#supers and disability

[cripplecharacters]

in a story I'm writing I have a character that uses a cane for instability and pain mostly in his legs. There is no specific diagnosis because it's magic based. But he is a superhero that gets his power from a separate magical force, and the part of the power is to enhance all physical ability strength, agility, ect. So would it a) be reasonable for him to no longer require a cane while in the super hero form and b) be officive or harmful in any way for him to no longer use a cane in those instances? I don't want to make it seem as though you can't be a hero or anything like with disabilities.

Thak you for you time and help!

Hello!

If the power is to enhance these attributes (strength, agility, etc.), then would it just be enhancing what's already there? If so, he'd probably still have these issues with his leg.

Personally, I really wish people would stop taking away their disabled character's disability when they're superheros. I've seen a lot of series do this (especially with magical girls-style heroes) and it's really quite unfortunate to see.

Why can't your character be a superhero with a mobility aid? Especially in this kind of situation, where his main problems are pain/instability -- which don't exactly stop him from being a superhero.

I also think that keeping his disability as a factor when he's a superhero opens the door for far more creativity and world building.

For one thing, you can consider how the world/city would react to having an obviously disabled superhero.

How does the media treat him? Do they tend to take a pitying or inspiration porn angle? Do they treat him like any other superhero? Does it change throughout the story? How does he respond to it?

How does the general population treat him? How about the disabled community in particular? I can't speak for everyone but I've always loved seeing disabled superheros. There's something about seeing somebody with your same problems being powerful that's really motivating/inspiring almost. I imagine that feeling would be increased if the superhero in question was real.

How do his teammates treat him (if he has them)? How do his villains treat him?

Keeping your character disabled when they're a superhero opens the door for all these different considerations, which can lead to some great character development/interactions.

Maybe your character's disabled fans put him on a bit of a pedestal and that's something he has to navigate. Maybe the media starts by talking about him in a pitying way or questioning his use/abilities and changes the tune after he wins a tough battle (though I think it'd be nice to have somebody acknowledge that treating him that way was kinda fucked up either eay). Maybe a villain doesn't want to fight him because he's disabled -- would your character take advantage of that in any way? How would they navigate the situation?

I'd really urge you to have him keep his disability/mobility aid as a superhero. It makes the story far more interesting to actually find ways to navigate the situation rather than take the easy way out AND it would be very refreshing to see a disabled superhero that isn't cured by their superpowers.

I'd suggest taking a look through some of our posts on #disability erasure and #disability negating superpowers as well as the helpful posts linked in our pinned post. There's some on disabled superheroes and navigating disability and superpowers that I think you'll find helpful.

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

[clowns0up-felix]

Sighs and twirls hair …. Jayvik……………. This isn’t fun I am rotting !!!!!

I don’t know man I don’t know I man okay I don’t k now I

I HAVE to stop I am giving myself 1 more arcane post after this and then I have to get back to loz somehow

[coldalbion]

As a disabled person who's loved LEVERAGE and LEVERAGE REDEMPTION since the beginning - for the characters but also the whole ethos of performing acts that help people against crap systems, it's wonderful to be reminded that it springs from reality.

[sunnibits]

just out of curiosity bc some people I know with glasses can just go a few hours or a day without them and be chill but I need them on all the time or I’ll go crazy

[trans-axolotl]

PA DOC Sued for Discriminating Against Person with Disabilities: The Right to AAC in Prison

there was a recent press release from Disability Rights PA about current litigation happening in PA that is trying to ensure that John Topper, a man with Huntington's disease, can access an Augmentative/Alternative Communication device while incarcerated.

Currently, the DOC is denying him all access to any communication aids, forcing him to "communicate by typing notes on a tablet and passing it back and forth with the person he is attempting to communicate with. This tablet breaks frequently, and prison staff regularly prevent him from bringing the tablet with him everywhere in the prison...After returning from the hospital, the DOC denied him a working communication aid for ten days. As a result, he was only able to communicate with psychiatry staff via thumbs up and down gestures."

this has dramatically impacted Topper's wellbeing: " 'This has been such an emotional and mental struggle for me daily. Day-to-day routines are very hard without a means of effective communication and I have to struggle to have my daily needs met,' said John Topper, the plaintiff in the case. "

Topper cannot access healthcare, daily programming, or stay in contact with his family members. Prison staff refuse to provide any forms of communication aids for daily interactions, making it difficult and sometimes impossible for Topper to request things like toothpaste, toilet paper, or other daily needs. This is cruel, harmful punishment that highlights the types of carceral violence that disabled people face while incarcerated.

This lawsuit is suing to get Topper daily and continuous access to an AAC text to speech device. His counsel already bought him this device and the prison has it available, and yet they refuse to give it to him for pointless and arbitrary reasons. They've told Topper he has to choose between a wheelchair accessible cell and a cell with an outlet, they've told him that they were making his current tablet accessible but then said the only accessible adaptation they could add was a screen-reader, which his does not need, and have threatened and taken away his current tablet many times. The cruelty is the point.

It's vital as disabled people that we have solidarity with those most targeted by the state, and that we fight for our comrades currently incarcerated. Prisons are disabling and prisons target disabled people: we need to fight to make sure our comrades can get their needs met, and we need to fight to free them all!

keep an eye on Disability Rights PA and Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project for updates about Topper's case and for any steps the public can take to support him. I've reached out to ask about how to send letters to him/info for his commissary fund; I will update this post when I get more information.

disability justice means free them all!!

