#disabled character list

[sparrow-orion-writes]

Eli ask time!! (bc I'm not sure who else you got that's disabled, but feel free to correct me and I wanna hear about them too)

♿❤️🦿💤

~ M <3

So I have a few disabled OCs so let's start with that, because that's technically an ask:

Neon Glow:

Eli (rheumatoid arthiritis, gout, eczema)

Ari (gout, rosacea) (Autism)

Neptune (Anemia) (PTSD)

April (Anemia, Anorexia) (borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, C-PTSD) (ADHD)

Cardinal Sins:

Roman (ADHD, C-PTSD)

Mercury (PTSD)

Sasithorn (Suffers from panic attacks where she can't remain corporeal and goes nonverbal, PTSD)

Released:

Mallory (He dislocated his shoulder and crushed his arm in a work accident) (psychosis, depression, paranoia)

Kieran (Fibromayalgia, chronic fatigue) (Depression, social anxiety)

Those are the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

Anyway, onto the rest of the ask:

♿️ - What is their disability? What symptoms do they show? Be as specific or as vague as you want

Eli has rheumatoid arthiritis that affects his entire body, but is particular harsh on his legs. He also has gout which mostly flares up in his hands and makes it difficult to grab and hold things as his joints will swell up. His eczema causes him to scratch - sometimes until he bleeds but he does have some pretty effective cream for this.

❤️ - Would they have any advice for someone else struggling with their disability?

"Know your worth, know your limits, and enforce your boundaries - don't take shit from people who don't know shit, and they never know shit."

🦿 - Do they know anyone with the same disability as them? Are they close?

So Ari has gout too, but it's concentrated to his hands, and they're brothers. I assume there are other people with any and all of his disabilities.

💤 - How would/will they cope with their disability worsening?

Unlike Ari, Eli is smart, he knows when to rest. He struggles to ask for help though - much to Alicia's (his wife) chagrin. He tends to rest in bed when he has flare ups, and will walk around the house (or possibly to the end of the street) just to keep some semblance of movement. He's a restless person, and he gets bored really quite easily (much like Ari), so if he has the mental space, he'll also work from some catching up on paperwork. He's been disabled his entire life, so even though he can get frustrated and outright angered, he always tries to approach it from a divine-intervention standpoint, IE, this is me being told I need to rest my body and take care of myself.

[disabled-dragoon]

The Disability Library

I love books, I love literature, and I love this blog, but it's only been recently that I've really been given the option to explore disabled literature, and I hate that. When I was a kid, all I wanted was to be able to read about characters like me, and now as an adult, all I want is to be able to read a book that takes us seriously.

And so, friends, Romans, countrymen, I present, a special disability and chronic illness booklist, compiled by myself and through the contributions of wonderful members from this site!

As always, if there are any at all that you want me to add, please just say. I'm always looking for more!

Edit 20/10/2023: You can now suggest books using the google form at the bottom!

Updated: 31/08/2023

Articles and Chapters

The Drifting Language of Architectural Accessibility in Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, Essaka Joshua, 2012

Early Modern Literature and Disability Studies, Allison P. Hobgood, David Houston Wood, 2017

How Do You Develop Whole Object Relations as an Adult?, Elinor Greenburg, 2019

Making Do with What You Don't Have: Disabled Black Motherhood in Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, Anna Hinton, 2018

Necropolitics, Achille Mbeme, 2003 OR Necropolitics, Achille Mbeme, 2019

Wasted Lives: Modernity and Its Outcasts, Zygmunt Bauman, 2004

Witchcraft and deformity in early modern English Literature, Scott Eaton, 2020

Books

Fiction:

Misc:

10 Things I Can See From Here, Carrie Mac

A-F:

A Curse So Dark and Lonely, (Series), Brigid Kemmerer

Akata Witch, (Series), Nnedi Okorafor

A Mango-Shaped Space, Wendy Mass

Ancillary Justice, (Series), Ann Leckie

An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon

An Unseen Attraction, (Series), K. J. Charles

A Shot in the Dark, Victoria Lee

A Snicker of Magic, Natalie Lloyd

A Song of Ice and Fire, (series), George R. R. Martin

A Spindle Splintered, (Series), Alix E. Harrow

A Time to Dance, Padma Venkatraman

Bath Haus, P. J. Vernon

Beasts of Prey, (Series), Ayana Gray

The Bedlam Stacks, (Series), Natasha Pulley

Black Bird, Blue Road, Sofiya Pasternack

Black Sun, (Series), Rebecca Roanhorse

Blood Price, (Series), Tanya Huff

Borderline, (Series), Mishell Baker

Breath, Donna Jo Napoli

The Broken Kingdoms, (Series), N.K. Jemisin

Brute, Kim Fielding

Cafe con Lychee, Emery Lee

Carry the Ocean, (Series), Heidi Cullinan

Challenger Deep, Neal Shusterman

Cinder, (Series), Marissa Meyer

Clean, Amy Reed

Connection Error, (Series), Annabeth Albert

Cosima Unfortunate Steals A Star, Laura Noakes

Crazy, Benjamin Lebert

Crooked Kingdom, (Series), Leigh Bardugo

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots, (Series), Cat Sebastian

Daniel, Deconstructed, James Ramos

Dead in the Garden, (Series), Dahlia Donovan

Dear Fang, With Love, Rufi Thorpe

Deathless Divide, (Series), Justina Ireland

The Degenerates, J. Albert Mann

The Doctor's Discretion, E.E. Ottoman

Earth Girl, (Series), Janet Edwards

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, Emily R. Austin

The Extraordinaries, (Series), T. J. Klune

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, (Series), Trenton Lee Stewart

