Characters With Disabilities

I’ve had a rough morning and I’m a little riled up so here’s my two cents. Repeat: my two cents. I do not claim to speak for or represent the beliefs of everyone with a disability. However, from my experience with others [with disabilities] most would probably feel the same way.

My wife and I settled down to watch a movie the other night – I covered watching movies and how it’s easier at home in a prior blog. It was really a good movie but it kind of pissed me off.

In this movie, it was strongly inferred that if you didn’t have vision or if you were disabled in any other ways, you were obsolete and probably very alone or dead in the very near future. 

You will probably figure out the title by my rant but I’m not going to mention it here but everyone in this futuristic world lives within a virtual reality state because the world has fallen into ruin and that is the best escape that mankind has come up with.

(Side note, I believe that storyline is a vision of our future. Video games have ruined life and the world as we know it. [People] would rather play a game and live in a virtual world than real life. Again, this is my two cents and that’s a separate rant.)

The issue is ‘what about people with disabilities?’ I have reviewed the book that this movie is based on and in some inexplicable way the author lives in some rare location on this planet that there are no disabilities.

This is the only explanation I can come up with based on the fact that the book NEVER references anyone with a disability.

Did they cure all disabilities in the future? Did they just kill us all off because we weren’t able to add to their new virtual world? Or was it, they spent so much time in their perfect world that they totally just forgot about us and we died off naturally because we had to fend for ourselves in the real world that no longer exists.

I guess in this writer’s world we'd be better off dead because it interferes with his futuristic life and the utopian world that he created in his novel.

I don’t understand how this could be overlooked! I’m not just talking about the blind but what about the severely disabled that rely on others for food, medications and other care? What about individual’s that are paralyzed or otherwise physically unable to play the game?

I can’t believe I’m saying this but here we are – “Fuck it! They just need to die off because they have no use in the real world of gaming!”

I am by no means a fiction writer nor do I have the misconception that I have all the answers to fiction novels but...

INCLUDE CHARACTERS WITH DISABILITIES!!! 

No, not “disabled characters”, put your character before their disability but include it nonetheless. People with disabilities exist in real life, out in the world, living and breathing and going about their days in the same spaces as non-disabled people. (Scary stuff, huh kids.)

If you want realism, include characters with disabilities. We’re all around you. I guarantee you know several people with disabilities even if you don’t think of them that way.

I know that there are many times that people have said to me that they forget that I’m disabled because I do so well amongst the non-disabled. I work very hard at fitting in but that doesn’t mean I want to be totally forgotten and left out.

“But a disabled person can’t be a Soldier/Mercenary/Other Badass fighty character!”

If you’re only aware of 'physical disabilities' that completely limit a person’s mobility, you’re not aware of the diversity of disabilities or the mobility aid options and it’s time to do some research.

Peg-leg, bionic eyes, an arm made of gears and pneumatics, I would even accept going as far as magic potions or holistic treatments. Add someone who has a disability but is in remission, after all, it is the future and none of us really know what is in store.

Get. Creative! These people exist and function in the same spaces as your perfectly able-bodied soldiers/mercenaries/various other badasses.

Let’s say, for whatever reason, your hero must be completely physically and mentally "abled." Do you not have medics? Blacksmiths? Ammunition and weapons experts/providers?

What about family members back home that your badass fights for and returns to once a month? What about the bar/tavern/club/restaurant/dining tent your badass regularly visits – are there no servers or cooks or bartenders that they talk to?

Hell, don't you think it’d be fun, and beyond handy, to have a healer who happens to be paralyzed from the waist down in your crew? One who’s constantly cracking jokes about their own condition? Sure they may not fight because your fighters are only perfectly-abled, but damn are they good at the fixing shit up after.

It also doesn’t have to be a sob story or focused on the poor disabled person. People with disabilities can be ridiculous and funny and fun in general and it doesn’t always revolve around their condition.

They will make jokes about their condition and, given the right people, can be joked with about it. “The right people” varies person to person, but I find for the most part it’s close friends and family members who act as strong support and will also joke about things outside of the person’s disability.

For this, you may want to talk to “real life” (Oh my God, They exist?) people with disabilities; seriously, we’re everywhere.

Again, I can’t speak for all of us but I believe many of us would be happy to tell you if a joke/situation is offensive even within the context of goofing around with a friend.

Hell, I even believe that some of us, myself included, would be willing to answer questions from a total stranger if it’s in the name of providing education and support of people with a disability. 

You don’t have to make the story revolve around your disabled character. It’s like, with all characters it happens occasionally and within context. It’s not hard to throw in the realities of living with a disability every few chapters, or whenever relevant.

Lastly, the topic of using the word(s) “disabled/disability” and naming a diagnosis for me isn’t really a big thing. I can understand how it is for some people, but I am very secure in the fact that I am disabled. 

I have accepted it and after all, I am in charge of my feelings. If I let something as simple as a word upset me then it’s my fault, not the writer/person using that word.

If you make it clear that your character has a disability, show the symptoms and the ways in which they cope/manage/adjust to carrying on with their lives, show their ups and downs and condition management, that’s enough for me.

This might be the area that you upset and offend some people. Some might get mad that you used the word ‘disabled’, some might get mad that you didn’t. Some might get upset that you ‘made up’ your own condition; some might get upset that you named a diagnosis and didn’t portray it in a way they felt was accurate. Unfortunately, this is reality and you just can’t please everyone. 

The best advice I can give is, do your research. Do your best to be sensitive and make an informed decision. Ultimately, I don’t think I’m alone in saying I’d rather see characters with unnamed disabilities portrayed in a positive way than not portrayed at all.

I guess I should take my own advice – You can’t please everyone.

        –SP