#magical accommodations

[shitpostingkats]

5Ds did me such a favor by choosing to canonize that psychics are just. A Thing. A Known Entity. We should all take advantage of this more. Y'all, in this world being able to talk to ghosts is just Not An Uncommon Thing, there are support groups and organizations and some of them can summon monsters into the physical world and some of them can just talk to them and some of them can predict the future, you've got people like Luna who can astral project and Akiza who can conjure plants IN THE SAME show. Let's get funky with it. Post-canon Yuya attending a support group for fledgling psychics. Bakura and Sartorius and Carly are all friends through a tarot enthusiasts' message board. Yuma passing off talking to Astral by telling everyone he can just speak to ghosts. Yusaku taking a u-quiz to see if he's actually magic or just really, really autistic.

[abysskeeper]

They're both idiots, your honor.

[snowshinobi]

nothing gets me like a character with overt flower symbolism ESPECIALLY self-inflicted

[iamnotarobin]

college professors are sooo willing to work with the autistic kid and what do you know they ‘kind of get it because they have adhd’ until the accommodations i need affect them in literally any way

[that-disabled-princess]

What irks me about Elena of Avalor (the show) as a disabled person is that we never see how Christina (the wheelchair user) gets around the palace. She's the best friend of the crown princess' younger sister, and all we see in the palace are stairs. No ramps. No elevators. At all.

Like I appreciate the rep, but. How does she get around.

[clare-with-no-i]

I was thinking earlier about squibs and JKR’s flawed rendering of disability in the HP books — and how, sort of in spite of her, exposition about the anti-squib nature of the magical world might actually serve as a sound allegory for social modeling of disability irl — so I perused the internet and found this really interesting academic article about Filch, Arabella Figg, and the quiet pervasiveness of abeism which underlies the series. 

I particularly enjoyed this passage at the end, which I think really drives home what can be so radically good about fanfiction. highly recommend reading

[waywardsalt]

my recording of finally beating the caelid divine tower godskin apostle :)

[queerstudiesnatural]

the sex education ep about disability rep and accessibility has me bawling on the floor i'm a fucking mess. FINALLY. finally we're talking about this.

watching all the students have a sit-in until the lift gets fixed made me break down crying like oof. ok. yeah 😭

[sociallyawkwardseal]

Okay, so not fanfic/writing stuff but do you ever think of how close Calla and Kody used to be? How sweet and bright and encouraging she was towards him when they were younger? How friendly and warm she was? How they smiled at each other? It makes me want to eat rocks.

[cripplecharacters]

What do you think about a blind character who uses her cane as a magical focus? it's in a fantasy setting where magic is very widespread and works in a variety of ways, mostly based on the channels that work well for the individual. I thought it might make sense for her to use her cane for that, because it would be an object with a lot of significance that she would have around all of the time, but are there problems with it that I'm not aware of?

Also, would it be okay to have spells to give her a sense of an area or tell her where people are? I imagine they would have a limited scope and she wouldn't be using them all the time, so I don't think they would fall under "superpowers that allow the character to see," but I want to be sure. They're space pirates, and I planned for this character to have a fighting role, but I can find another job for her if that's bad. Or she could do that without orienting magic?

Sorry for my several different questions. I don't even know how large of a role this character will play in my story, I just start designing characters and get carried away. thank you have a nice day

Hi! To answer your first question about using her cane as a magical focus, I don’t think there is much inherently wrong with that idea. Personally, I find it more interesting to separate disability and powers, and would more enjoy seeing a blind character whose focus was something completely unrelated to her disability, but I don’t think it’s particularly problematic on its own. The only thing that comes to mind is that it can run the risk of making everything revolve around this characters blindness, so I would personally encourage you to consider who she is outside of her blindness and what other kind of object she might choose. It helps when a disabled character isn’t just disabled as there only predominant feature and has other interests that are reflected in other parts of themselves. Make sure the object she chooses fits who she is as a person, not just what her disability is.

As for giving her spells that would allow her to form a mental image of an area, I would generally advise against that as it does cross into the territory of super powers that negate a disability, giving her a sort of magic vision. Powers that would replace a mobility aid are frequently a little too conveniently powerful and wind up allowing the disabled character to read more like an abled one, erasing big chunks of the disability. It’s often used as a way for abled writers to be able to just write the disabled character the same way they would write an abled character, which can lead to a lot of instances of it feeling like the character is only disabled when it’s interesting or plot relevant or convenient for the author. However, I do very deeply appreciate that you still planned to give this character a cane and not fully replace it with these powers. That is already a huge and awesome thing to see that doesn’t happen often enough.

