#we need more disabled rep

[cherry-pop-elf]

George Weasley is Disabled, and it’s frustrating how easily people just brush it off or ignore it. So, imma fight that

🧏🏼‍♂️

George Weasley Headcanons For After The War

He started to pick up sign language, and often uses it when talking to the young students who come into the shop. His sign name is “Orange Twin” Since orange is his favorite color

He gave Fred the Sign name “Purple Twin” by Proxy

He has a habit of leaning a lot. As to focus his good ear at people, in order to hear them

He rarely sleeps on his right side, because it cuts out all sound. And since he is a victim of fighting a war, he suffers paranoia from his PTSD. So dead silence is a no go

He’s rather self conscious about his missing ear, and will try and style his hair to hide it

It’s also a painful reminder that he isn’t identical to Fred anymore. In a morbid way, a physical reminder Fred is no longer with him. Not even in his own reflection

Given what spell that claimed his ear, Sectumsempra, he has multiple scars on the side of his head. Which also cut into his hair, and cheek. So he had to grow out his hair a bit, in order to hide them

He developed a real hate for things being to quite, so he’s always having some kind of noise playing. He just can’t sleep if his bedroom is to quiet. He just won’t

He makes jokes, and acts like it doesn’t bother him. More so because of other people than his own comfort. He was always the guy to make everyone else feel better. So he kinda bottled up the side effects of the trauma it gave him

He has phantom pain, so it’s not uncommon to see him rubbing the side of his head. As if his ear was still there

A real way to his heart is to kiss the scars on the side of his head. It makes him feel not so gross. It’s also something Fleur has done with Bill, so it triggers just that side of his brain to say “I am loved”

Kids often times point it out, but a child doing it never bothers him. It’s a case to teach them, and encourage their curious nature. If an adult does it? He gets very uncomfortable very fast.

George Weasley is a disabled man, and that’s ok. Disabled people exist, and he’s a man that survived a war. You can be young, and disabled. You can be pretty and disabled. Disabled people exist

[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

[saym0-0]

hi. im an ambulatory wheelchair user fwhip truther. if you even care.

this drawing was originally for a teen/human au, hence the lack of a beard hes like 15, but tbh it could also be regular fwhip so read it as you like

[funkle420]

ok. ok. ok so. throughout all of these last 3 episodes, every time people had an emotional moment together, romantic or platonic or familial, i just wanted someone to say "i love you" out loud! everyone in this show needs to hear that!!!! and i think the most powerful moment for it would have been at the end from Jayce to Viktor! Viktor needed to hear that so much, and I think him saying it explicitly would've tied together the themes of the show so well.

[cherry-pop-elf]

Word vomit all you want. YOU get it. Finally someone else gets it. It is also something to dive into in general. It is just so much MORE than just the logic of how this would work, or what back lash it would have. Because at the end of the day, George is leaving with some kind of issue. He isn’t going to be clean of pain.

But nope! Disabled? Nope totally not! Because that doesn’t meet the ‘aesthetic’ demands. This doesn’t meet the ‘quota’ or the ‘story line’ and all that. They could have so easily given him a line, in the mobile game, that addresses it. Like “Could you repeat that-? Hearings not so good anymore.” It’s so STUPIDLY SIMPLE but nope!

They also have another disabled person in the game. Long Shouren. Make ONE comment about his arm, and it’s just used as a plot device. And notice how it’s the LEFT arm? Almost like the arm that wouldn’t really affect his life. Since most people are right handed.

I can go on for hours. The media just doesn’t like disabled people. We are plot devices, we are aesthetics, we aren’t PEOPLE. George is such a simple concept. He has a missing ear. JUST ONE LINE and things could have been fine. A simple representation. Nothing complicated. Just a disabled person living a normal life. Not a sob story. Not a plot device. Not ‘to pretty’ to be disabled.

Oh jeez and WILLIAM WEASLEY! No no no. He was given the stupid Anime Boy treatment. No sir. He’s MISSING HALF HIS FACE. He should be showing teeth, missing a eye, scars in his scalp. Disabled people should be allowed to LOOK DISABLED! We don’t need to be given the pretty boy treatment to be loved.

I can go on for hours. So I better stop now before I start crying lmao. Like just. I can go on man. I can go on and on and on……..

