“Your medical record isn’t proof of your condition.”
I’m paraphrasing and summarizing the response I received after four hours of trying to resurrect a dead “Ask Me Anything” on r/IAMA on Reddit. The AMA had gone fantastically, with plenty of engagement from other people with my condition asking questions that the answers might help them make their days (or in one case, the life of their 4-year-old daughter) a little easier. But then, in one fell swoop, a comment appeared from the mods and the post removed. Why?
Because I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and no proof I could provide (including my official medical records) was sufficient. Just like that, the awareness I had been raising for this condition, the help being offered to the Redditors unsure where to turn for their own EDS, was shut down.
“So what does this have to do with writing?” you may be rightfully asking.
Everything.
Disability Inclusivity & Diversity
There has been a massive push for inclusivity regarding gender, sexuality, and race. These minorities are important, as is intersectionality throughout them. But disabilities make people uncomfortable in a different way, and they don’t often fit into a protagonist power fantasy. When disabilities are included, it’s usually a physical disability such as an amputation (usually lost for the sake of the story or plot). Genetic disabilities, amputations pre-story, or mental health issues are rare occurrences within stories (mental health issues are especially rare in fantasy, where it is often too easy to turn a mental health issue into a fantastically created reason, such as an actual demonic possession instead). PTSD is the exception and is becoming a more commonly discussed mental health issue within fantasy and YA fantasy worlds in particular. But the inclusion of mental health challenges and disabilities such as ADHD, autism, or psychosis, to name a few, are rarely discussed without appearing quirky or being explained away by actual magic (it’s one thing for a society to think that a person is possessed if they’re hearing voices, but it’s not schizophrenic representation if those voices really are demons).
Viewing the world from a different perspective is the very reason that we seek out stories. If you are the member of a marginalized group, you are constantly expected to read characters from a perspective and reality quite different from your own. For me, I know it is amazing to read about honest, raw chronic pain in a book that truly understands what it’s like to manage it daily. To share with others what that experience is like is a lesson in empathy. A lesson that everyone, no matter how empathetic they are, can always use the occasional refresher on. Writing characters with genetic disabilities, pre-story disabling injuries, etc. is an impactful choice. It leads to the next point…
HOW DO I WRITE DISABILITIES RESPECTFULLY?
Give disabled characters agency. Show realistic struggles and give them means to overcome those struggles without being required to wait for an able-bodied or neurotypical person to save them.
Make the story not about their disability. Two excellent examples of physical disability inclusivity done well are Toph from Avatar The Last Airbender, and Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon. Rin’s addiction and PTSD in The Poppy War is an excellent example of mental health struggles. None of these stories revolve around just solving the disability. The plot moves on and the characters have to move with it in whatever way they can while struggling with those disabilities.
Don’t create a disability and then immediately magically solve it like in Harry Potter with Wormtail’s hand amputation.
Talk to people within the community you’re writing about. Every type of disability has their own subculture that comes from it. There is no harm in respectfully approaching a group (often there are subreddits and facebook support groups you can go to) to ask if anyone is willing to open up about their experience to a writer. You’ll find people willing to do so!
Create multidimensional characters with disabilities. Create villains with disabilities (but don’t make the disability the reason they’re evil, that’s a whole other trope that needs to become less frequent).
My inbox is always available for answering well-intentioned questions about disability. Now go out and write some intersectional and diverse characters!
-L.J.
Author of The Dying Sun, Book 1 of The Gods Chronicle.
Pedantic Scribe of the ‘Scribe’s Journey Podcast’
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