#Love how Gabriella is deaf representation

[disabled-dragoon]

Okay!

I'm gonna break this list down into 2 parts. The first part is disabled characters that I personally like. The second part is characters I know of in some capacity. I've also tagged some other character blogs that may be worth checking out.

This symbol 💥 [collision emoji] in the second section means that I have watched/read the series to some degree.

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Characters I personally like:

Hiccup Haddock- Amputee, Prosthetic Leg User- How To Train Your Dragon- Franchise

Kaz Brekker- Cane User, Chronic Limp, PTSD, Touch Aversion- Six of Crows and Shadow and Bone- Book Series, TV Series

Wylan Van Eck- Dyslexia- Six of Crows and Shadow and Bone- Book Series, TV Series

Linh Cinder- Burn Victim, Prosthetics User- The Lunar Chronicles- Book Series (main protagonist of the first book Cinder)

Wu Zetian- Cane User- Iron Widow- Book Series

There is also a character in Six of Crows- Jesper Fahey- with a gambling addiction.

Additional Characters:

💥 So Mun- Cane User*- Uncanny Counter- Kdrama Series *This character does sort of fall into the "powers take away disability" trope, unfortunately, though if I remember correctly that is briefly addressed in the series itself.

💥 Toph Beifong- Blind- Avatar: The Last Airbender- Franchise

💥 Teo- Paraplegia, Wheelchair User- Avatar: The Last Airbender- Franchise

💥 Defying Doomsday cast- Multiple Disabilities*- Defying Doomsday- Short Story Anthology *Here is a link to the Disability Book Archive entry that details all the information on disability representation that I could find.

Dr Gregory House- Cane User, Vicodin Addict, Leg Infarction- House, M.D.- TV series

Charlotte "Charlie" Webber/Sun-Spider- Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Forearm Crutch User, Wheelchair User- Spider-Verse-Comic Book Series

Arizona Robbins- Amputee, Prosthetic Leg User- Grey's Anatomy -TV series

💥 Gabriella- Deaf, Sign Language User- The Little Mermaid- TV series

💥Shoko Nishimiya- Deaf, Sign Language User, Hearing Aid User- 聲の形 | A Silent Voice- Manga, Animated Movie

Dorothy Zbornak- CFS | Chronic Fatigue Syndrome- The Golden Girls- TV Series

💥 Ballister Blackheart- Amputee, Prosthetic Arm User- Nimona- Graphic Novel, Animated Movie

Those are the first character I could think of. I know the list isn't extensive, but it should be a start. I have also been recommended the Kdrama series Daily Dose of Sunshine for mental health representation, and the series Sleep With Me, which is a mini-series from the Philipines, featuring a wlw romance with a wheelchair using main character.

If you would like I could probably also come up with some characters from British soaps.

Some posts to check out:

MM Romance Recommendations: Mobility Issues- Short book list featuring mlm characters who have mobility issues.

Shoujo/Josei manga featuring a disabled protagonist- Short book list featuring manga with disabled protagonists.

Disabled Queer Love in Books- Quick book list I mocked up for someone in January, all about books featuring diverse disabled characters in queer relationships.

World YA/NA Books featuring Disabilities- Book list created by @ya-world-challenge featuring books with disabled characters from around the world.

F/F romances where one of them is disabled- Reddit post asking for recommendations about books with wlw romances featuring disabled characters. This list is quite extensive.

A few disability book recs- Post by @howtobeapersonwithfibro about books they have read featuring/discussing disability.

Disabled books with bi MCs- Post by @the-bi-library. Book list featuring books with disabled, bisexual characters.

Character blogs to check out:

@cannondisabledcharacters @doyouknowthisdisabledcharacter @gay-disabled-characters-showdown

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I hope this has been sufficient for now. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

Good luck!

RB with your favourite disabled characters.

I'm starting @disabledcharacters and need a starting point.

Also, looking for members to create edits (one gifset a month) and help with the queue.

Please message me if you are interested.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

That was a truly fantastic episode.

I am going to miss Jade so, so much. I cannot stress enough what an important character she has been - her centric episode last year was a genuinely groundbreaking piece of television. She has to be one of the very best disabled characters I’ve ever seen, and one of the best characters Casualty has ever had.

What made Jade Lovall matter was that she wasn’t a token deaf character. It informed who she was and had a huge impact on her life, of course it did, but she wasn’t just a walking Very Special Episode. She was a fully-fledged character, with strengths and flaws, who felt joy and anger and despair and every emotion in-between. Her storylines were educational, yet she didn’t exist to educate anyone. Hearing viewers could learn from her, but at the same time, d/Deaf viewers could identify with her. It has been truly brilliant to see.

And of course, a great deal of the credit for Jade’s brilliance goes to the incredibly talented Gabriella Leon. Jade was her first ever TV role, but watching her performances, you wouldn’t guess it! Jade’s centric episode last year, the drink-spiking storyline this year, and her final episode tonight in particular offered some incredible performances.

Gabriella has played Jade to perfection, and I hope this is only the beginning of a long and successful acting career for her. (Personally, I want to see her in Doctor Who. Imagine her as the first deaf Doctor or companion! She’d be fantastic.)

And Jade, as a character, got the perfect ending. I’m glad she left happy and by her own choice, finally finding her place in the world, and reconnecting with her mother too. The last scene with everyone thanking her and saying goodbye was absolutely lovely.

I hope Jade’s groundbreaking character will be the start of more disabled representation on Casualty. We already have a few great neurodivergent characters, like autistic Dylan and bipolar David, but physical disabilities are something that haven’t been represented on the show as much, and disabled actors haven’t been featured - hopefully Jade is the start of that changing. Personally, I think it would be cool if we got a doctor in a wheelchair next, or perhaps a hard-of-hearing receptionist, or a paramedic with a limb difference! Jade has opened up so many avenues for more representation on the show, and I hope Casualty take the chance to embrace that.

