#ambulatory wheelchair rep

[chronicallydragons]

I’m going to try to submit a short story to an anthology for the first time this weekend and I wrote a genderbent Robin Hood with a chronically ill maid marian who’s also an ambulatory wheelchair user and an archer and I planned to make both Robin and Marian aspec like me and was going to end up in a QPR and/or an ambiguous relationship but it’s *definitely* sapphic

Anyway I love it so much and low key want to turn it into a full novel someday. I’m also so nervous to submit it 😅 but I made a mood board so I’m gonna share it!

[youngchronicpain]

Don't mind me I'm just crying because I'm reading a fantasy novel with a main character that is an ambulatory wheelchair user (who also uses a prosthetic leg) with chronic pain. This is the first time I've read something like this outside of my own stories.

"In truth, Kissen's leg still ached, it always ached, but it was better than when they arrived. The wheelchair was a blessing. She wasn't used to it and kept wanting to jump up. But it was a relief to be able to rest her hips."

- Hannah Kaner, Godkiller

[flintbian]

There's a disabled angel in good omens 🥺

[maxbutnotcaulfield]

Okay so like, months ago, @blusthings drew Chloe with crutches and I was like "omg omg I love it gotta do it too"... And then I did, and hated the results and never posted it, lol. And a few days ago I found the sketch again and went "let's actually finish this".

And in the end it doesn't look that bad! Anyway, here are my headcanons :

In this AU, Chloe definitely zooms as fast as she can as soon as the ground is flat enough (Max has to run after her and it Chloe thinks it's the funniest shit). She's into skateboard, and she sometimes skates using her crutches for support, but she's actually saving up to buy herself a sports wheelchair specifically to skate, and she's already learned some tricks. She's a badass, and quite similar to the Chloe we know and love <3

[its-just-hyper]

“According to moth I seem to take arms as a personal insult” okay don’t give yourself that much credit. Legs also!!!

you can always give your blorbos mobility aids btw . you can always make them disabled its always morally correct

[yak-leather-whips]

So I haven’t seen anyone mention it, but I personally am so pleased with how they’ve treated Lydia in this last episode. I know a lot of people were worried about the idea of her being magically cured, thus eliminating one of the only pieces of disabled rep we have in the series. I was so glad to see her not only very much still in her chair, but talking openly about the process of going to PT and how her son is supporting her in the healing process. Like, even as Brennan goes out of his way to say she looks healthier and isn’t having her energy drained, and as they talk about her beginning the process of healing, possibly even someday moving from being a full time wheelchair user to an ambulatory user, she isn’t just magically healed and her disability eliminated, it remains a part of her.

[nagichi-boop]

Gerald’s Journal - Disability representation

I read scans of Gerald’s Journal and I have to talk about it. Not the lore or anything like that, but the disability rep. I didn’t expect to cry reading this.

Please don’t look at this post if you don’t want to be spoiled about what’s in this journal. If you do want to read it, you can find scans here. Credit to this Twitter/X thread for the images I’ll use.

I don’t have much to say about this image, but it is nice to see Maria using a mobility aid. It’s not often we get representation for an ambulatory wheelchair user.

I do wonder about Maria’s relationship with her parents. They weren’t happy with Gerald’s wish to bring her to the ARK so that he could research a cure for her, but they let her go anyways? Maybe Gerald got some sort of order to get her to go or Maria decided she wanted to go with him, but it seems a little odd to me. I’ll expand on this a little later.

Quote from right page: “[Maria] is growing into a lovely young woman. It breaks my heart that someone as bright and energetic as her is diminished by disease. There are no visible effects, and I’ve caught my fellow researchers muttering to each other, doubting her illness. It is infuriating. I find all my reason and restraint vanished when she’s slighted.”

Oh my days, I’ve never felt so seen by a piece of media and it just so happens to be my special interest video game. I am tearing up again thinking about this. Maybe that’s silly but to have a character express his frustrations about people doubting the invisible disability of his grandchild is so touching. I wish people in my life were more like Gerald. People with invisible illnesses get doubted so much because we “look fine”, but it’s so invalidating to have your struggles questioned just because the symptoms aren’t as visibly obvious.

Quote from left page: “[Maria] doesn’t know the full scope of what [Shadow] has been designed for, but she understands he will be under tremendous strain. She’s helped me conceptualize a number of accessories that will help focus his power and aid in his mobility.”