Fight + Flight, Jules Machias

The Final Girl Support Group, Grady Hendrix

Finding My Voice, (Series), Aoife Dooley

The First Thing About You, Chaz Hayden

Follow My Leader, James B. Garfield

Forever Is Now, Mariama J. Lockington

Fortune Favours the Dead, (Series), Stephen Spotswood

Fresh, Margot Wood

H-0:

Harmony, London Price

Harrow the Ninth, (series), Tamsyn Muir

Hench, (Series), Natalia Zina Walschots

Highly Illogical Behaviour, John Corey Whaley

Honey Girl, Morgan Rogers

How to Become a Planet, Nicole Melleby

How to Bite Your Neighbor and Win a Wager, (Series), D. N. Bryn

How to Sell Your Blood & Fall in Love, (Series), D. N. Bryn

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites, Joy Demorra

I Am Not Alone, Francisco X. Stork

The Immeasurable Depth of You, Maria Ingrande Mora

In the Ring, Sierra Isley

Into The Drowning Deep, (Series), Mira Grant

Iron Widow, (Series), Xiran Jay Zhao

Izzy at the End of the World, K. A. Reynolds

Jodie's Journey, Colin Thiele

Just by Looking at Him, Ryan O'Connell

Kissing Doorknobs, Terry Spencer Hesser

Lakelore, Anna-Marie McLemore

Learning Curves, (Series), Ceillie Simkiss

Let's Call It a Doomsday, Katie Henry

The Library of the Dead, (Series), TL Huchu

The Lion Hunter, (Series), Elizabeth Wein

Lirael, (Series), Garth Nix

Long Macchiatos and Monsters, Alison Evans

Love from A to Z, (Series), S.K. Ali

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses, Kristen O'Neal

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

The Never Tilting World, (Series), Rin Chupeco

The No-Girlfriend Rule, Christen Randall

Nona the Ninth, (series), Tamsyn Muir

Noor, Nnedi Okorafor

Odder Still, (Series), D. N. Bryn

Once Stolen, (Series), D. N. Bryn

One For All, Lillie Lainoff

On the Edge of Gone, Corinne Duyvis

Origami Striptease, Peggy Munson

Our Bloody Pearl, (Series), D. N. Bryn

Out of My Mind, Sharon M. Draper

P-T:

Parable of the Sower, (Series), Octavia E. Butler

Parable of the Talents, (Series), Octavia E. Butler

Percy Jackson & the Olympians, (series), Rick Riordan

Pomegranate, Helen Elaine Lee

The Prey of Gods, Nicky Drayden

The Pursuit Of..., (Series), Courtney Milan

The Queen's Thief, (Series), Megan Whalen Turner

The Quiet and the Loud, Helena Fox

The Raging Quiet, Sheryl Jordan

The Reanimator's Heart, (Series), Kara Jorgensen

The Remaking of Corbin Wale, Joan Parrish

Roll with It, (Series), Jamie Sumner

Russian Doll, (Series), Cristelle Comby

The Second Mango, (Series), Shira Glassman

Scar of the Bamboo Leaf, Sieni A.M

Shaman, (Series), Noah Gordon

Sick Kids in Love, Hannah Moskowitz

The Silent Boy, Lois Lowry

Six of Crows, (Series) Leigh Bardugo

Sizzle Reel, Carlyn Greenwald

The Spare Man, Mary Robinette Kowal

The Stagsblood Prince, (Series), Gideon E. Wood

Stake Sauce, Arc 1: The Secret Ingredient is Love. No, Really, (Series), RoAnna Sylver

Stars in Your Eyes, Kacen Callender [Expected release: Oct 2023]

The Storm Runner, (Series), J. C. Cervantes

Stronger Still, (Series), D. N. Bryn

Sweetblood, Pete Hautman

Tarnished Are the Stars, Rosiee Thor

The Theft of Sunlight, (Series), Intisar Khanani

Throwaway Girls, Andrea Contos

Top Ten, Katie Cotugno

Torch, Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Treasure, Rebekah Weatherspoon

Turtles All the Way Down, John Green

U-Z:

Unlicensed Delivery, Will Soulsby-McCreath Expected release October 2023

Verona Comics, Jennifer Dugan

Vorkosigan Saga, (Series), Lois McMaster Bujold

We Are the Ants, (Series), Shaun David Hutchinson

The Weight of Our Sky, Hanna Alkaf

Whip, Stir and Serve, Caitlyn Frost and Henry Drake

The Whispering Dark, Kelly Andrew

Wicked Sweet, Chelsea M. Cameron

Wonder, (Series), R. J. Palacio

Wrong to Need You, (Series), Alisha Rai

Ziggy, Stardust and Me, James Brandon

Graphic Novels:

A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability, (Non-Fiction), A. Andrews

Constellations, Kate Glasheen

Dancing After TEN: a graphic memoir, (memoir) (Non-Fiction), Vivian Chong, Georgia Webber

Everything Is an Emergency: An OCD Story in Words Pictures, (memoir) (Non-Fiction), Jason Adam Katzenstein

Frankie's World: A Graphic Novel, (Series), Aoife Dooley

The Golden Hour, Niki Smith

Nimona, N. D. Stevenson

The Third Person, (memoir) (Non-Fiction), Emma Grove

Magazines and Anthologies:

Artificial Divide, (Anthology), Robert Kingett, Randy Lacey

Beneath Ceaseless Skies #175: Grandmother-nai-Leylit's Cloth of Winds, (Article), R. B. Lemburg

Defying Doomsday, (Anthology), edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench

Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, (short story) (anthology), Seiko Tanabe

Nothing Without Us, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson

Nothing Without Us Too, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson

Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens, (Anthology), edited by Marieke Nijkamp

Uncanny #24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, (Anthology), edited by: Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Dominik Parisien et al.

