Unless my memory fails me, Geordi's disability is only allowed to be relevant within exactly two TNG episodes: "The Enemy" (3x07) and "The Masterpiece Society" (5x13). Both involve identical scenarios: Geordi is forced to interact with someone who is proudly from a eugenicist society, who reacts to the fact that he was "allowed to exist" with shock, and then is saved by him due to his intelligence and his disability aid, his visor, coming in handy.
Their predecessor is of course the iconic TOS episode "Is There In Truth No Beauty" (3x05), in which a blind woman, Dr. Miranda Jones, (played by Diana Muldaur, who also played Dr. Pulaski in Season 2 of TNG,) is the only one capable of interacting with a non-corporeal alien ambassador, whose species appearance makes people go insane. (They are, obviously, called the Medusans. In Star Trek: Prodigy, they're represented by a character who is referred to with they/them pronouns, because why would a non-corporeal alien species have gender anyways.)
As an argument for Disabled people's inclusion in the Sci-Fi Future Utopia, "who says we don't have something to contribute" is not the best, to put it mildly. I think disentangling Worth and The Right To Exist from the act of Contributing To Society is perhaps the first thing you need to do if you want to seriously learn from disabled people and accept and include us. That said, Star Trek was the first attempt at portraying a Utopian Future that explicitly, purposefully included disabled people that I ever came across, and it was (and still is, somewhat regrettably) deeply meaningful to me for this.
Of the two aforementioned TNG episodes, "The Enemy" is by far my favorite. For one thing, Geordi's plot is the primary mover of the episode and takes up half the screentime, unlike "The Masterpiece Society" in which it's relegated to just one scene. For another, it centers around him and a Romulan officer stranded together on a hostile planet, forced to come together to survive. I love that kind of plot regardless of the species involved, but the Romulans are my favorite. From their introduction in "Balance of Terror" (TOS 1x15) to "Eye Of The Needle" (VOY 1x07), Romulans and Humans have a long history in Star Trek of glimpsing the individual beyond the perceived embodiment of a foreign enemy, and finding the potential for friendship. Needless to say I am emotional about this.
However, in "The Masterpiece Society", the character Geordi interacts with, Hannah Bates, is appropriately embarrassed and uncomfortable discussing the fact that he would not be allowed to be born on her world. In "The Enemy", Bochra is uh, much less so. Something I love about Romulans is the over-the-top delivery of their every line, whether it's the unbearably smug faux ignorance and contrition over crossing The Neutral Zone, or their impassioned disdain for Starfleet, they are so much fun to watch. In this case however, you might find Bochra's angry incomprehension over the care of a "defective child" hard to take. Personally I find his crazed energy very funny, but either way I do think it makes their connection more satisfying, in the end.
As for "Is There In Truth No Beauty", going back to TOS, I enjoy that the value of diversity is embodied not just in disability but also in culture. Dr. Jones isn't capable of interacting with Ambassador Kollos only because she is blind, but also because she studied to control her telepathy on Vulcan. A major tension within the episode is that Starfleet asked Spock to coordinate with Kollos first, which she was terribly jealous of. It's yet another example of Spock's difference from his peers creating unique opportunities to connect with various outsiders. Which is one of my favorite elements of his character, and a theme that is well continued in the following series! (I talked about my favorite example of that, TNG's "Tin Man"(3x20), recently.)
In that broader continuing conversation, I think the biggest step-up is that, unlike Miranda Jones, Geordi La Forge is not ashamed of his blindness, and does not try to hide it. He's not insecure that someone else could take his place, he's not defensive over his abilities and the way he is perceived, and in the face of prejudice is weary rather than injured. He has the confidence that makes sense for someone in a society that accepts him, unlike Dr. Jones.
I also genuinely appreciate that he has a perspective that the abled people around him do not have, but benefit from. I found that very real as a teen and I still do. When your existence challenges the norms that are harming everybody, it's hard not to feel crazy wishing everyone could just learn from you. This was the first thing I saw that validated that feeling, even though at the same time, as I mentioned before, it is maddeningly ignorant of what real life disability perspective offers, ie, freedom from the idea of needing to Contribute to be worthwhile. Still, taking the time to make the point that disabled people should be in your utopian future, and that our perspectives have value, has an effect on me. Particularly when in conversation with itself over so many years! Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combinations🖖✨