George's ear was not cut off

Sectumsempra is the spell that George was hit with. It is describe as a spell that causes hemorrhages, and, in the fight against Draco, the spell is given the visual of blood seeping through clothing. This has the implication that it not only causes the implosion of blood vessels, but that it either 1. the magic cuts through the skin to cause the implosion and/or 2. the implosion is so strong it cuts through the skin from the inside.

There are a ton of tiny blood vessels that go in, around, and through the ear. Some of these vessels travel around the face and neck. We know that George's ear could not be grown back due to the spell being dark magic, how far does that apply? How many of those veins got hit? How much of George's face is permanently marked?

I don't know.

But what I do know is that George's ear was not cut off.

It was blasted off painfully quick and gory

[us-the-voices-and-more-voices-2]

me everyday: oh yeah my government hates the disabled smh

you guys: what

me: the clusterfuck that is the NDIS and the Australian governments complete willingness to let you straight up die is uh.. pretty dang palpable!!! (by fuck is it bad man, by fuck is it bad.)

most of my disabled friends are poor as shit and cannot earn enough to buy a house or rent a house, or get food, or anything.

I myself will probably never own a house and will probably have to lie about being disabled as to not uh... be payed less money then my abled peers <3 fuck this country sometimes!!!!

plus they are beyond god awful to our First Nations people. fr like if you are disabled and aboriginal by fuck do you have a hard ass time, beyond hard.

why is it like this.

[miammey]

Since you seem insightful, do you think canon Jouno would/could ever have a guide dog for when he's not working? I mean, he is blind. He deserves blind rep tbh. Asagiri please give him blind rep because if you don't, I will.

I’m not the best when it comes to figuring out representations, mainly because I am not blind or visually impaired myself, but I feel like it would be nice to see him using either a guide dog or cane when off duty, in a sense using them to rest a bit.

I don’t think he can exactly turn off his other senses, and he probably spent a while training himself to be able to navigate with those (people aren’t exactly born knowing how to do that to the extent Jouno does), but I do think he’d enjoy just having time to rest and not focus too much on his surroundings, instead using whatever navigation device he has to guide him.

As much as I love the idea of him with a dog I don’t think he’d have the time to take care of it, and if he’s needed in the middle of the day for a mission or something it would be much easier and quicker for him to fold up his cane and put it in a bag than take the dog some place safe. (Yes they’re collapsable, idk if all of them are but a blind kid in my high school had a collapsable cane, it was neat)

There are also other ways to show blind representation that don’t include navigation aids. Actually, one that was mentioned by a mutual of mine, who is visually impaired, is that it looked like Jouno had dragged his hand across Tecchou’s back in the anime’s café scene, as if he was grounding himself and his surroundings casually, which I thought was really cool, she said it was something she did and it was nice to see.

Personally, I like those casual bits of representation, Jouno’s used to his lack of sight at this point, and so are the other Hunting Dogs, so they all know his limits, but it would still be nice to see more of those limits, if that makes sense. Maybe later we’ll see more of his disability and his struggles with it.

He doesn’t seem to think negatively of it, he wasn’t hesitant to ask Dazai for the horse’s number or anything like that, and he overall seems very used to his disability. I mean, it’s been over six years since he lost his sight, we’re not sure of when he lost his sight but it was long enough before he joined the Hunting Dogs that he was able to learn a new way to navigate well enough to be of use to the Hunting Dogs.

Overall, I agree that I would LOVE to see more disability rep with Jouno, but I also don’t think we should limit that rep to just navigation aids. Just smaller things like using a screen reader to do paperwork on a computer or to read texts, or using one of those plastic guide things to write his signature, or even just reading the braille on a sign before entering a room, things that can take one or two panels can go a long way

[thanks-obillma]

if anyone has wheelchair pose refs that aren't just someone sitting still I'm begging you send them to me

[omi-papus]

Listen I adore Toph as much as any human being with a brain. But “Blind except actually not at all, save for a few times when its funny” is really not the type of representation you can expect people in 2023 to be satisfied with.

[cherry-pop-elf]

Morning Routine

George Weasley X GN Disabled Reader

Warning: Fluff, Disabled content, Chronic Illness, Wheelchairs

The sun was warm, and refreshing. A nice way to wake up, not long after your husband was already dressed for work. Being a sweetheart in making sure you got that needed extra sleep. Wouldn’t be long before he came to check on you, so you tried your best to slowly sit up. Every single joint cracking and aching as you moved.