Uncanny #30: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy, (Anthology), edited by: Nicolette Barischoff, Lisa M. Bradley, Katharine Duckett

We Shall Be Monsters, edited by Derek Newman-Stille

Manga:

Perfect World, (Series), Rie Aruga

The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud, (Short Stories), Kuniko Tsurita

Non-Fiction:

Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education, Jay Timothy Dolmage

A Disability History of the United States, Kim E, Nielsen

The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes beyond Access, David Gissen

Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism, Elsa Sjunneson

Black Disability Politics, Sami Schalk

Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations: The Pursuit of Love, Admiration, and Safety, Dr. Elinor Greenburg

Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure, Eli Clare

The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Disability, Barker, Clare and Stuart Murray, editors.

The Capacity Contract: Intellectual Disability and the Question of Citizenship, Stacy Clifford Simplican

Capitalism and Disability, Martha Russel

Care work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Catatonia, Shutdown and Breakdown in Autism: A Psycho-Ecological Approach, Dr Amitta Shah

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays, Esme Weijun Wang

Crip Kinship, Shayda Kafai

Crip Up the Kitchen: Tools, Tips and Recipes for the Disabled Cook, Jules Sherred

Culture – Theory – Disability: Encounters between Disability Studies and Cultural Studies, Anne Waldschmidt, Hanjo Berressem, Moritz Ingwersen

Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition, Liat Ben-Moshe

Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally, Emily Ladau

Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Disability Pride: Dispatches from a Post-ADA World, Ben Mattlin

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From the Twenty-First Century, Alice Wong

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space, Amanda Leduc

Every Cripple a Superhero, Christoph Keller

Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation, Eli Clare

Feminist Queer Crip, Alison Kafer

The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Growing Up Disabled in Australia, Carly Findlay

It's Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability, Kelly Davio

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

Language Deprivation & Deaf Mental Health, Neil S. Glickman, Wyatte C. Hall

The Minority Body: A Theory of Disability, Elizabeth Barnes

My Body and Other Crumbling Empires: Lessons for Healing in a World That Is Sick, Lyndsey Medford

No Right to Be Idle: The Invention of Disability, 1840s-1930s, Sarah F. Rose

Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment, James I. Charlton

The Pedagogy of Pathologization Dis/abled Girls of Color in the School-prison Nexus, Subini Ancy Annamma

Physical Disability in British Romantic Literature, Essaka Joshua

QDA: A Queer Disability Anthology, Raymond Luczak, Editor.

The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability, Jasbir K. Puar

Sitting Pretty, (memoir), Rebecca Taussig

Sounds Like Home: Growing Up Black & Deaf in the South, Mary Herring Wright

Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms, Ilana Jacqueline

The Things We Don't Say: An Anthology of Chronic Illness Truths, Julie Morgenlender

Uncanny Bodies: Superhero Comics and Disability, Scott T. Smith, José Alaniz 

Uncomfortable Labels: My Life as a Gay Autistic Trans Woman, (memoir), Laura Kate Dale

Unmasking Autism, Devon Price

The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe, Ellen Clifford

We've Got This: Essays by Disabled Parents, Eliza Hull

Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life, (memoir) (essays) Alice Wong

Picture Books:

A Day With No Words, Tiffany Hammond, Kate Cosgrove-

A Friend for Henry, Jenn Bailey, Mika Song

Ali and the Sea Stars, Ali Stroker, Gillian Reid

All Are Welcome, Alexandra Penfold, Suzanne Kaufman

All the Way to the Top, Annette Bay Pimentel, Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, Nabi Ali

Can Bears Ski?, Raymond Antrobus, Polly Dunbar

Different -- A Great Thing to Be!, Heather Alvis, Sarah Mensinga

Everyone Belongs, Heather Alvis, Sarah Mensinga

I Talk Like a River, Jordan Scott, Sydney Smith

Jubilee: The First Therapy Horse and an Olympic Dream, K. T. Johnson, Anabella Ortiz

Just Ask!, Sonia Sotomayor, Rafael López

Kami and the Yaks, Andrea Stenn Stryer, Bert Dodson

My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay, Cari Best, Vanessa Brantley-Newton

Rescue & Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship, Jessica Kensky, Patrick Downes, Scott Magoon

Sam's Super Seats, Keah Brown, Sharee Miller

Small Knight and the Anxiety Monster, Manka Kasha

We Move Together, Kelly Fritsch, Anne McGuire, Eduardo Trejos

We're Different, We're the Same, and We're All Wonderful!, Bobbi Jane Kates, Joe Mathieu

What Happened to You?, James Catchpole, Karen George

The World Needs More Purple People, Kristen Bell, Benjamin Hart, Daniel Wiseman

You Are Enough: A Book About Inclusion, Margaret O'Hair, Sofia Sanchez, Sofia Cardoso

You Are Loved: A Book About Families, Margaret O'Hair, Sofia Sanchez, Sofia Cardoso

The You Kind of Kind, Nina West, Hayden Evans

Zoom!, Robert Munsch, Michael Martchenko

Plays:

Peeling, Kate O'Reilly

---

With an extra special thank you to @parafoxicalk @craftybookworms @lunod @galaxyaroace @shub-s @trans-axolotl @suspicious-whumping-egg @ya-world-challenge @fictionalgirlsworld @rubyjewelqueen @some-weird-queer-writer @jacensolodjo @cherry-sys @dralthon @thebibliosphere @brynwrites @aj-grimoire @shade-and-sun @ceanothusspinosus @edhelwen1 @waltzofthewifi @spiderleggedhorse @sleepneverheardofher @highladyluck @oftheides @thecouragetobekind @nopoodles @lupadracolis @elusivemellifluence @creativiteaa @moonflowero1 @the-bi-library @chronically-chaotic-cryptid for your absolutely fantastic contributions!

