A Guide to Writing Disabled Characters

[Icon description: A digital drawing of a stick figure, drawn in black on a white background, standing between the pages of an open book, with lines drawn on the pages to represent writing. The stick figure has a rainbow-colored infinity symbol in their head, to represent neurodivergence. Their left arm is mostly replaced by a red dashed line, to represent a missing limb, and they are holding a cane in their right hand. End icon description.]

[cripplecharacters]

FAQ and Guidelines

[Large text: FAQ and Guidelines]

Hi! We are CrippleCharacters, a blog dedicated to helping people write disabled characters, inspired by WritingWithColor (link). We’re run by a team of disabled and neurodivergent mods, and our goal is to provide a firsthand perspective to our disabilities.

Please read the sections below before sending an ask.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Q: I am disabled. Is it problematic if I do [trope/stereotype/XYZ]? A: The general answer is no. We don’t speak for everyone else in the community, of course, but if you are talking about your own disability, you can talk about it however you please. Here is a more in-depth explanation from the perspective of Mod Kate (link).

Q: I am basing my character’s disability directly on my own, but I’m not diagnosed with anything. Is this a problem? A: No. Undiagnosed disabilities are real and deserve representation as well. Besides, no one will write about your disability—and your experience with it—better than you will.

Q: I am not physically disabled, but- A: This isn’t a clear statement. Does this mean you are otherwise disabled? Does it mean you are mentally and physically abled? Please be more specific about this (if you think it’s important in relation to your ask).

Q: So my character has paralysis/is an amputee/is mentally ill, and- A: What kind of paralysis, where is it? Which limb, and at which joint? Which mental illness? Please be specific in your asks so we can actually answer them. Research terminology that would describe your character's situation and/or try to explain how their disability affects them. If we can't tell whether your character is paraplegic or has facial paralysis, we won't be able to answer it. An example of a proper question could be: "My character has T1 complete paraplegia/is a bilateral above the knee amputee/has CPTSD". If you don't know whether you want to give them schizophrenia or delusional disorder that's fine, we'll just include two (or more) potential answers to accommodate for that if possible. Either way, we need some information to answer an ask.

Q: Can I send an ask again if it hasn’t been answered yet? A: Please don’t.

Q: Do you answer questions about [insert disability]? A: Probably yes. Even if none of the mods has the disability in question, we can still direct you to some resources.

Q: Can you tell me how to give my character a Cool Robot Arm? A: No, but we can send you to this post by submalevolentgrace.

Q: Is it okay to do [XYZ]? A: No idea. We need context. Why do you want to do [XYZ]? Why are you worried that [XYZ] is a problem (hint: if it's because we have talked at length about something being bad, we will probably just repeat the same exact thing at you)? If you're aware that [XYZ] is harmful, why are you trying to do it? Overall, we'd prefer to have a conversation about why [XYZ] is bad/good/ambivalent rather than just giving some stamp of approval that doesn't help anyone actually understand anything. Further elaboration.

Q: Do you answer questions about historical figures? A: None of us are historians, and we cannot answer questions about writing academic papers or books. If you are asking in the context of historical fiction, we will simply treat them as another character.

Guidelines

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A guide on sending asks.

Don't send "Research Questions", i.e. ask us to do your research for you. Before sending an ask, try this. Questions about what your character’s symptoms would be can be answered with surface level online research—Wikipedia is genuinely a good starting point.

This blog should not be your only stop in writing a disabled character. Please do research both before and after sending your ask; use multiple sources. We are just random people on the internet, not an accredited organization.

Questions like “How should I write a disabled character?” are too vague. There is no way for our answer to be actually helpful unless we manage to guess what kind of disability you meant. If you are only now starting to conceptualize your character, please read this post by mod Sasza first. Please know what kind of disability your character has. "Personality disorder" or "paralysis" are categories so wide that they're basically useless unless you actually specify what you mean. Disabilities aren't interchangeable.

Try to be specific. “How can my character in a wheelchair do X?” isn’t that. We need to know what your character can, and can’t do to answer something like this, or at least what their disability is; see the previous paragraph. Do they use a powerchair and have a C1 complete SCI, or are they a unilateral BK amputee who uses an active lightweight manual chair? We might have to ask you for more details with asks like this.

When sending an ask, try to figure out what aspects you are having trouble with. We may ask you to reword and resubmit your question to clarify things. Please be sure your ask contains an actual question. Simply telling us facts about your project doesn’t let us know what you need help with.

The mod team likes clear questions—please remember that some of us have problems with comprehending very complex asks due to our disabilities. You can put your questions in a bullet list if there's many of them to make sure we don't miss or misunderstand them.

