#ability status

This is a question that I feel horrendously unqualified to answer, as a fully-abled person. I think it would depend on the specific disability, where they are pursuing their education, and any number of other factors—but I have no concept as to how this would affect them.

Tumblbuds: thoughts?

-Headless

Writing Mute Characters

More on Mute Characters

Mute Characters from Someone Else’s POV

I think the main problem we have with the Disability Superpower trope is that it is characterized as a power that makes up for the disability in full, and frequently goes beyond that. My problem with the trope is that it portrays disability as something specific that must be fixed in order for a character to be useful/worthy/what have you.

If the power has nothing to do with the disability and does not compensate for it, I believe it falls outside of Disability Superpower. A lot of whether or not your characters’ powers fall into this category depend heavily on what the powers are and what their disabilities are. Context matters.

This is all conjectural, though. Far be it from me (as a fully-abled writer) to tell you where the line of offense lies.

Followers: thoughts?

I think your research needs to go a lot further. Speech without a tongue is difficult, but possible: your voice can still make sounds without a tongue. Some links for you:

Life after Glossectomy

Glossectomy AMA

I have no tongue but I must eat

Relearning to speak & eat without a tongue

Writing characters who are mute

Writing a mute character

Nonverbal communication

Give these a try. Let us know if you have other questions.

Phenomenal! Disabled characters are definitely few and far between, good on you for making this attempt.

A lot of this may depend on how your character loses her arm. Was she born with it? Did it happen in an accident? Was she sick? Deciding on these things can help you work out how she feels about her missing arm, how she handles it, and how others view it. If she is confident and refuses to let it bother her, it’s less likely that people will perceive it as a weakness of hers.

A character missing an arm might have a prosthetic or simply put up with the missing limb. Depending on how your character loses/lost her arm, try these:

WriteWorld’s resources on amputees

What does it feel like to lose a limb?

The Consciousness of Lost Limbs (an old article)

An interview with a man who lost his leg to cancer

Some resources on phantom limb sensation and pain

Living life without an arm or a leg (this essay requires you to sign up for a free account with their site)

How Prosthetic Limbs Work

Sadly (and despite what you may think), this is approximately the limit of my helpfulness to you.

We cannot fight for liberation without a deep, clear understanding of disability, ableism and disability justice. The bodies of our communities are under siege by forces that leverage violence and ableism at every turn. Ableism is connected to all of our struggles because it undergirds notions of whose bodies are considered valuable, desirable and disposable. How do we build across our communities and movements so that we are able to fight for each other without leveraging ableism?

TRIGGER WARNING: ableism

That's true. There are countless types of abilities. I can't define ableism; I can only describe how I experience it. Please bear with me if I'm not quite clear. I take a lot of meds for my "disabilities," one of which makes my brain kind of foggy.

TRIGGER WARNING: ableism

I experience ableism systematically. For example, the city where I live is extremely inaccessible. The sidewalks are cracked, very few of them have curb cuts, and many buildings have stairs and no ramps. The government in my city is not very concerned with accessibility. That system favors people whose bodies function in ways that are considered healthy and normal in our society.

I experience ableism symbolically. Accessible parking spaces are designated with the symbol of a person in a wheelchair. I don't often use a wheelchair, and I don't always look like I have a physical impairment. That symbol enforces the idea that people with impairments should look "disabled."

I experience ableism personally when strangers ask extremely invasive questions about my conditions. I experience ableism when people find out that my medications impair my thinking ability and decide to ignore me, and when people who know about my impairments assume that I'm not able to do certain things, like having sex for example.

That's what ableism is for me. A combination of systematic, symbolic, and interpersonal values that favor people that society deems healthy. I hope that helps. - BT

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Another mod's response: Absolutely! We believe that all people, regardless of their various mental and physical ability statuses, should be treated equally and with respect. Everyone has different abilities, but difference should not be something to be feared. Difference and diversity is a good thing, and we must embrace all differences, whether it be physical, mental, racial, gender, sexual, class... so on and so forth.

According to our handy-dandy FAQ, we define ableism as "any discrimination against someone because of their differing physical, mental, or psychological status. This could include physical limitations, such as being in a wheelchair, mental limitations such as ‘autism,’ and psychological limitations such as any mental health concern, diagnosed or not."

We also have a link to a really great article about ableism.