No matter how many times it happens, it never gets easier. It’s uncomfortable, being so hyper aware that your joints. How your bones lock into place. That random parts of your muscles that move beyond your control. Existing in your own body is surreal. You fight to exist. Just one of the few thoughts you have, before that sweet voice saves you.

“Morning, Jellybean.” That sweet voice rings, as he came to your aid. Kneeling down in front of you, in that neat suit of his. His warm hands would cup your face, before peppering your cheeks in kisses. You couldn’t stop your smile, with how much he would pamper you. He made life a little easier, because he listened.

“Ready?” He would ask, and you would give a soft nod. Even in his suit, he happily scooped you into his arms. Cradling you so gently, as he would bring you to the bathroom. Helping you undress, a gentle cloth wash, before slipping you into something soft. For your joints. A cozy sweater, and shorts, to keep from moving so much.

“There you go-“ He would hand over your medication, and a potion bottle. A mixture of muggle, and magic, to help you live each day. It’s exhausting to know you need to take so much to simply live, but he helps. Helps you each morning, so it’s not so hard. As you drank what you needed, he would finish brushing your hair. Making sure you looked your best.

Back into his arms you went, before he brought you to your wheelchair. Making sure you were safe in it. Nothing catching the wheels, your bag on the back strapped on, and your legs safely secured. A new day for the two of you.

He would roll you out of the bottom floor of the flats, before rolling you into the store itself. The joys of your husband owning both buildings. Made life easier, to just live so close and convenient. Diagon alley had everything you ever needed, in easy distance. So when you had strength to walk, you could actually be normal. Even for a hour.

“Don’t go falling asleep on me, already-“ He would laugh, as your medication started to kick in. So tired, yet you didn’t even get a chance to start your day. He never complained. He would simply park you in your snug little corner. Able to people watch with ease, before sitting right next to you.

“Eh, still got a hour before we actually need to open….” He shrugged, as you rested your head on his shoulder. He always was one to be over prepared. He took this shop seriously. He took you seriously. You couldn’t understand how lucky you were.

Able to rest your head on his shoulder, and slip into a quick nap. The smell of gun powder heavy in your nose, as his head rested against yours. Another day, another smile. Despite how much you wonder how lucky you were, at the end of the day……..George was the one to ever say it out loud. How lucky am I, to be married…..to you.

[phagodyke]

reading this blurb made me realise this is possibly the first time ive ever seen my own life experiences shared by another person. damn

[another-dra-anew]

:angy: the fact i can’t talk about [redacted], a character who’s such a interesting culmination of how hopes peak and their system fails and neglects people, and also of how having a school like this has given people the opportunities to do great things which change lives, all because they’re a spoiler for something THAT IS LITERALLY [redacted] fucking GETS ME sometimes.

[willmarstudios]

Bookworm Will Review 2024 (#11)

Title: 'Pit Stop'

Author: Ellis Mae

Rating: 3.75 / 5

Review: (MILD SPOILERS)

I want to first thank Ellis for the e-ARC of this book and having the opportunity to share my thoughts before its official release on May 28th, 2024!

The story has a few heavy topics (racism, bigotry and alcoholism), but not for angst or shock value. Everything has a reason. That being said its not everyone's favorite topics to read as we watch our two troubled MCs embark on their own character-driven plot. Protect your peace.

With that being said, I really think that the story was well thought out in terms of the struggles/inner conflicts for John and Isa. Each chapter was a POV shift from one to the other and through it, we got an equal amount of screen time to delve into them. They felt well crafted and emotionally compelling as the story progressed and about how similar their situations are. Mostly internally. This says a lot about how you don't need to go through the same experience as someone to understand them. We also got some incredible representation with a diverse cast and clearly researched disability traits (both physical and mental). Nothing felt stereotypical, tokenizing, romanticized or like box-checking. Props to the author for putting in the time to research and objectively represent each addition to the story.

It is a quick read and so the pacing came off a bit jumpy which wasn't a huge problem, but sometimes it is better to let scenes breathe in my opinion. As mentioned before this story does tackle some heavy scenes, I can see this not being everyone's favorite kind of dramatic and emotionally charged love story. Especially when its focus is on minority groups because the experiences in the story are very real.