If you want to continue a longer conversation, please do not do so via unsigned anonymous asks. We are not mind readers, and we cannot tell all anons apart. If you sign your asks with something like “Anon A” then we will be able to know who you are. This will also help with tagging grouped asks, to make it easier for you to return to answered asks.

Before sending an ask, please look at our "Navigation" section first—you might find answers to your questions there.

Asks We Don't Take

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We don't answer questions for these topics:

Amputee Characters Having "Perfect" Prosthetics

Characters With Facial Differences Experiencing Disfiguremisia

Wheelchair Verb Usage

Writing Dialogue for Non-Speaking Communication (also includes speech bubbles and similar topics)

Can I (Or My Character) Give Name Signs

Mods

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You can meet the very cool mods here.

None of the current mods are amputees. Please check out our Helpful Posts' recommended blogs section.

If you want to show us your writing or art featuring disabled characters, please use the #CCArtShare tag. Read more here.

Navigation

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Please check out these posts before sending an ask:

Helpful Posts (general)

Helpful Posts (specific disabilities)

Tags Directory

[cripplecharacters]

Hello!

First off thank you all very much for your lessons. They are a massive help for developing my characters. Second off I was wondering if anyone would be able to give me some art advice, or if not if there's somewhere I would be able to ask for advice. I'm not looking for anything very complicated. I'm mainly just trying to figure out if I'm coloring my characters port-wine stain correctly, or if there's any edits I should make. I'll attach what the color choices currently look like, but there's no pressure to review them if that's not what this blog is for.

(Image ID: A digital drawing of a Black teen with a port-wine stain. End ID.)

(Image ID: It's the same image as above, but the character's port-wine stain is slightly darker. End ID.)

(Image ID: It's the same image as above, but the character's port-wine stain is less visible and more red in color. End ID.)

Thank you for your time.

Hello,

Either is fine! Port wine stains come in many shades, from lighter red to very dark purple. Them being less visible on someone dark-skinned is normal and not "erasure", it's just color contrast -- the same way light-skinned people with vitiligo aren't "erasure" either. Some People Just Look Like That, etc.

If you want to make it more distinct, you can give the birthmark some texture and make it thicker than the rest of the skin or make it have "lumps" or small masses (somewhat similar to the ones you can see in neurofibromatosis, visually speaking). I'm not sure what the correct medical term for those is, but you can see it on some people with PWS. If you just google PWS pictures you'll probably spot it pretty fast since it's rather distinct. However, these changes are generally seen in older people since they happen over time, so for a teen I wouldn't overdo it.

Since PWS around the eye(s) is a big risk for glaucoma, you could also consider that (either for the current or older version designs, if those exist). Glaucoma by itself is invisible, but one-sided vision loss can result in squinting or strabismus, for example.

Hope this helps! Good to see a character with a facial difference that looks like a nice normal person as well.

mod Sasza

[cripplecharacters]

Hello! I'm writing a character with partial paralysis in one leg, from the knee to the foot, which makes it difficult to walk sometimes. However, my character is a teenage boy and I'm writing him to be snarky and jokey, and I was wondering what jokes (if any) would be appropriate for him to make? For example, I was thinking about writing jabs with scenarios like how he dislikes using his cane as it makes him feel old, how he uses his leg to get out of things he doesn't want to do (like chores) and calling friends ableist as a joke if they don't listen to him. I obviously know to stay away from 'I hate my disability i would be better off without it' stuff but is generally considered alright to write him saying possibly slightly insensitive jokes about a disability? Also, if this entire question is really tone-deaf I'm very sorry, I have a non-physical condition which I poke fun at similarly all the time but I know physical disabilities are different.

Thank you for your time! I really love the work the mods here do :)

Hello,

you're probably going to have mixed reactions to it. In my view, it's completely fine if done right. I have a very similar disability to your character (also problems with one leg; I very visibly limp but rarely use a cane these days), and from my experience of having been a teenage boy and being around other teenage boys, you'd be hard-pressed to not have "potentially not very woke disability jokes" happen.

If he's comfortable joking about himself, his friends will probably join in on it. The key is for it to be all in good fun, more "teenage boy banter" and less "2009 anti-bullying campaign short film footage". No slurs for one thing, especially if it's set in the current day. Even the "ethical use of slurs in writing" aside, it just feels outdated. No currently-teenaged boy knows what "g*mp" even means nowadays. If you want to match the tone, the second example would probably be less "calling friends ableist as a joke if they don't listen to him" and more "SMH bro is bullying the disabled 🥀💔" (Lol).

