featured on camera. It’s as if those spaces are hidden in plain sight. That invisibility might help explain why the AI chose to place this guy in an aisle—it reflects what it sees (or doesn’t see) in the imagery it’s trained on.

Then there’s the wheelchair itself: a bulky, utilitarian model typically used for short-term recovery, not something you’d expect from someone with a long-term disability. The oversized jersey numbers on the back are just weird—maybe he’s such a superfan he had his favorite player’s number painted on his chair. But more likely, it’s just another example of how generic, stainless steel wheelchairs dominate visual media, regardless of realism.