It is a bittersweet ending with some common aspects of romance novels of accepting/choosing to accept external love/support, allowing room for a relationship and those 'happily ever after vibes'.

Overall a really enjoyable read, definitely recommend it!

You can find more of Ellis' work HERE

[byfulcrums]

been rewatching rtte

toothless is called T multiple times, but the letter T doesn't exist in the alphabet of this world

i think hiccup was also called H???

hiccup went to the wedding of the man who tried to kill him and his family multiple times. no wonder he thought he could change drago's mind

snotlout is canonically a theater kid

"you're so small and cuddly" "please never say that again"

the twins are really smart, but they're also just stupid

hiccup straight up disappears when he's working on something

heather had a super noticeable crush on astrid

fishlegs got a love interest!! a plus size main character actually has a cool, badass love interest!

it was super hetnormative but it was cute

there was an island full of flying women who were implied to regularly commit cannibalism

hiccup taught all the riders how to fly with toothless, that's so sweet

everyone is a flat earther except for the twins

hiccup almost directly killed a lot of people

and killed a LOT more when destroying their ships

“scalding– cal..ding--" "toothle, plama bla!" was pretty much the funniest part of the entire series

dagur was bullied as a kid by a guy 8 years older than him who literally tattooed an imagine of him beating up little dagur in his arm??? What was that all about

actually we need to talk about how messed up everything about dagur is and about how the things that could've/did happen(ed) to him may be the reasons why he's Like That

just why was he imprisoned by the outcasts??? he didn't do anything to them directly

oof my brain is spiraling. "he loved you" "ig now we'll never know" what do you mean he didn't know if his dad loved him

there's a technically musical episode

tuffnut became hiccup's defense attorney and immediately got him the death sentence

hiccup regularly jumps off cliffs

he also jumped off a boat, with his arms tied and without toothless. just where did he think he was going

snotlout's annoying attitude is actually because spitelout pressures him too much and he feels like he has to be perfect for his dad :((

THE 'HICCUP'S EVIL MIRROR' VILLAIN THEME DONE RIGHT YESS!!!

viggo is the best httyd villain change my mind (you can't, swords at sundown, you may bring backup but i will win on my own)

skrill comeback skrill comeback SKRILL COMEBACK!!!!

"COMEEE TO DADDY"

what is a boar pit???

oh my god i had missed this series so much. it has no right to be this funny

this was my childhood. it has forever shaped the way i am

berserker heather the unhinged >>>

actually good disability rep! yay

hiccup complains about his peg leg pinching him

he straight up cannot walk without it and it is shown many times

"well, there are the benefits of a metal leg" after it got caught in a bear trap

funny moments, like snotlout trying to steal it to use it as a weapon

the jokes!! toothless laughing at the jokes!!! hiccup being so fucking done with the twins, who are always making the jokes!

there's an episode where everyone is so sleep deprived they actually start spiraling

astrid becomes a happy go lucky girl, hugs snotlout and tells him he's handsome

the fucking mood swings snotlout got were insane

the twins were straight up just hallucinating

"i sent them to wash their dragons, how could they mess that up?" cut to heather falling on her face with a bucket full of water in her hands

fishlegs becomes so paranoid, he's yelling at everyone all the time

"don't you know the trapper's trap can trap the trapper?? ...oh gods, i must be losing it, i'm quoting dagur"

YOOOO VALKA!!!! it's so nice to see her

hiccup tried to murder dagur to stop him from getting to toothless, which is scary bc it shows just how far he's willing to go for his bff, but also funny because hiccup. that was not going to work

oh the hiccstrid slowburn, how i have missed you

the twins's made up language

there was a beach episode turned murder mystery and a musical episode held at gun point

hiccup has a whole little speech that he periodically gives astrid to remind her that the twins serve a purpose

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Canada’s ground-breaking, hamstrung repair and interop laws

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/15/radical-extremists/#sex-pest

When the GOP trifecta assumes power in just a few months, they will pass laws, and those laws will be terrible, and they will cast long, long shadows.

This is the story of how another far-right conservative government used its bulletproof majority to pass a wildly unpopular law that continues to stymie progress to this day. It's the story of Canada's Harper Conservative government, and two of its key ministers: Tony Clement and James Moore.

