The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is a better depiction of disability than most reviews would indicate. It isn't "heartbreaking", or even especially "uplifting". It is, above all, authentic and absorbing. It seems like "Jean-Do" Bauby was absorbed by the experience of his disability, though obviously he also experienced heartbreak and uplift. What keeps him going, as he says in the film, is imagination and, of course, his one good eye.
From the perspective of someone with a disability, I was very pleased to see that for the most part, we are spared splashy temper tantrums from the disabled person, calmed by a scolding non-disabled mentor. One scene suggests this familiar formulation, but steers away at the last moment.
One thing I do wonder about is whether Jean-Do got to know any of the other residents of his hospital. In the film, they are treated as scenery, in a borderline offensive and definitely dehumanizing way.
This is a very "good" disability depiction, in a "great" film.