So we now have confirmation that Shadow’s air shoes and inhibitor rings are akin to mobility aids. I headcanoned this but I didn’t know they’d flat out confirm it like that. My favourite character is canonically disabled physically (and I’d argue mentally given his PTSD). I don’t have much to say about this besides being happy that my favourite character is now even more relatable.

It also makes a lot of sense for Maria to help create them because she has experience with her own disability and can offer a perspective that an able bodied person couldn’t. That and it makes Shadow’s connection so much stronger. His mobility aids were designed by Maria. He didn’t just help her with her disability - she helped with his. He wouldn’t be able to function without what she and Gerald created for him.

Quote from the right: “Back on Earth [Maria’s?] parents have been blessed with another little girl. They’re already run tech(?) and she has none of the genetic markers like to [Maria’s] condition. While this was welcomed news, the unspoken commentary was received loud and clear.”

(I am assuming they’re talking about Maria’s sister, but I guess they could also be talking about her cousin.)

So did Maria’s parents see their new daughter as a replacement? If I’m reading that correctly, it’s so sad. Do you think Gerald told Maria about her sister/cousin? If she did know about it, I bet she was excited to meet her. But I get the feeling that her parents back home didn’t really care about her anymore given what Gerald says in his journal. It hurts that much more when you consider how much Maria wanted to go home, perhaps even return to her family.

I feel like all of this makes Maria’s death more tragic for both Gerald and Shadow. For Gerald, he did so much reason and sacrificed so much in order to try and find a cure for Maria. He supported her when no one else did. And from his perspective, despite her illness and the judgement of others, including potentially her own family, she was still positive. And yet she was killed, and he only found out about her death because of a report that had her name on it (I think anyways?).

From Shadow’s perspective, she is the person who gave his name meaning. Despite most being distant and weary of her, she was immediately friendly to him and helped teach him about the world. She helped created the devices used to reduce his pain and control his powers. He quite literally carries part of him with her. She was his sole reason for existing for a long time. And despite being this super supportive, kind, loving person, she was killed. I can imagine him being mad at Gerald for messing with his memories, but I figure there’s a degree of understanding, even if he doesn’t fully agree with what Gerald did. The difference between them both is Shadow’s purpose shifted beyond Maria while Gerald’s did not. Anyways, I digress - this post is about disability rep, not Shadow lore.

I love this and Dark Beginnings for their direct and indirect disability rep. My love for Shadow and Maria has only grown and I have a deeper appreciation for Gerald. I wish more people were as understanding as he is towards people with invisible disabilities.

I don’t really have a conclusion. I just really wanted to yap about the journal entries.

[saiyan-druid-art]

Give me more canon Arthur lives AUs!! Arthur dealing with chronic illness, not having any clue when, or if, he's gonna die. Arthur as an ambulatory wheelchair user. Arthur dealing with ableism. Arthur still trying to be the one to care for Charles instead of the other way around. R* gave us some good chronic/terminal illness rep, we have so much to explore!!

[iamyouknow-yours]

I just finished watching the 3rd special with my best friends and I cannot express how much Shirley Anne Bingham means to me.

She's a fucking great character.

Her wheelchair has weapons in it are you kidding!!!!! (Ep 1)

She's an ambulatory wheelchair user! (Ep 1, non-paralysed, crosses her leg & Ep 3, she stands up)

She never explains what her disability is or why she can walk.

The portrayal of how abled people just do not consider disability at all was done so well, it wasn't awkward or forced. (Ep 1)

Ableism was condemned as being nonsense in Kate's Toymaker-induced speech. (Ep 3)

Her outfits are iconic (the costumes in these eps were Excellent).

THE RAMP! I know that wasn't explicitly her but stilllll it was so important. And it's related.

Legit my only complaint (about her/the disability rep) is there wasn't more of her and also that she was just like no need to apologise, to Kate. When like. Yes there is. Even if it was alien induced, I would still want an apology. It was public ableism.

Anyway, overall: representation done fucking right.