---

Submit a Book:

[tolik-pawlusz]

Soooo i open commissions

Recently i ran from one of my jobs so i need money to live with enough food. I am chronically ill and my body refuse to work physically (or even just standing for more than an hour), lol.

WARNING! I am in russia. I am a pacifist and i don't support what i don't support, but i needed to warn you.

Payment through boosty donations (boosty.to/olivie_de_axel)

[iapetusneume]

So, a friend was venting about this in the Discord Server, and the result was an interesting discussion about disability in 40k. And I don't know how much it might have been originally purposeful, but I do know that later authors have definitely explored how characters interact with the world and with disability.

To ignore disability in 40k is to miss a huge aspect of the setting and it's characters.

In the grimdarkness of the future, you'll probably lose a body part.

There is a post somewhere on Tumblr that talks about how, if you need glasses/contacts/surgery to see properly, you have a disability. And there were a lot of people who were upset by this, saying that it was so common, how could it be a disability? But they're right - glasses or contacts are disability aids. A simple one to use, sure, but it's still an aid.

I bring this up because in our current day and age, needing glasses/contacts is not considered unusual. You don't see someone with glasses at the grocery store and be like "omg what is even going on."

And I feel like this attitude is to any sort of prosthetic/augment in 40k. There's definitely a discussion to be had about the quality of the prosthetic/augment, and how that can show class differences (which is very much a common theme in 40k), but their existence and seeing people with them is not unusual.

There are also many parts of the narrative that does deal with the issues that arise from this. Maintenance, malfunctioning, replacement, sometimes phantom pain. There are a few people whose bodies reject the prosthetic/augment, and so their disability becomes more severe.

It is also brought up that, in more idyllic sci-fi, this is less visible. There can be many reasons for that. I think it was part budgeting reasons that in The Empire Strikes Back Luke's hand looks so surprisingly like skin. I'm sure part of that inspiration came from the desire to not want to have to deal with an extra costume issue for the future.

I wonder how often in live-action sci-fi that this was done. Or throwing a glove on a hand like Luke does in Return of the Jedi to hide that his fake skin on his hand was damaged.

But Warhammer started out with written descriptions and drawn illustrations, which gave a huge amount of freedom to imagining how the world would look. They were only limited by a writer's ability to describe a scene, or an artist's ability to draw it. There wasn't the restrictions of what practical effects could do for live action, or budgeting, or Actual Physics. Prosthetics/augments could be wild and crazy and common.

Time has gone on. We now have animated episodes and so many video games, and characters having prosthetics/augments are a part of the setting. At this point, it would honestly feel weird to look at a group of people (and this includes space marines out of armor) and not see at least a few people who have something.

It's as common to us as wearing glasses, and it sure as hell ain't virtue signalling.

[sunrisevariant]

yeah so i wasn’t ignoring your messages. yeah no that was a nice post you sent me. yeah yeah yeah. really cool art. but they gave mithrun a normal fucking eye again so i have to mentally go outside and chain smoke an entire carton of cigarettes in a torrential downpour now. yeah no it’s cool. yeah. yeah sure send me another cool cool cool

[cripplecharacters]

what conditions can cause muteness / a permanent inability to speak? i have this old oc i'm remaking who i, at the time, just kinda made mute....without any reasoning behind it, but now that i'm reworking her character, i'm looking for an actual reason for it. it's a permanent 24/7 thing for her, so it's not selective mutism or anything like that...i'm struggling to find an extensive list of causes for her muteness. thank you in advance for answering.

- ⚰️⚰️⚰️

Hi!

There is a lot of reasons why someone might be unable to speak, they can be developmental, neurological, anatomical, etc.!

Some reasons could include;

Autism

Intellectual disability (and all the syndromes that come with it, so potentially thousands of options?)

Stroke, cerebral palsy, TBI, etc. (though most of the time it's not so much inability to speak, but rather the speech not being understood by others)

Expressive aphasia

Vocal cords paralysis/nerve damage (can be traumatic, or due to illness like multiple sclerosis)

Mouth and oropharyngeal cancers

Myotubular myopathy

Spinal muscular atrophy (type 1)

Having a Tracheostomy tube

Cerebellar mutism

Apraxia

Myasthenia Gravis

Of course the disabilities above will also have other symptoms that you should include as well:-) but hopefully one of them works for your character!

If you have more questions, feel free to send them!

mod Sasza + mod Rot

[bambiraptorx]

teenage mutant ninja turtles more like disabled mutant ninja turtles am i right

[tavyliasin]

Disability Pride Month and BG3!

It’s Disability Pride Month! And you know what that means, right? No? Well it has been ages and I’ve long been casually planning a series of short (maybe) essays around the parallels to disability - and the clearer disability representation - throughout Baldur’s Gate 3 in both the characters and the story. So what better month than this to finally work on them and bring them out?

Whilst I do have some personal lived experience with disability, this doesn’t account for every type of condition or all the ways that different disabilities affect so many of us. Two people with the same condition can have quite a different lived experience, and even the condition itself can vary significantly. So what I mean to say here, loves, is that if you have a differing opinion, or there’s something I’ve missed, or you’d just like to add your thoughts - please do just that! 

I welcome hearing from all of you about how you relate to the game through your own lived experiences, and what the characters can mean to you. Representation isn’t always clear, but honestly I think when we look closer we can see parts of all kinds of experiences reflected through the characters and story. So, what I intend to do is create a series of essays, looking in depth at the potential parallels we can see in each of the main companions that I’m most familiar with (unfortunately I don’t know Minthara well enough to include her in this, but I would welcome input from others!) and then perhaps some of the other characters. (Edit - all pieces completed for now, next year I may add more!) These pieces are not meant to be diagnostic in any way, or claiming “this character has this illness”, but instead is a look at how the characters and their stories and details can be similar to real world disability and health, and how different people might find ways to relate to their experiences through this.