[splankie]

is blowing up a volcano after ur first kiss couple goals

[choking-on-ice]

the new Drawtectives ep was a gift from the gods (four new york youtubers) and their characters are the most shitpostable to ever exist ngl

[sonknuxadow]

^ my wheelchair super sonic fanart

[diadraws]

im finally done moving into my stupid new apartment so i drew some symmetry icons of evil fucked up creatures to celebrate

[squarecloud73]

Who's your favourite dungeon meshi character? (not to reduce you to your obsession atm) but i'm intrigued about why you like this character. is it their interactions with others? gay? how they view the world and how it's similar to you? ^#^ thanks

I like every character for different reasons but like, emotionally, Mithrun stood out to me in a way.

At first glance, he appeared to be the angsty pretty character sunken deep into tragedy and vengeance, but that changed when we saw more of him.

After his identity and basic abilities were stripped away, his body and mind betrayed him, but he survived. Just… look at him when he just left his dungeon, he was skin and bones, covered by wounds from self-destruction, barely functioning, but he managed to train himself up, physically and magically more powerful than ever, went back to Canaries and became a captain who is respected even by Cithis.

Kabru’s talk was his last one step to a new stage of life, still, without all the hard work and companionships he previously built with his teammates and families, he would vanish in a pit of despair long ago. When Milsiril found him in front of the broken mirror, when Kabru asked him to search deeper with him, when Senshi gave him that piece of advice, he allowed the sparkle of life to flow back within, eventually, his beauty came out of ashes like freaking Deadpool.

Mithrun proved that leftovers can still be brew into a nice warm soup.

[cripplecharacters]

I have an OC who is blind and has like super hearing but it's not like a fix for their blindness it's actually a not fun thing they have really bad auditory processing issues as well as frequent sensory overload and need accommodations such as needing to wear ear defenders a lot of the time

I don't want to fall into like stereotyping that like sensory disabilities make people's other sense better the OC lives in a world with people with "superpowers" they aren't always helpful or fun so it's more like X men style mutants than super powers but idk how to describe it succinctly there are other disabled characters in the story including a Deaf character (they can fly), a wheelchair user due to POTS and dyspraxia who has super strength, as well as a psychotic person who also can fly.

So my two questions are just is it okay to have a blind character with super hearing if it's not like a magic cure?

Hello!

This is a trope that comes up all the time and it's one that people are constantly trying to subvert. More often than not, they're not successful.

I find that people tend to use the trope as a way to avoid actually writing a blind character, even if their senses aren't a perfect magic cure.

Even if your character experiences side effects from their abilities, they're still falling into the same trope of "blind character with super hearing/super senses". This isn't automatically a bad thing, but I personally find it a bit overdone and I'd love to see some blind characters with other superpowers.

I'd also encourage you to consider why you want your blind character to be the one with super senses. Why not give them a power that's entirely unrelated to their blindness?

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

[wheelie-sick]

I know you did a poll about it awhile back, but I am not sure if I saw what your own definition for it is, so what would you count as a visible disability?

For example, I know some people would say someone with gait differences from say MS would be invisibly disabled since if you looked at a photo of them you might not be able to tell while others would say thats a visible disability

Or some mobility aid users, like people who use canes or wheelchairs, for stuff like POTS or CFS would say they are invisbly disabled since someone isnt able to outright tell why they are using the aid and could think they were faking it, so still count themselves as having an invisible disability, while some mobility aid users will say that the aid alone makes it a visible disability

Was wondering what your own definition of the term was

my own definition of the term is:

visible disability is a disability that can be seen on a regular basis by onlookers.

I keep it very simple because it is kind of complex? like you mentioned, someone with MS who has a gait difference would absolutely be visibly disabled offline but in a photo you won't see that. I do think regularly using a mobility aid makes you visibly disabled. I say regularly because I do not think someone who uses a cane once in a blue moon is visibly disabled, it's just not the same experience. I do think most limb and facial differences make you visibly disabled

but yeah plenty of people occupy an in between space. I have a somewhat broad definition because at the end of the day visible disability is an experience. it's an experience of inescapable high levels of ableism targeted at you constantly.

if your disability is visible enough that you are frequently experiencing ableism because people can see your disability, you are visibly disabled.

[dankgemestho]

Click for detail! My app says I spent 27 hours with this piece open so I hope you enjoy it! I quite like it! This is really the first time I just let myself take my time on a piece.

[summergoodwife]

Honestly refreshed that Nona has a sexuality. That might sound weird because it's The Fucking Locked Tomb of course the sapphic girl has a sexuality. But what I'm talking about is how Nona, when you look past the fantastical causes of her existence, is disabled. She's neurodivergent. She has a lot of support needs. She fits decently well into a mainly pre-teen children friend group. But children and disabled, neurodivergent people and—yes—disabled, neurodivergent children still have sexualities. What that sexuality is can be anything. In Nona's case, it means she likes Crown's boobs and thinks hugging Cam is sexy and wants to spend her life swooning over Pash. I think that's nice.

[choking-on-ice]

ofc my first Smosh fanart is an oil painting of Spike being played by Angela on "Don't Win" lol

[smolstarthief]

Hey, I did previously mention an AU where Viktor gets taken in by Benzo and acts as a big brother to Ekko and later becomes one of the Firelights did I? He doesn't go to the academy either and meets Jayce under different circumstances too (The bridge battle specifically and yeah that'll be rewritten somewhat in a way that Jayce tries to participate or oversees things at first before being forced to intervene himself as he's part of the council by this point). I guess he also awakens as a mage this time without Hexcore interference too? I haven't fully figured it out yet admittedly. ^^;

Just enjoy the edit anyhow! ^_^