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

hmmm. You know. I think Brain could’ve been really interesting as a disabled character

I’ve made a post before with the concept of him being visually impaired, and others in the khux community have thought about this kinda thing before with Brain (and other characters) too! With some thought, I think him having some type of physical disability could make sense in canon, and would have been really cool disabled keyblade wielder rep

Here we have this keyblade wielder who rarely ever summons his keyblade (by extension, being someone who doesn’t fight often, but can fight nevertheless since it’s practically required for anybody living in Daybreak Town) and isn’t questioned when he designates himself as the member of the group who stays in the base. He’s good with tech and crafting and research, yes. But maybe he also can’t be out in the field for too long, and feels more comfortable contributing where he can sit when he needs to and doesn’t need to exert too much physical effort on a day to day basis.

In fact, this is the guy who’s sitting down in like 75% of his cutscenes. This is the same guy whose walk animation tends to look a bit slower as well, like when he arrives at his seat at the same time as Ven even though Ven’s was farther away. Plus he’s the only one to hold onto the table as he takes a seat, maybe to steady himself (seen below)

This is the guy who says “Thought I’d be the last to arrive. Guess I’m not so lazy after all.” in one of his first scenes. With the lens of disability, I like to interpret that as him making an offhand joke or expressing a bit of self-deprecating humour for being physically slower in general, or both. And it’s quite interesting, because even though he says that, almost everything Brain does after this scene shows that he’s incredibly hardworking and determined. He doesn’t give himself enough credit, or he’s playing things close to the chest, or he’s matured into someone who strives to do better.

Maybe he has chronic pain. Maybe he’d be an ambulatory wheelchair user, and/or a cane user. Making all sorts of cool mechanical additions to them, and finding ways to make the Daybreak tower more accessible (he’s a big fan of the gear elevators!)

I dunno, I’m starting to ramble here. tl;dr I just think it would’ve been so awesome to have disabled rep with Brain, and in kh in general. If anything, khux allows us to say that keyblade wielders come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and that should include disabled wielders as well

[cy-cyborg]

So I was watching an episode of the mentalist because I remembered an early episode featured an example of a trope I'm planning to talk about, but it's been years and I wanted to jog my memory.

And my God I don't think I've laughed so hard at bad disability rep in a long time, i actually started to cry from laughing so hard. I don't think the writers of this show have ever even so much as looked at or been in the vicinity of a wheelchair user and oh my God it shows 😂

Perp 1: *holds a gun to the back of perp 2 who is pretending to be in a wheelchair to get through a train station unnoticed*

I'm sorry, what? I can not even go to the train station in my wheelchair without a staff member, at least one member of the public and usually at least one child approaching me. Wtf was that plan? You know what, if they'd fake claimed the guy using that logic I might have let it slide because that's a plan only able bodied people would come up with lol

___

Jane (main character): I bet they didn't even check your references

Perp 2: nothing says trustworthy like a wheelchair

oh fuck, I missed that memo! Can someone tell that to the recruiters/employers in my area? I think they missed it too (legitimatly, I once heard a recruiter on Tik Tok say they won't hire wheelchair users because they always "end up making something and suing us for discrimination" and im fake-claimed every time i leave the house because im young, which this guys was too, but yeah, nothing says trustworthy and inconspicuous like a wheelchair lol)

___

Perp 2: 6 months I was in that chair and no one questioned me! Why did you?

What world is this because it's certainly not the real one. You're telling me he somehow avoided being fake-claimed for 6 months? Even casually? No little old ladies came to yell at him for being a young person in a wheelchair? No one asked if he really actually needs it? I'm a bilateral amputee and even I don't escape fake-claiming, and I have no legs!

Jane: I've been looking at the feet of people in wheelchair users (that's really weird dude lol) for years and your shoes are scuffed, that's what gave you away!

I...do I need to explain this one? Even my non-ambulatory friends have scuffs on their shoes from transferring and bumping into shit (he does that like 5 minutes before this scene too), and ambulatory wheelchair users exist. This was such a ridiculous reason that even the TV tropes entry about how this episode uses the faking trope has a snarky comment calling this reasoning BS. It only does it on one other entry that I saw and it's to refer back to their previous snarky comment about this show lol.

___

This was 10 minutes. It wasn't even the whole episode, it was like the second to last scene 😂

Also, I'm just curious where this guy faking needing a wheelchair got a high-end, custom made wheelchair from? You cant just buy them, they are fitted to you by a specilist. Even if he did find one to just buy, the brand he has was worth about $1,000 to $2,000 USD at the time this aired. I hope this scam was going to pay well lol. Every other show from this era put their wheelchair users in cheap hospital chairs, why is the guy who's faking the one time you make an exception to that?