Links to the Disability Discussion Posts

Karlach - Terminal Illness (Completed) Wyll - Sudden Physical Change (Traumatic Incident) (Completed) Gale - Chronic Illness, Autism (Completed) Astarion - Complex Needs, Specialised Diets, and Addiction (Completed) Lae’zel - Ableism, Eugenics, and More Neurodiversity (Completed) Shadowheart - Memory Difficulties, Depression, Fluctuating Chronic Pain (Completed) Halsin - Carer Fatigue and The End Of The Path Of Healing (Completed) Gortash - Invisible Disability and Visible Mobility Aids (Completed)

--- I'm not sure how quickly I'll get through posting these as I'm having a tough time with my own physical health right now - isn't that ironic? - but I do intend to get through at least this list by the end of July in between fic writing and other projects.

If you would like to suggest other characters, storylines, or disability related topics in BG3 please let me know! I'd love to hear how you all relate to the game and the characters from these angles too, and I might be willing to add things to this list if I can.

Lia's Disability Experience

As a little peek behind the curtain (and for full disclosure that I'm not an abled person here to talk over disabled experiences) without giving you too much of myself on the single plate, my lived experience is with an unpredictable chronic pain condition as well as a few other chronic illnesses and disability issues. I'm a wheelchair user, partially ambulatory (essentially I can shamble around in my home with assistance but outside the house I rely on my wheels), and my most prevalent symptom is constant pain. I have made vague references to these things in a few works and the experience does provide me with some fic inspiration for a couple of works. I'm far too familiar with Loviatar's embrace, but I feel this is something that can be used to my advantage at times like these where I can examine the characters and storylines from angles that abled people might not consider.

Your Input!

I really would love to hear from all of you - what other characters do you feel reflect some of the lived experiences of disabled people? Are there any that you connected to? Did you find the game was accessible for you to play as a disabled person? What do you wish you saw more of in the game or in games in general? This month really is an important one for awareness and understanding, as well as finding things in ourselves to be proud of that don't fall into the categories of "inspiration porn" or the kinds of internalised ableism that can drive some of us to push too hard to work against our conditions instead of with and around them leading to more issues.

Remember - The Disabled Community is the one minority that anyone could become a part of at any time. Advocating for our rights could also be advocating for your own future or that of a loved one.

[thedisabilitybookarchive]

Disability in Books: Disabled Lesbian MCs

[ID: A poster. Large black text reading "Disabled Lesbian MCs" is in the centre. Above it, to the left, smaller black text reading "Disability in Books". The background is a straight diagonal version of the Disability Pride flag. In the upper right corner, the logo for the Disability Book Archive. In the lower left corner, the Lesbian Pride flag. /end]

[ID: The same poster. The flag and logo have shrunken slightly in size. The title has been removed, replaced with three book covers and some text. The first cover is "10 Things I Can See From Here" by Carrie Mac down the left hand side. Black text listed next to it reads "Anxiety", "Addiction (SC)", "Contemporary", "Romance", "Canada", "Bisexual SCs" and "Young Adult". The second cover is "Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything" by Justine Pucella Winans and is in the upper right corner. Black text listed next to it reads "Anxiety", "Contemporary", "Myster", "Transgender SCs", "Non-Binary SCs", and "Young Adult". The third cover is "The Degenerates" by J. Albert Mann and is in the lower left corner. Black text listed next to it reads "Club Foot", "Down Syndrome", "Historical", "1920s USA", "Young Adult" and "Multiple POV". /end]

[ID: The same poster. The book covers and text have changed. The first cover is "The Faithless" by C. L. Clark. Black text listed next to it reads "Adult", "Cane User", "Chronic Pain", "PTSD", "High Fantasy", "Series" and "2nd Bisexual MC". The second cover is "Harrow the Ninth" by Tamsyn Muir. Black text listed next to it reads "Adult", "Schizophrenia", "Science Fiction Fantasy", "Horror", "Series" and "Necromancy". The third cover is "Honey Girl" by Morgan Rogers. Black text listed next to it reads "Adult", "Anxiety", "Depression", "Biracial MC", "Japanese-American LI" and "Romance". /end]

[ID: The same poster. The book covers and text have changed. The first cover is "The No-Girlfriend Rule" by Christen Randall. Black text listed next to it reads "Young Adult", "Anxiety", "ADHD (SC)", "Romance", "Contemporary", "Comedy" and "Fat MC". The second cover is "Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl" by Brianna R. Shrum. Black text listed next to it reads "Young Adult", "Autism", "ADHD", "Romance", "Contemporary" and "Jewish Characters". The third cover is "The Second Mango" by Shira Glassman. Black text listed next to it reads "Young Adult", "Severe Food Intolerances", "Fantasy", "Romance", "Series", "POC MC" and "Magic". /end]

[ID: The same poster. The book covers and text have changed. The first cover is "The Outside" by Ada Hoffman. Black text listed next to it reads "Adult", "Autism", "ADHD (SC)", "Science Fiction", "Horror", "Space Opera", "Series", "Asexual SC" and "Genderfluid SC". The second cover is "Everyone in this Room Will Some Day Be Dead" by Emily Augustin. Black text listed next to it reads "Anxiety", "Addiction (SC), "Depression", "Contemporary", "Canada" and "Transgender SC". The third cover is "How to Become A Planet" by Nicole Melleby. Black text listed next to it reads "Middle-Grade/Young Adult", "Anxiety", "Depression", "OCD (SC)", "Non-Binary Questioning LI", "Contemporary", and "Astronomy". /end]

❤️🤍🩷❤️🤍🩷❤️🤍🩷❤️🤍🩷❤️🤍🩷❤️🤍🩷❤️🤍🩷 ❤️

[22 heart emojis, alternating between red, white and pink]

A short collection of books featuring disabled lesbian MCs!