Starting in 1998, the US Trade Rep embarked on a long campaign to force every country in the world to enact a new kind of IP law: an "anticircumvention" law that would criminalize the production and use of tools that allowed people to use their own property in ways that the manufacturer disliked.

This first entered the US statute books with the 1998 passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), whose Section 1201 established a new felony for circumventing an "access control." Crucially, DMCA 1201's prohibition on circumvention did not confine itself to protecting copyright.

Circumventing an access control is a felony, even if you never violate copyright law. For example, if you circumvent the access control on your own printer to disable the processes that check to make sure you're using an official HP cartridge, HP can come after you.

You haven't violated any copyright, but the ink-checking code is a copyrighted work, and you had to circumvent a block in order to reach it. Thus, if I provide you a tool to escape HP's ink racket, I commit a felony with penalties of five years in prison and a $500k fine, for a first offense. So it is that HP ink costs more per ounce than the semen of a Kentucky Derby-winning stallion.

This was clearly a bad idea in 1998, though it wasn't clear how bad an idea it was at the time. In 1998, chips were expensive and underpowered. By 2010, a chip that cost less than a dollar could easily implement a DMCA-triggering access control, and manufacturers of all kinds were adding superfluous chips to everything from engine parts to smart lightbulbs whose sole purpose was to transform modification into felonies. This is what Jay Freeman calls "felony contempt of business-model."

So when the Harper government set out to import US-style anticircumvention law to Canada, Canadians were furious. A consultation on the proposal received 6,138 responses opposing the law, and 54 in support:

https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2010/04/copycon-final-numbers/

And yet, James Moore and Tony Clement pressed on. When asked how they could advance such an unpopular bill, opposed by experts and the general public alike, Moore told the International Chamber of Commerce that every objector who responded to his consultation was a "radical extremist" with a "babyish" approach to copyright:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/copyright-debate-turns-ugly-1.898216

As is so often the case, history vindicated the babyish radical extremists. The DMCA actually has an official way to keep score on this one. Every three years, the US Copyright Office invites public submissions for exemptions to DMCA 1201, creating a detailed, evidence-backed record of all the legitimate activities that anticircumvention law interferes with.

Unfortunately, "a record" is all we get out of this proceeding. Even though the Copyright Office is allowed to grant "exemptions," these don't mean what you think they mean. The statute is very clear on this: the US Copyright Office is required to grant exemptions for the act of circumvention, but is forbidden from granting exemptions for tools needed to carry out these acts.

This is headspinningly and deliberately obscure, but there's one anecdote from my long crusade against this stupid law that lays it bare. As I mentioned, the US Trade Rep has made the passage of DMCA-like laws in other countries a top priority since the Clinton years. In 2001, the EU adopted the EU Copyright Directive, whose Article 6 copy-pastes the provisions of DMCA 1201.

In 2003, I found myself in Oslo, debating the minister who'd just completed Norway's EUCD implementation. The minister was very proud of his law, boasting that he'd researched the flaws in other countries' anticircumvention laws and addressed them in Norway's law. For example, Norway's law explicitly allowed blind people to bypass access controls on ebooks in order to feed them into text-to-speech engines, Braille printers and other accessibility tools.

I knew where this was going. I asked the minister how this would work in practice. Could someone sell a blind person a tool to break the DRM on their ebooks? Of course not, that's totally illegal. Could a nonprofit blind rights group make such a tool and give it away to blind people? No, that's illegal too. What about hobbyists, could they make the tool for their blind friends? No, not that either.

OK, so how do blind people exercise their right to bypass access controls on ebooks they own so they can actually read them?

Here's how. Each blind person, all by themself, is expected to decompile and reverse-engineer Adobe Reader, locate a vulnerability in the code and write a new program that exploits that vulnerability to extract their ebooks. While blind people are individually empowered to undertake this otherwise prohibited activity, they must do so on their own: they can't share notes with one another on the process. They certainly can't give each other the circumvention program they write in this way:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/28/mcbroken/#my-milkshake-brings-all-the-lawyers-to-the-yard

That's what a use-only exemption is: the right to individually put a locked down device up on your own workbench, and, laboring in perfect secrecy, figure out how it works and then defeat the locks that stop you from changing those workings so they benefit you instead of the manufacturer. Without a "tools" exemption, a use exemption is basically a decorative ornament.