[packcoventhing]

Some of the physical disability rep in me and @romeave-wives-club's rewrite because lets face it the lack of disability rep in MCD is unrealistic and even in MYS it was still "how do you know so many people and not one of them has a physical disability??"

[this isn't all of it, but it's some of it]

So, excluding the two entirely new OC characters because look they may be self inserts but Aph herself was one

Zane in both MCD and MYS has troubles with his balance, so, walking stick. In MCD he has this fancy and sleek one, while in MYS it's covered in stickers and paint and no that's not a pinkie cake sticker what do you mean. He's blind in one eye, in MCD it was from a relic incident and in MYS it's the infamous snowball incident. He finds it too much of a hassle to have it uncovered, that fucks with his perception of things more than it helps. He's also immunocompromised in MYS, which I thought was canon but now that I'm thinking about it it was never said in canon that he still gets sick a lot.

Laurance was partially blinded upon his return to the overworld, while Ungrth took the blunt of the void burns- he got a nasty one covering his entire left eye. It healed, slowly, but it left his vision severely blurry and hazed over with a dark-tinted film. He pulled a Zane, covering it with his hair or an eyepatch, for a while. But eventually that stops, and he adjusts to it the best he can.

Aaron was fully blinded when his village was wiped out, he was also very soon after turned into a werewolf. He can make out levels of light if the change is extreme enough, but that's about it- lets his hair cover his eyes, or a blindfold, just because the light tricking him into seeing movement was more of a hinderance in battle than a help. (Post S6 in MYS he's also blind, and either has a white cane or a service dog (or both) to help him around)

Post MYS S6, Travis is an ambulatory wheelchair user! He switches between his wheelchair and crutches, but if he's out and about he's probably in the wheelchair.

MYS!Aph has a walker, when she first got it she went over to Zane's house arms filled with stickers and "dragging" my OC along and the three of them had a hangout of just decorating their mobility aids

They're both background/more minor characters unfortunately, but both Nana's sister Shi and Blaze's sister Adira are deaf!

Some additions

Aaron has died 10 times over and will not stay in the ground, he has some form of chronic pain and will probably join the mobility aid crew at some point

Hayden uses a walking stick because yes

also there's a plethora of mental disabilities ranging from learning disabilities with Blaze's dyspraxia, all the meif'wa being autistic (this comes from the theory of cats not being able to be diagnosed with autism because they're all autistic, and you can pry this out of my cold dead autistic hands), dissociative disorders like MYS!Gene with chronic dissociative amnesia and Travis with DID

and more!

[otterloreart]

I was thinking about how the seapony magical girl levitates as default because I couldn't think of another good way for her to get around, which moved my mind over to the topic of wheelchairs and if she were a wheelchair user. I like the idea of a magical girl whose wheelchair transforms as part of her outfit (if it's an extension of her body it should change too after all)

I felt like this idea probably isn't a /good/ one, at least in this context, so I did a little bit of reading trying to find wheelchair users' opinions about this topic. It's one of those things where I felt vaguely uncomfortable with it but couldn't pinpoint why persay.

I found this post discussing positive disability rep and I think the sticking point is that it seems very plot-convenient that the seapony main character also happens to already have a useful wheelchair for her transformation. I also generally feel like having her transform into a legless magical seapony might have some negative implications or be trope-y. After all, I reverse-engineered wheelchair idea from her not being able to walk in seapony form.

Most of the other advice discusses the exact disability, doing research on it to properly represent it, etc. My idea for the wheelchair route would be that she's an ambulatory wheelchair user/has some use of her legs, but I don't have anything more specific than that. Maybe her disability could sort of tie in with her magical water abilities; my understanding is that people with chronic pain, joint issues and some other conditions can sometimes swim as a safe form of physical exercise. So she could particularly enjoy being in water regularly for that reason. But I'm not actually sure if that is actually good representation, or it ties in too well?

Anyways, I'm not planning on actually making the takara ponies into a story, but I was exploring these concepts and I wanted to post the concept art and ask other people their thoughts.

If anyone feels like offering their opinion on the ideas in this post, please feel free to comment.