I think it’s super important to consider exactly how a power like that would convey all the necessary information as well, in order to really understand what benefits might be possible, what the drawbacks might be, and where its limitations are. Often times, powers like this are used as sort of a shortcut to avoid finding out those answers, so I would suggest doing a little more research about what kind of information a blind person can receive already without powers and exactly how a power might provide information that is more useful. Often times, when people come up with super powers or even real life technology that is supposed to provide information to a blind person, it ends up being information that a blind person can already receive pretty easily with their own body and senses.

For example, if she needs to know where people are in a space, people generally make a lot of noise, even if they don’t realize it. Breathing, walking, the shifting around of fabric from their clothes — heck, even if the person is standing totally still, in close range, a blind person who’s already learned how to adapt can usually hear the fact that the air is not very open in that spot and it sounds like someone might be standing next to them trying not to breathe and be caught.

In particular about your character, close range fighting is something that is super easy to do without any augmentation. Plenty of blind people are on wrestling teams in school or blind sports teams with only minor modifications to equipment, and it’s really easy not only to hear where your opponent is moving based on the sound their actual body is making, but also based on the openness of the air and the feeling of air displacement as limbs move about quickly. They might miss a few things here and there, but by and large, physical close range combat is pretty easy to do without seeing.

This topic comes up a lot when people try to design real life technology to tell blind people if their friends are nearby or if there are objects in their paths, because most of the time, your own senses will give you a ton more detail and specificity. Simply hearing a person talking to you will tell you who it is, their exact angle, and a pretty solid estimated distance from you, but technology can often only give you a vague idea such as “left.” But then, in that situation, you are left wondering who is to the left? How far to the left? Are they 3 feet to my left butt 10 feet back? And even if it can tell you in that exact specificity, it often takes several sentences for technology to describe exactly where, and can only tell you about one person at a time, and it’s often faster and simpler to just call out your friends name and hear them respond. The same thing applies with powers, and it’s often a case of “don’t fix what’s not broken.”

Similarly, there are a lot of technologies designed that claim to be able to replace the white cane, such as vibrating tools that buzz when you are near an obstacle. But it cannot tell you what the obstacle is, what size it is, exactly how far away it is, what kind of angle it’s at, or any other super important pieces of information. On the other hand, if you simply touch the object directly with your cane, that alone already tells you exactly where it’s located and what angle it’s at, what material it is, how big it is, and what exactly the object might be, because not only can you feel it directly, but you can hear the way your cane interacts with the material which tells you a ton of information all at once with one single tap. This method is often far more effective and efficient then standing around waving this little buzzing gadget for a minute and a half trying to build the most vague outline of the object.

All this is to say that I think it’s important to consider exactly what kind of information these spells can supposedly provide and ask yourself if it would really be any more effective than regular non-visual techniques. Sometimes there are spells and powers that can totally be useful, such as transmutation spells that might be able to raise printed letters so your character can feel them, thereby acting as an accessibility aid. But more often than not, navigational powers like this often don’t really have any benefits that can’t already be gained in the traditional ways even better. Frequently, the answer turns out to be no, or at least not without straying into disability negating territory.

Other important questions to ask before giving your character a power like this include the following:

How time consuming or energy intensive is it?

In what situation is it not useful?

Does it come with any negative side effects?

How else could the character accomplish this task without the power? How do they do it if they are in a situation where they can’t use the power?

How long has the character had this power and known how do use it? How did they accomplish the task before that?

Would this character actually want powers like this? Does it fit who they are as a person and what their interests are?

I think my final — and possibly most important — point on the topic of spells that would allow her to navigate is to really consider whether or not this character as a person would be interested in those powers, especially if these are her only or primary spells and powers. Too often, disabled characters are given magic or super powers that are conveniently tightly tied to their disabilities, rather than powers that would suit the character, the way powers would be assigned to any other abled character. It’s often fueled by an underlying assumption that of course a disabled person would want to feel less disabled. Of course a blind person would want to see or get as close to it as possible. But in reality, that’s not always the case, and very frequently is not the case at all.

Would this character personally take interest in spells or powers like that? What are her other interests? What other kind of powers would she like to have? What kind of powers might suit her personality better? What method do you use to determine the spells and powers used by your abled characters? Whatever that method is, apply it in the same way to your disabled characters. Allow their character as a whole to dictate their powers, even if the powers you come up with using that method have nothing to do with their disability or are even outright contrary to it. That goes along way toward making a disabled character feel more well-rounded and human and complete, rather than just a living embodiment of disability.