I missed lesbian visibility week, and I wanted to post this on Saturday but my internet decided to die a fiery death over the weekend so I am very very late on everything. Hopefully this begins to makes up for it!

Books on this list:

❤️ "10 Things I Can See From Here"- Mac, Carrie

🤍 "Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything"- Winans, Justine Pucella

🩷 "The Degenerates"- Mann, J. Albert

❤️ "The Faithless"- Clark, C. L.

🤍 "Harrow the Ninth"- Muir, Tamsyn

🩷 "Honey Girl"- Rogers, Morgan

❤️ "The No-Girlfriend Rule"- Randall, Christen

🤍 "Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl"- Shrum, Brianna R.

🩷 "The Second Mango"- Glassman, Shira

❤️ "The Outside"- Hoffman, Ada

🤍 "Everyone in this Room Will Some Day Be Dead"- Augstin, Emily

🩷 "How to Become A Planet"- Melleby, Nicole

Every book on this list and more can be found in the disability book archive!

Happy Browsing!

[fromtheseventhhell]

I don't think anyone who believes Arya is focused on revenge has ever actually read her chapters, it's just been one long game of telephone where people repeat a take they heard so they can pretend they know what they're talking about

[cherry-pop-elf]

Master List ✍️

((WIP duh))

Fluff: 🩷

Angst: 💔

Smut:🫦

Disability’s: ♿️

Platonic: 🫂

Hurt/Comfort: ❤️‍🩹

Triggering Topics:❌

Violence/Gore: 🔪

Weasley Siblings

Nickname Headcanons 🩷

Muscle Spasms Headcanons 🩷♿️

Reacting To A Tattoo Inspired By Them🩷

Baking Headcanons🩷

Safe This Night ❤️‍🩹🩷♿️

Kissing The Siblings 🩷

Reaction To SelfHarm ❤️‍🩹♿️💔❌

Reaction To Agere 🩷

Amortentia 🩷

Reacting to you saying you are pregnant 🩷

Reacting to you coming out as trans 🏳️‍⚧️ ❤️‍🩹🩷

What Nicknames they like to be called 🩷

Firebender Types 🩷

Giving You A Mani-Pedi🩷

Bill Aka William

Unleashed 🫦 🩷

Farmers Market 🩷 🫂

Percy

Work Load 🫦

Fred

Cold Hands, Warm Heart ❤️‍🩹

Sucker 🫦

Warming Up The New Client 🫦

George Weasley

Morning Routine/X Wheelchair Reader 🩷♿️

Training/X Wheelchair Reader 🩷♿️

Disabled George Headcanons ♿️

Princess Treatment/X AMAB Wheelchair Reader 🫦 ♿️ 🩷

Angel With A Ticket/ KnightBus Reader ❤️‍🩹

Handsome Man: Trans George 🫦

Aquarium 🩷

Realistic 🫦

Curious ❤️‍🩹 🩷

Daycare ❤️‍🩹🩷

Every Perfect Curve ❌ 🩷

Happy Birthday To We ❤️‍🩹 💔

Cuddle Party 🩷

Kissable ❌❤️‍🩹

Detox Day🫦🩷

SFW Alphabet 🩷 ❤️‍🩹

Breakfast 🩷

Drink With Me 🩷

Fred And George

Pretty Rain Cloud ❤️‍🩹

Honey Wounds ❤️‍🩹 ❌

Birthday Boys 🫦

Hoof Race ❤️‍🩹🔪 🫂

Snuggle Company 🩷 🫂

Sweet As Sweets 🩷 🫂❤️‍🩹

Ron

Home Sweet Home 🩷

Draco Malfoy

Newly Made Man 🩷

Sirius Black

Honey, I’m Home! 🩷🫦❤️‍🩹

Remus Lupin

Big Bad Wolf 🔪 🩷 ❤️‍🩹

Not Called Moony For Nothing🫦🩷

Newt Scamander

Late Night Cutie Pie 🩷

Severus Snape

Morning Classes🩷

Charlie x Shouren

More🩷♿️

HPMA

Diary Of A Tavern Keeper 💔

Tall Glass Of Wine: Gridley X Reader 🫦

Abigail Grey

S.P.E.W For Werewolves 🩷🫂❤️‍🩹♿️

Shouren

Disabled Headcanons 🩷♿️

Need A Hand 🩷 ♿️ 🫦

What In Hell Is Bad?

Morax

Moment Of Peace ❤️‍🩹🩷♿️

Fairy Odd Parents

Peri ‘Poof’ Fairy-Cosma

Flowers For You 🩷

Human Nature 🩷 🫦

Mouthwashing

Curly

Kiss it better ♿️ ❌ ❤️‍🩹

Anya

New Chapter ❌ 🫂❤️‍🩹

Crew

Your Own Happy Ending ❤️‍🩹❌ 🔪 🫂

[disabled-dragoon]

Disability in Graphic Novels #1

[ID: A poster reading "Disability in Graphic Novels (and Manga)" in black writing in the centre. A small, circular logo is in the top right corner. It is red with an open book in the middle, white leaves around the book, and the word "The Disability Archive" across the bottom. In the lower left corner, cartoonish clipart of a colourful stack of books. All of this is overlayed onto the disability pride flag. /end]

[ID: The same poster, edited. The writing has been removed and replaced by three book covers, with bulleted lists next to each. The images in both corners have been shrunken slightly. The book covers, from top to bottom, are:

"A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability" The phrases "Non-Fiction", "LGBTQ+" and "Self-Help" are listed next to it.