[isolophilian]

i think the wheelchair girl (supposed child of Apollo?) in episode 2 & 3 is implied to be an ambulatory wheelchair user because if I'm not wrong i think she stood up to shoot an arrow at the stuffed hydra. even if she isn't, im thrilled to have some wheelchair user rep in the show

[tacticalhimbo]

remaking this post with info because i looked into it. probs should have done this first but anyway-

IF SHE HAS NO DEFENDERS I AM DEAD.

so fucking tired of dudebros and losers who hate anything that isn't a walking blowup doll. like. the ableist and misogynistic chuds just really need to shut up about things.

inb4 "jason this is the chud game" i know... let a man dream okay i like my dumb little shooter.

i've seen so many braindead ass threads about "well xyz has this tech and it's possible to gain the ability to walk" like... ok. and? above point aside:

1) we don't know if she's ambulatory (meaning she can walk/run/etc, but not all the time)

2) she may also just. not. want to? people love to see disability as a curse that needs to be fixed. people are perfectly happy with their wheelchairs and other aids (e.g., canes, walkers, braces, glasses, etc)… let people live

not to mention it's licherally explained in the canon lore available on ubisoft's own website (re: the evals they write for every operator)

The reception to Specialist Kure “Skopós” Galanos’ return has been mixed. Some are in awe at the very mention of her name; others are wary of her former proximity to Deimos and Nighthaven. There are also whispers about the wheelchair.

I [Gustave “Doc” Kateb] will admit, I too was a skeptic. Despite her endorsement by the Council, it was my task as Captain to confirm her field readiness. Setting aside her legendary status among the ranks of Rainbow, and the nature of her separation from the immediate dangers of the battlefield through her Shells, any number of physiological and psychological issues could have impacted her performance. […]

I found a quote about Galanos in Rainbow’s archives: “[...] her piercing gaze does more damage than her bullets”. Nothing has changed. Although she understood the reasoning behind my questions, it felt like she had taken ownership of the interview by its conclusion. She produced journals, cataloguing all nine operations she underwent and the rehabilitation periods that followed each. From the moment she received confirmation that her C5 vertebra could tolerate high-intensity training, she dedicated herself to returning to active duty, though it didn’t sway the critics.

Galanos told me that she’s gotten used to the scrutiny, and that GSAC and Aurelia Arnot were especially demanding in their assessment. Their initial recommendation had been that she stick to lab work and engineering, but after a brief closed-door session she was given a full endorsement to return to active duty. I have followed suit. Operator Galanos is here to stay, and I am convinced that she is among our best. […]

As her Captain, I have access to privileged information regarding the nursery bombing in Bratislava and the incident three years later in [REDACTED]. Descriptions of the events alone were distressing, and participating in just one would have challenged my resolve. How Galanos navigated these traumas shows fierce determination that I can’t help but be in awe of, but I do worry about her inevitable reunion with Deimos. She had believed Morris to be dead, and they were well known to have been close friends. Now that she knows the truth, what will she do when she sees him again? […]

surprise surprise, disabled people are capable of doing things! people who frequent high combat environments and have been disabled as a result can, often, still do the things they did!

granted, i know these same "dei is ruining our games" chuds don't read things that aren't tweets by their favorite alpha male loser... but anyway.

people love to see disability through the lens of uselessness. why? because disabled people aren't people to these losers... or to these companies, really.

with her being an operator, there are valid curiosities to have regarding her mobility and how things work, but that's just something we're going to have to wait and see about.

because do y'all really think ubisoft is going to put that much effort into their representation? there is no way they're going to rework every single map to ensure mobility. i would be flabbergasted if they did. realistically, that's not something they'd ever do. it's not something any big company has shown an inkling of consideration. why? because disabled people are seen as props, not people.

my guess is her chair is more advanced than shown in the teaser, and it's likely given the confirmed gameplay with her bots that she'll either just be limited to the objective spawn area (re: an invisible barrier over stairways)

but then you also have the people looking at her and calling her a man, or outright transphobic slurs, because... she's an older woman with actual facial features. an older greek woman with older facial features.

she's stunning regardless of if she's cis or trans (and frankly, i think we should have more trans operators. i love osa and i love tubarão. and i love my personal headcanons of transmasc!thatcher and transfem!iq). she's just a normal ass person, like any of the other operators.

[pidgwin]

i love love love that not only have we got gorgeous disabled rep in doctor who, we also have ambulatory wheelchair user rep!!!