For almost 40 years, actress Marlee Matlin has shown how what some may deem a disability can actually be made a strength. Winning the 1986 Academy Award for Best Actress for her stunning turn in “Children of a Lesser God,” Matlin became the first deaf performer to receive such an accolade and quickly rose as a representative for the deaf community at-large, promoting the implantation of closed-captioning and serving as a celebrity ambassador for disability rights with the ACLU. Her film and television career has also continued to flourish, recently taking part in the 2022 Best Picture winning family drama “Coda.” To honor her work, American Masters at PBS commissioned a documentary on her life, but before agreeing to sign on, Matlin had a few stipulations.

“I was approached by American Masters at PBS to do a film about my life and I said, ‘Sure, absolutely,’ and I have, though, one condition that...