"Constellations" The phrases "Addiction", "LGBTQ+" and "Realistic Fiction" are listed next to it.

"Dancing after TEN" The phrases "TEN/Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, Scars, Blind", "Memoir" and "Non-Fiction" are listed next to it. /end]

[ID: The same poster, with three different book covers. The book covers, from top to bottom, are:

"Everything Is An Emergency" The phrases "OCD", "Memoir" and "Non-Fiction" are listed next to it.

"Frankie's World" The phrases "Autism", "Ireland" and "Middle-Grade Realistic Fiction" are listed next to it.

"The Golden Hour" The phrases "Anxiety, PTSD", "LGBTQ", "Realistic/Contemporary" and "Gun Violence" are listed next to it. /end]

[ID: The same poster, with three different book covers. The book covers, from top to bottom, are:

"Nimona" The phrases "Amputee", "Fantasy", "LGBTQ+" and "Young Adult Fiction" are listed next to it.

"The Third Person" The phrases "DID", "LGBTQ+", "Memoir" and "Non-Fiction" are listed next to it.

"Perfect World" The phrases "Wheelchair User", "Contemporary Fiction", "Japan" and "Manga (Series)" are listed next to it. /end]

[ID: The same poster, with three different book covers. The book covers, from top to bottom, are:

"The Sky is Blue with A Single Cloud" The phrases "Short Stories", "Multi-Genre Fiction", "LGBTQ+" and "Manga" are listed next to it.

"Stars in Their Eyes" The phrases "Amputee", "LGBTQ+", "Young Adult Fiction" and "Contemporary Romance" are listed next to it.

"I Hear the Sunspot" The phrases "Hearing Loss", "Contemporary Romance Fiction", "Japan" and "Manga (Series)" are listed next to it. /end]

---

A collection of graphic novels and manga featuring disabled characters and/or discussions of disability!

I don't know if there'll be a part 2 to this, but if there is I might try and make it just a bit shorter.

Book List:

'A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability' by A. Andrews

'Constellations' by Kate Glasheen- Addiction

'Dancing After TEN: a graphic memoir' by Vivian Chong, Illustrated by Georgia Webber- Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN), Scarring, Blind

'Everything Is an Emergency: An OCD Story in Words Pictures' by Jason Adam Katzenstein- Blind

'Frankie's World' by Aoife Dooley- Autism

'The Golden Hour' by Niki Smith- Anxiety, PTSD

'Nimona' by N. D. Stevenson- Amputee

'The Third Person' by Emma Grove- DID

'パーフェクトワールド |Perfect World|' by Rie Aruga- Wheelchair User

'The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud' by Kuniko Tsurita

'Stars in Their Eyes' by Jessica Walton and Aśka- Amputee, Prosthetic Leg

'ひだまりが聴こえる |I Hear the Sunspot|' by Yuki Fumino- Hearing Loss/Hard of Hearing

[aroaessidhe]

a specific genre I call disabled girl (usually leg and/or facial scars) surviving mostly on her own in the wild/postapoc wasteland/dystopia with a distinctive jacket and weapon

I AM STILL ALIVE / a girl gets sent to live with her survivalist father in the Canadian wilderness, but when their cabin burns down she has to survive the winter

ARCHIVIST WASP / ghosthunter priestess from in a postapocalyptic cult helps a ghost find his friend so she can escape

THE BUTTERFLY ASSASSIN / traumatised teenage ex-assassin trying to live a normal life in a walled city run by assassin guilds

THE GIRL IN RED / a girl travelling to her grandmother’s house after being separated from her family in the apocalypse after a viral pandemic

RADIANT / TOWERS TRILOGY* / girl in the underbelly of a postapocalyptic dystopian world finds a powerful ghost and they're both hunted for their power

(*I actually can't quite remember if she's disabled or just injuried at various points, all the others are def disabled tho)

and none of them have romances :)

[autism-alley]

now that the show is over, i’m slowly revisiting things that are less fundamentally dysfunctional and more symptoms of the overall problems. one of those is hephaestus. the way his disability is so… reduced is. almost incredible. like, they started off on the right foot casting a disabled man, i appreciate that, but the way they utilize hephaestus’ disability, or rather don’t, leaves a lot of room to be desired.

first off, allow me to be annoying by saying he is not there in the book—but i don’t think the decision to add him is inherently a poor choice. it could work.

in the lightning thief, the way the kids get out of his trap is through annabeth’s intelligence in an action-packed scene. in the show, i was alright with the fact they changed the trap—foolishly assuming they were going to actually make something different of equal craftsmanship—but the end result is one of many instances of sacrifice way too early in the series, and an utterly underwhelming solution to that sacrifice—annabeth literally just asks hephaestus to free percy and. he does? i thought she was going to figure out how to reverse the throne’s trap; while she’s not a child of hephaestus, you’d think a child of athena with a passion for architecture would have some understanding of mechanics. it would have been different from the book, maybe not the best approach, but still emotionally satisfying. but alright, we’re… making an emotional appeal to hephaestus. putting aside my feelings about her rant of what exactly it is that makes percy different and worth freeing, why is the show’s hephaestus… so generally underwhelming?

my man was tossed from the fucking heavens by a parent—in pjo it’s hera—they could have visually used that to show hephaestus, like annabeth, does not want to repeat his mother’s cold and selfish ways. but he’s just. alright, first just look at these two guys.

