“The Secret Garden is bad disability rep because it ends with Collin walking!” Cool, you didn’t actually read the book, did you? Because Collin doesn’t start walking because disabled people “need to get better” but because he’s breaking free from the extreme infantilization that he was subjected to his entire life. He starts walking because everyone in his life told him he couldn’t and to not bother even trying. He starts doing things for himself because he grew up being told all he was going to do was get sick and die, to the point where they hid him away and his father didn’t want to see him to reduce the hurt of his sons eventual death. This book isn’t about disabled people getting better, its about letting disabled people live a full life despite their illness
also to those of y’all saying colin wasn’t disabled: he shows very clear signs of depression and anxiety caused by parental neglect. he has real cptsd. those invisible illnesses are disabling and helped cause the immense executive dysfunction he also has !!



