As for the episode itself, I thought it was brilliantly written. Katie Douglas is one of the Holbyverse’s best writers, and I’m glad they gave Jade’s last episode to her.

It was lovely to see the show remember Jade and Dylan’s friendship before she left. You have no idea how much I fangirled when we saw at the start of the episode that Dylan had been learning to sign for Jade - I love their disabled solidarity! And I was worried that they’d forgotten him in the last scene, but then he came out to thank her along with everybody else. Thank goodness. :D

I wonder where Stevie’s revenge plot will go from here. She does seem to have a little bit of regret for what she’s doing, yet she still sees it as her only option. It’s getting interesting now. I hope they do make her more morally ambiguous, because downright evil Holbyverse characters tend to be quite boring.

Poor, poor Jacob. My heart was breaking for him tonight. His storyline has been so well done, I’m glad Casualty are putting as much care and effort into it as they are. And seeing Iain as the supportive friend trying to help really works.

The patient storyline was really good, even if in a roundabout way it was technically another “the patient is connected to a staff member” plot. Seeing Jade do her best to comfort the lady with the brain tumour was lovely, and served to show us one last time just what an incredible, intelligent, caring, loving nurse Jade is.

[dent-de-leon]

I’m in college and I personally love TDP. The writing, the characters, the comical moments, I think it’s something that people of all ages can enjoy even though it’s aimed towards kids. Which imo makes a show more memorable. Also Amaya the 2nd deaf character I’ve seen in a cartoon aimed towards children since Gabriella from The Little Mermaid, which I think is super cool (Gabriella was a POC as well)

oh neat I’m happy you enjoyed it :’D And I agree with how it’s something that can appeal to a general audience. Yeah, I honestly don’t remember seeing a character like Amaya in animation myself, so that was definitely a nice surprise and seeing a wider range of representation that’s researched and well executed is always heart warming. Hope you continute to enjoy DP and that there’s lots more of Amaya’s awesomeness to come :’) 

[main-to-card-games-and-pain]

It’s 1 am, I’m bored, and this fight will probably forever be in my life as an Indigenous playwright. So woot I’ve got another counter in me.

First off, POC stands for “person of colour” so I’m a bit confused how there could be a “white POC,” it’s a contradiction. Could you please tell me what you thought it stood for, so I understand your point?

Sebastian had a Jamaican accent. That shit made no sense, I don’t believe there was any discourse from the Danish then. She is also, and I must emphasize this, this time, a fucking mermaid; HER WHOLE EXISTENCE DOESNT MAKE SENSE, SHES HALF FUCKING FISH. But sure, yeah, if you wanna play “it doesn’t make sense” game, maybe if Sebastian made it all the way to Europe, so did Ariel’s distant family, before they conquered the seas or whatever.

Disney controls the source, Disney has decided (rightly so) that Ariel’s race has nothing to do with the character they created. Let’s be honest, if people want ‘the little mermaid’ (because she isn’t even called Ariel in the HCA version) to be close to ‘the original’ she should be in agony the entire time she walks, she should be asked to kill the prince after he marries someone else, and she should then kill herself and turn into seafoam. There is no doubt in my mind this has nothing to do with honouring the source material and everything to do with her being black.

Also, Disney has already canonically established there’s black mermaids, my favourite is Gabriella, who is deaf. (She’s signing “my friend” there.)

And it’s not “fake representation” it’s just representation love. There’s going to be a little girl who gets to look at Ariel and see herself, black or white, because both are still going to exist.

Finally, blackwashing isn’t a thing. I need you to comprehend my words now, and even better, try and understand them. (And if you say those words mean the same thing you REALLY need to go to reading comp. and get a grasp on connotations.) Whitwashing, as I’ve said, is erasing POC representation so a white person could have yet another role. You can’t erase white representation, it’s literally everywhere, my white friends never had a problem with finding themselves in media. Media needs to make room for POC, they’ve hogged it for too long.

yikes I better not get more hate for this;

So I’m sure everyone’s seen who the new Ariel is going to be, and the consequential (stupid!) controversy over her being black. (You go Halle Bailey I’m so hype for the movie!)

I’m seeing a recurring argument, and that argument is “well imagine if they did this for the black panther” which is basically to say “I feel like white rolls are being taken by other ethnicities so imagine if one of the roles representing you were taken by a white person”

WE DONT NEED TO IMAGINE THAT. SIS. POC HAVE HAD THAT HAPPEN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF CINEMA.

I had one ONE instance of representation when I was growing up, Pocohontas. I saw myself in exactly one place and off the top of my head NOW I can’t think of any other indigenous women I had to look up to on screen. (And lets be honest, that movie is only good if you pick and choose which parts to watch and pretend it is any other name than Pocohontas.)

I take a pretty hard stance of whitewashing, and that stance is that it’s never okay.

I’ve heard this a few times too “but you’ve played characters that are white.” Have I though? Have I played a character whose race was so integral to the story, that they had to be white and we just ignored that and put my lil brown ass in? The answer is no.

I have played a part where the character had to be Indigenous though, because the story is about Indigenous struggles; how did I get a role like that in high school you ask? I wrote it. And I would be absolutely PISSED if anyone did my play with an actress who was anything but Indigenous. That part isn’t for you; read the words, appreciate them, but don’t use them until you have an Indigenous actress.

tldr; let POC have their representation, we need it. Also, don’t be mad about a fictional character’s race when it’s not an integral piece to the story.