The blind character with blindness accommodating powers is often not just common but the default. If there is a blind character with powers, it is almost always powers that a little too conveniently happened to revolve around hearing or feeling or augmenting other senses in order to negate chunks of the blindness. I have seen hundreds of these characters, but hardly ever have I seen a blind character who can fly or speak to animals or just blow things up with their mind. I would love to start seeing more blind characters who have magic or super powers that have nothing to do with blindness whatsoever but instead have everything to do with the character as a person.

I’m sorry this answer has gotten so incredibly long! I will undoubtedly end up using lots of this to make a more generalized post about giving magic or super powers to blind characters, but I hope it wasn’t overwhelming. Thank you so much for asking this question!

Mod Lane

[exilley]

Its not even that i think self-inserts are bad i think sometimes society coerces our subconscious to want to insert ourselves into materially dysfunctional and bland worlds that have nothing interesting going for them

[thegeekyartist]

It's 2am so I get to be a hater:

I hate crossovers and I ✨hate✨ musical episodes!!

[legolasghosty]

jatp + dnd au? (general fantasy au if dnd isn’t your thing)

Oooo okay anon, thanks for the ask! I'm fairly new to DnD but I shall do my best!

Julie is an eladrin(elvish) wizard(she prefers sorceress though), well known throughout the land for her skills in communing with the dead. Everyone knows her by that reputation, so they visit her tower expecting lots of gothic art and black, only to be surprised by all the plants growing around the space and how light and free the space feels. Her secret to connecting with the dead is to offer them a taste of life through her space and powerful aura.

Luke is a human bard, because of course he is. He met Julie while on a personal quest to 'find his soul' or something like that. After finishing the quest and gaining a new, magical lute, he couldn't get the bright, lively necromancer off his mind, so he went back. They became fast friends and make music together. And Luke maybe writes a lot of songs about Julie(hey he's a bard, it's his duty to praise those around him).

Reggie is a half-elf ranger. Like Luke, he first met Julie while on an adventure. He was assisting another party at the time. But they didn't appreciate his help and expertise and cast him off as soon as he was no longer of use. Alone and wounded, he found his way back to the only sanctuary he'd found on the journey: A tower that balanced between life and death. Julie nursed him back to health and they two became close during his recovery. He still adventures a lot, he's got a fair amount of wanderlust, but the tower and those who live there have become his home.

Alex and Willie found the tower while fleeing a mob that was determined to destroy their 'abominable' union. To be fair, an elven druid and a changeling rogue aren't exactly a common combination. However, the two cared deeply for each other and were willing to risk the wrath of their families to be together. Julie granted them shelter and sent their pursuers off in the wrong direction. The two stayed in the tower for a few weeks, then began constructing their own home nearby. They have a little cottage just a few minutes away from Julie's tower. They also adopted a baby griffin they found. It was hurt and alone, what else were they supposed to do?

Flynn is a human artificer who befriended Julie before she moved out into the middle of the woods. She comes by regularly to swap stories and hang out with her best friend. She is endlessly amused by all the strays Julie keeps collecting. But also she and Willie get along really well, and he starts teaching her some fancy combat stuff. It's not uncommon to come into Julie's clearing to see the pair of them sparring in the open space. Often Julie and Alex are in the garden nearby, working on the plants and chatting and watching them.

This was so fun!!! I'm way too invested in this AU now. I hope that was what you wanted, I... have no idea.

(Send me an AU and I'll give you 5+ headcanons about it!)

[druidgroves]

one of the head canons i have abt dianthe in the early early game is that she primarily sticks to using cantrips (firebolt, mostly) unless she can help it. they're the only spells that don't make her wild magic go off & no one really comments on it except gale, who definitely took notice the first time they had to fight something together. he asks her why, given that she's a sorcerer with a power, innate connection to the weave, & she tells him she's not like other sorcerers who can cast freely without repercussion. she's accidentally set herself & others on fire, turned them into household pets, trapped them in entangling vines, etc. the tadpoles are already a life threatening problem, she doesn't want to add to that !

gale tells her he understands her hesitation, but to give him a day & he'd come up with something that might help. she sees him pouring over his spellbook later & thinks nothing of it until the next time they're in a fight, & he casts grease on a group of enemies, setting her up for the perfect 2-part fireball.

[bichilchuck]

just realized the hells are never gonna get a magnificent mansion unless dorian comes back OR one of them multiclasses high enough into wizard or bard to get 7th level spells. portable hole forever </3

[perenlop]

btw in this hypothetical mlp verse, twilight and sunset will have known each other since early childhood and were both celestias students at the same time