For examples of disability jokes for that demographic: anything about "having to be nerfed", making up reasons for using the cane (bonus points if genuinely nonsensical, "due to the evil and intimidating wizard" type thing), pretending to be deeply offended whenever someone around him complains about a minor injury (alternatively: immediately bragging about how tough he must be then), "yooo check out my disability privilege" any time he gets to skip a queue/gets offered a seat/etc. If he has chronic pain related to the paralysis (extremely common) you can also always go the "I can't believe y'all are letting me suffer like this, real friends would've at LEAST performed a field amputation" route.

I'll also mention that "(primarily abled) friend group who makes disability jokes" does not necessarily need to mean "friend group that's ableist". If they're close, then making a jab at his leg could just be the natural reaction to him making a jab at someone else's hairline. If in a teenaged group of boys one of their disabilities is off-limits for jokes, they're probably not as close of a friend group lmao. That doesn't necessarily have to mean "literally anything goes", there can still be boundaries and other unspoken "hey man let's not do that".

Just don't make it "oops all disability!" either. It'll get very stale and gimmicky fast if he were to just be "the disabled one". This is my main problem with most of the disabled jokester characters; it gets boring pretty much immediately, or, in the very common worst-case scenarios: isn't even funny in the first place. Which is sadly unforgivable for a snarky character.

As I said, different people will have different reactions to it. Some will think it's ableist, others (like me) will see their own experience represented in a realistic way. When in doubt it's always good to have a sensitivity reader, especially one that knows what it's like to be disabled in your teens.

Hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[cripplecharacters]

Hello. I have a paraplegic character who uses a wheelchair living in a time period in my primary worldbuilding project with a lot of superheroes and comic booky stuff going on. This character, who often goes by MK, is supposed to be something of a master assassin and sniper like Deadshot in DC, and I'm having some difficulties thinking about how that works for him, and I thought it would be a good idea to direct my questions to this blog. 1. My understanding of paraplegia is that most of the time one's upper body and use of arms and hands is relatively unaffected, and I just wanted to make sure that's accurate, since an assassin character using a sniper rifle type weapon would need a consistent steady aim. I may need to explore some other options if my understanding is warped. 2. I'm trying to come up with some creative ideas on how MK gets into the places/vantage points he needs to take his shots, especially when it involves terrain that is more difficult for a wheelchair to access. My first thought was a partner or accomplice who can help him get set up, but this character is supposed to be more of a loner, and I don't want to give the impression that he is overly reliant on others in this regard. My other idea is to really lean into magic and/or comic book tech, like a fantastical all-terrain vehicle to carry his gear and reach remote places, invisibility for a stealthy get-away, maybe even teleportation, but none of those are all that satisfying to me. I was wondering if somebody who is more familiar with paraplegia or not being able to walk might have some better ideas on how to write around this. Thanks

Hello,

We don't have specifically paraplegic mods at the moment, so follower input is welcome and encouraged.

Paraplegia doesn't affect the arms or hands, but depending on the level of injury, it can go as high up as the armpits (T1 level SCI). In English we often talk about paraplegia as being "paralyzed below the waist" which is a possible outcome but very much oversimplified. (In some other languages we can see ex. "paralyzed below the belt line", which is also possible, but again oversimplified.) It's important to figure out the specific level and whether or not it's a complete injury since that can change a lot!

Regarding the steady aim, depending on how sniping actually works (IDK) it could be more difficult. Many people with paraplegia will experience spasms (mostly in the legs), which I assume is not ideal when you need to be perfectly still. It's something I don't think I've ever seen in fiction but it's very common.

Another thing is that someone with an SCI won't be able to sit/lie down completely unmoving for hours while waiting for the shot. The risk of pressure sores is real, and most sources will tell you to relieve the skin pressure every half an hour or so. I don't know how compatible that is with the character idea, but unless he has some superhuman healing factor or similar, it should be something to consider.

The "how did he get there though" is definitely an important thing to figure out. My first thought was an all-terrain wheelchair (this one even has a camo option!) since I know people do use these for hunting. If you're leaning hard into high-tech/borderline magic, then maybe those continuous tracks could let him go vertically or even upside down, move very quickly, automatically blend in with the environment, etc. I would just be wary of making advanced technology a reason why inaccessibility is somehow gone. So maybe he can get almost anywhere he wants with this super-expensive hyper-advanced wheelchair for his hero work, but when in civilian mode he's stuck using a regular boring wheelchair that needs our regular boring ramp.