So the many use exemptions that the US Copyright Office has granted since 1998 really amount to nothing more than a list of defects in the DMCA that the Copyright Office has painstaking verified but is powerless to fix. We could probably save everyone a lot of time by scrapping the triennial exemptions process and replacing it with an permanent sign over the doors of the Library of Congress reading "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

All of this was well understood by 2010, when Moore and Clement were working on the Canadian version of the DMCA. All of this was explained in eye-watering detail to Moore and Clement, but was roundly ignored. I even had a go at it, publicly picking a fight with Moore on Twitter:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130407101911if_/http://eaves.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/Conversations%20between%20@doctorow%20and%20@mpjamesmoore.jpg

Moore and Clement rammed their proposal through in the next session of Parliament, passing it as Bill C-11 in 2012:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Modernization_Act

This was something of a grand finale for the pair. Today, Moore is a faceless corporate lawyer, while Clement was last seen grifting covid PPE (Clement's political career ended abruptly when he sent dick pics to a young woman who turned out to be a pair of sextortionists from Cote D'Ivoire, and was revealed as a serial sex-pest in the ensuing scandal:)

https://globalnews.ca/news/4646287/tony-clement-instagram-women/

Even though Moore and Clement are long gone from public life, their signature achievement remains a Canadian disgrace, an anchor chain tied around the Canadian economy's throat, and an impediment to Canadian progress.

This week, two excellent new Canadian laws received royal assent: Bill C-244 is a broad, national Right to Repair law; and Bill C-294 is a broad, national interoperability law. Both laws establish the right to circumvent access controls for the purpose of fixing and improving things, something Canadians deserve and need.

But neither law contains a tools exemption. Like the blind people of Norway, a Canadian farmer who wants to attach a made-in-Canada Honeybee tool to their John Deere tractor is required to personally, individually reverse-engineer the John Deere tractor and modify it to talk to the Honeybee accessory, laboring in total secrecy:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/12/canada_right_to_repair/

Likewise the Canadian repair tech who fixes a smart speaker or a busted smartphone – they are legally permitted to circumvent in order to torture the device's repair codes out of it or force it to recognize a replacement part, but each technician must personally figure out how to get the device firmware to do this, without discussing it with anyone else.

Thus do Moore and Clement stand athwart Canadian self-reliance and economic development, shouting "STOP!" though both men have been out of politics for years.

There has never been a better time to hit Clement and Moore's political legacy over the head with a shovel and bury it in a shallow grave. Canadian technologists could be making a fortune creating circumvention devices that repair and improve devices marketed by foreign companies.

They could make circumvention tools to allow owners of consoles to play games by Canadian studios that are directly sold to Canadian gamers, bypassing the stores operated by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and the 30% commissions they charge. Canadian technologists could be making diagnostic tools that allow every auto-mechanic in Canada to fix any car manufactured anywhere in the world.

Canadian cloud servers could power devices long after their US-based manufacturers discontinue support for them, providing income to Canadian cloud companies and continued enjoyment for Canadian owners of these otherwise bricked gadgets.

Canada's gigantic auto-parts sector could clone the security chips that foreign auto manufacturers use to block the use of third party parts, and every Canadian could enjoy a steep discount every time they fix their cars. Every farmer could avail themselves of third party parts for their tractors, which they could install themselves, bypassing the $200 service call from a John Deere technician who does nothing more than look over the farmer's own repair and then types an unlock code into the tractor's console.

Every Canadian who prints out a shopping list or their kid's homework could use third party ink that sells for pennies per liter, rather than HP's official colored water that cost more than vintage Veuve Cliquot.

A Canadian e-waste dump generates five low-paid jobs per ton of waste, and that waste itself will poison the land and water for centuries to come. A circumvention-enabled Canadian repair sector could generate 150 skilled, high-paid community jobs that saves gadgets and the Earth, all while saving Canadians millions.

Canadians could enjoy the resliency that comes of having a domestic tech and repair sector, and could count on it through pandemics and Trumpian trade-war.

All of that and more could be ours, except for the cowardice and greed of Tony Clement and James Moore and the Harper Tories who voted C-11 into law in 2012.