before we get to the meat and potatoes, tell me which of these two guys look like they’ve spent a millennia in a workshop? the guy covered in grease and sweat, dressed in a stain-littered apron, tool belt at his side, muscle built for lifting heavy parts and swinging a hammer century after century? or the man with a neatly brushed, trimmed, washed beard and head of hair, clean hands, remarkably unstained sweater and flannel, crisp, new overalls, and academic-looking glasses? which looks to you like the embodiment of blacksmiths and the flame of the forge? yeah. but that can all be lumped in with my other wardrobe complains of the show, now we get to the section of this post where i would like to tread lightly.

i want to start by saying not all disability is visual, or even overtly visual, but hephaestus’ is and that visual is important to his character and the story. as a disabled person, i love that they cast a disabled actor, but based on how it was handled in the show, i had no idea this man was disabled. i thought he was an able bodied actor, and i am so sorry i came to that conclusion, but i really see no other one i could have come to based purely on what was in the show itself. i had to google who timothy omundson is to know he’s disabled and with what disability (he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side in 2017 and has been in recovery ever since—godspeed my man, i hope it helps where it can). i am so glad it was a disabled actor and not an able bodied one, but he’s still not hephaestus. while obviously no mortal has fallen from the heavens, i think they could have made it work, but a man who’s had a stroke and a man who’s had his body crushed are not the same. i am not here to belittle this man’s experiences or say one is more severe, i am saying they are different, and not interchangeable.

regardless, a disability that is visual is no less than one that is invisible and timothy omundson’s paralysis is visual, but it was hidden. it was NOT clear to the audience timothy omundson is paralyzed, or that he is disabled at all. the gods can appear however they choose, but it’s a point that hephaestus generally does not, or his disability is implied to be such a hindrance on him, no matter how he chooses to appear, he cannot escape his disability, how glaringly visible it is. his body itself is a story of how the gods betray each other, how they literally eat each other alive and are so hypocritical about it. think of how impactful the visual of hephaestus is—has a parent ever rejected your existence so violently, your divine body is broken and disfigured for all eternity? it is a brutal establishment of the godly norm as ruthless, cruel, and petty abuse. and the show, for all its talk of how the gods are awful, just did not highlight his disability and its origins it at all.

again, i think including hephaestus in this scene could have worked, but not how the show went about it. imagine. annabeth, desperately fiddling with the throne’s inner workings, makes her emotional appeal to hephaestus. he’s partly obscured by shadow as he stands, watching from afar on the balcony, but we see a gnarled hand grasp the railing. annabeth, still pulling back the machine’s inner workings, tearfully describes how her mother punished her for embarrassing her. as she does, we receive a few close up shots of hephaestus, still leaving him mostly in the dark, but providing peeks at his disfigurements, and a hesitant but pained look in his eyes tells us he is reliving painful memories—a conflicted bead of sweat runs down the side of his face. it wouldn’t cost any more run time to use these shots while annabeth makes her plea to him, and the disability is in the spotlight, the parallel between athena/hera and annabeth/hephaestus is clear as a younger, more hopeful version of this emotionally broken man begs him to help her be different than both their mothers.

free my friend, she says. and for a moment, he just shakes. he opens his mouth, and annabeth—and the audience—lean forward to hear his reply. but then his face crumples with regret and resentment. he is still apart of the same wheel that crushes everyone in their path—if he, a god, could not escape, why would a demigod? why should a demigod?

no, the god of the hammer tells annabeth, you cannot escape.

annabeth, in her hubris, replies, maybe you can’t—and we cut to her hands, tearing away a gear to reveal a switch—realization flashes across her face, and she grasps the trap’s mechanical release. percy is free, and hephaestus, in his misplaced anger, unleashes more of his creations (mechanical spiders!!) after them, mirroring the book as the kids use quick-thinking to escape waterland.

it’s not perfect, but that would work. instead, they finally show a god rather than just talking about them and it’s so underwhelming. and yes, this hephaestus carries a cane, clearly the potential to show front his disability was there, but you cannot throw me table scraps and tell me my frustration at not receiving the feast i was promised is unfounded. it’s laughable. most of the time it’s on screen it’s not in use and there isn’t even reference in the show as to why he carries a cane. casual viewers unfamiliar with the books or greek mythology might mistakenly assume this is just how this god chose to present himself and he doesn’t need this cane, and not that disability is at the core of who this divine figure is. it is NOT clear to the audience this is a disabled character played by a disabled actor. it is, indefensibly, a watered down depiction. what in the book needed to be ‘fixed’ with hephaestus—? this is a disabled god, you dare not give him to me in all his disabled complexity? you dare not show him as he is?

one of the most insulting things you can do to a disabled person is reduce our disability and the show has done it to the greek god of disability, with such a cheap payoff. if they did not want to be true to hephaestus, to his actor, they should not have shown him at all, and maybe—i don’t know, stuck to the book whose narrative makes sense in this scene?

[disabledcharacters]

Disabled Characters of the Month: August 2024

TV Woo Young-Woo (Extraordinary Attorney Woo) - Autistic

TV ANIMATION Red Action (OK KO! Let's Be Heroes) - Amputee, Prosthetic Leg User

FILM Frank Slade (Scent of a Woman, 1992) - Blind

BOOKS Adam Blake (A List of Cages by Robin Roe) - ADHD, Dyslexic

COMICS / MANGA Lecan (The Wolf Never Sleeps / Ookami wa Nemuranai) - Visually Impaired

VIDEO GAMES Sir Alistair Hammerlock (Borderlands) - Amputee, Prosthetic User

--------------------

Join me as I celebrate and post about different Disabled Characters throughout the month. Tracking #dcotm

[bizlybebo]

New dnd character 😃😃 (projecting my current issues onto a poor, poor lesbian, many such cases)

OHHHTMGODDDDDDDDD HELLOOOOOOO SAILORRRRRRR……