I love that so many people make Grace disabled by the gravity on erid when he gets there. Not even just when he's still sick from the journey, even after he recovers, the gravity still effects him, he needs a cane or crutches or a wheelchair and I love that so much. But it's got me thinking.
The gravity makes him disabled in a way he himself would recognise as disabled, he struggles to walk, gets tired out extremely easily and has increased joint pain. Falling has worse consequences due to the extra weight his mass now carries, I can see him having an increased risk of dislocations and broken bones if he falls than he would have on earth.
But what about the ways he's disabled that he might not necessarily see as a disability, especially not with how his biodome is set up? The ways that simply being human makes him disabled by eridian standards?
By eridian standards, Grace is blind-deaf or at least severely sight-hearing impaired. In his biodome everything is set up to accommodate him, but if he ever has to leave? He needs disability aids to help him get around. Not just the things he'd see as disability aids, like his cane/crutches/wheelchair, but also his torch.
His inability to see 360° at all times is also a disability in eridian terms. They have to be careful about being on the right side of him, about not stepping behind him or changing anything behind him as he's about to move because otherwise he might trip over it and hurt himself. The same might even go for things in front of him when he's outside the biodome, because they can't see the light of his torch and they don't know for sure where he's pointing it.
They'd have to change a lot about how they do things to accommodate him and I really like that.
Grace would need far longer to be told things and to remember them, would need to write things down, especially if they're complicated. Yes, he's a VERY smart man, but he learns through repetition, the same way most humans do. Eridians can hear something once and then that's it. It's in their heads forever, they can recall it whenever they need.
I really like that by eridian standards, the way humans just exist would make them disabled with pretty high support needs if they were an eridian. The way they hear-see, the way they think and remember, how easily damaged they are, how little they can carry, how easily you can knock them over.
IDK I just love the idea of Grace coming to terms with the disabilities that other humans would also immediately see as disabilities. And then him having to come to terms with the fact that simply the way he is as a human, is also considered a disability in the eyes of the eridians around him.