Everything the "radical extremists" warned them of has come true. It's long past time Canadians tore up anticircumvention law and put the interests of the Canadian public and Canadian tech businesses ahead of the rent-seeking enshittification of American Big Tech.

Until we do that, we can keep on passing all the repair and interop laws we want, but each one will be hamstrung by Moore and Clement's "felony contempt of business model" law, and the contempt it showed for the Canadian people.

Image: JeffJ (modified) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tony_Clement_-_2007-06-30_in_Kearney,_Ontario.JPG

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

--

Jorge Franganillo (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duga_radar_system-_wreckage_of_electronic_devices_(37885984654).jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[tryslora]

Disability in fiction

This was a tough post to write. 

I saw a post about disability rep, and I kept thinking about it, and wanted to share my own takes on the topic. 

I thought about it for days, trying to figure out how to word it. Then after drafting it, I stuck it in a file for a couple of weeks, trying to decide if I could even post it. This is not a topic that can be boiled down to a simple yes/no kind of answer.

Let’s start with two examples.

1 - I have a short story I started writing (it wants to grow up to be longer, so it’s waiting for time) where my original concept was to write about an older woman who is short and has major chronic pain, and I wanted to dig into fantasy reasons why this pain exists, but at the same time, have her be able to kick ass despite being exhausted and dealing with excruciatingly painful issues.

2 - I once drafted a portal fantasy storyline wherein a young man was transported into a fantasy world, and when he was given a horse to ride, he approached it very warily. He was encouraged to mount, did so, and sat there and exclaimed in shock, “My brain isn’t exploding with snot!” because his allergies hadn’t come with him into the body he had in the fantasy world.

Both stories were designed to be fun, a bit light, maybe even cozy.

So.

In one case, the disabled character remains disabled and kicks ass anyway. And in the other case, the character is magically “healed” and no longer has debilitating allergies that had wrecked his way of life.

This is the difficult part to express: I think both storylines are valid.

Bear with me while I dig into this.

First and foremost: I completely agree that we need more representation in all forms of fiction, especially when it comes to disabled people being able to live their lives. Characters with missing limbs, or non-neurotypical brains, or anxiety & depression, or hearing issues, or sight problems, or chronic pain, or… or… you get the idea. We need all of it, and we need it to not need to be magically healed in order for a story to be considered happy and cozy. Disabled people can be happy, too.

I’m all in for this, and I wouldn’t write the stories I do if I weren’t.

However, there are also moments where I am so exhausted by my body and by everything I deal with inside of it where I do wish for that magical ability to forget that my pain exists. Or for the ability to actually process information in a straight line, or make decisions without writing a hundred lists and accomplishing nothing from them. Or to be able to lie down in a field of grass without regretting it for days while I drip snot and fight sinus-pain-induced migraines.

Sometimes I want to imagine that my life is different.

And that is one of the joys of writing. I can choose to write a story where people like me or the people I know are the heroes/heroines exactly as they are, different abilities and all. Or I can choose to write a story where the problems magically resolve.

Both can be cozy, sweet, and adorable. I can give the character with chronic pain the ability to kick ass, take names, and have a sweet reunion with her ex-girlfriend. I can show all the ways that my disabilities may define how I handle my life differently than someone else, but do not define what I can and cannot do.

But I can also daydream about a life where it’s different, the same way I can daydream about having wings, or being able to teleport. For me, imagining a day with no pain is the same as a day where I can walk through walls. It is absolutely a fantasy, and about as likely to happen.

Here’s the thing: It’s okay to be angry to see what looks like disability being erased. It’s okay to wonder why the author did that, why they magically healed someone instead of letting them be who they were. But at the same time, maybe ask why, and what point of view it’s coming from. Or look a little deeper into the story and how the resolution occurs, and the effect it does have on the character (I suspect that were I to suddenly have a day of no pain, I’d be intensely reckless, given what an idiot I am while IN pain, y’know? And WOW would I regret that later…).

And for authors, think about what you’re writing. WHY is this particular event (keeping disability, erasing it, whichever or both) happening, because the reader will take note of it. They may see things that weren’t intended, but are there as unintentional biases.

Make conscious decisions for why things happen.

Someday I want to get back to both of those examples from the start of this post; I still like both concepts. But I’ll be writing them for very different reasons, and both will be healing my soul in different ways. Different kinds of daydreams. And again, I think that’s valid, too.