Advice/feedback from followers with SCI/paraplegia and/or wheelchair users is welcome and encouraged.

mod Sasza

[fealty-to-thee]

More characters ending disabled and happy NOW

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

hi! I'm working on a scene where a character mentions their vitiligo (in a casual, off-handed way), and I thought it might be good to ask about words to describe it? i.e are there certain words to describe it that you would prefer, or alternatively, that you would consider off limits?

Make sure to treat it like any other physical trait is the main thing

As for specific words you can use a variety of things such as: Spots, patches, and even speckled if its a smaller/less dense area.

For example(s):

The boy had tanned skin with small white patches of vitiligo on both sides of the corner of his mouth, in a nearly but not quite symmetrical pattern.

The girl was close enough to his face so that now he could see the speckled edges of the missing pigment around her large brown eyes.

They picked at a spot on their arm in embarrassment-- a subconscious habit it seemed. Sam wondered if the paler spot on their friend's arms was caused by the picking, or if the picking was subconsciously drawn to the spot because of its difference to the surrounding skin...

[cripplecharacters]

a character of mine looses her right leg below the knee at some point in the story and i'd like to know about the healing process, the mental affects and if there's any things i should try to avoid in writing. ty

I'd recommend going through our tags first since this is a very broad question. We also can't offer advice on the mental effects specific to amputation because none of the mods are amputees.

mod Sasza

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Tengo algunas preguntas sobre el vitiligo, espero no molestar.

1: ¿el vitiligo y el albinismo tienen alguna relación?

2: ¿existe alguna condición que sea lo contrario al vitiligo donde en vez de manchas blancas sean manchas negras?

3: ¿que problemas a la salud causa el vitiligo?

Me acabo de dar cuenta mientras escribía esto que, el albinismo era no tener pigmentos en la piel. perdón por mi ignorancia.

“I have some questions about vitiligo, I hope I'm not bothering you.

1: Do vitiligo and albinism have any relationship?

2: is there any condition that is the opposite of vitiligo where instead of white spots there are black spots?

3: what health problems does vitiligo cause?

I just realized while writing this that, albinism was not having pigments on the skin. Sorry for my ignorance.”

No worries it’s no problem at all and you don’t have to apologize this is what I’m here for!

As far as I’m aware vitiligo and albinism don’t have any genetic relationship to each other, at least when it comes to the way it develops but they share a lot of similarities when it comes to social and health implications.

There’s a few hyperpigmentation disorders but most of them seem to be circumstantial and not truly based on an internal genetic / autoimmune issue, although melanism does exist and can happen in humans but it’s more like the opposite of albinism rather than vitiligo.

Vitiligo can potentially have a slew of health issues but none are guaranteed to occur or not to occur. Examples could include skin cancer, other autoimmune conditions (such as hypothyroidism) and even hearing loss. Some ppl say it can cause vision loss but there aren’t any good studies or sources on it and from my knowledge of ocular immune systems it seems nearly impossible for that to actually be the case. There are way too many factors, especially in the modern era for the few studies with small sample sizes for me to full heartedly go “yes it does this” to explicit vision loss. However, I can see dry eyes being one of the more understandable ocular issues, but as I mentioned there are too many modern day things that cause these exact ocular problems. I don’t trust any source that isn’t from an explicit scientific study especially considering how much AI is out there.

Translation below

Traducción a continuación:

No te preocupes, no hay ningún problema y no tienes que disculparte, ¡para esto estoy aquí!

Hasta donde yo sé, el vitiligo y el albinismo no tienen ninguna relación genética entre sí, al menos cuando se trata de la forma en que se desarrolla, pero comparten muchas similitudes cuando se trata de implicaciones sociales y de salud.

Hay algunos trastornos de hiperpigmentación, pero la mayoría de ellos parecen ser circunstanciales y no se basan realmente en un problema genético / autoinmune interno, aunque el melanismo existe y puede ocurrir en humanos, pero es más como lo contrario del albinismo que del vitiligo.

El vitiligo puede tener potencialmente una gran cantidad de problemas de salud, pero no se garantiza que ninguno ocurra o no. Los ejemplos podrían incluir cáncer de piel, otras afecciones autoinmunes (como el hipotiroidismo) e incluso pérdida de audición. Algunas personas dicen que puede causar pérdida de visión, pero no hay buenos estudios o fuentes al ello y, según mi conocimiento de los sistemas inmunológicos oculares, parece casi imposible que ese sea realmente el caso. Hay demasiados factores, especialmente en la era moderna para los pocos estudios con tamaños de muestra pequeños para que yo vaya de todo corazón "sí, hace esto" a la pérdida explícita de la visión. Sin embargo, puedo ver que los ojos secos son uno de los problemas oculares más comprensibles, pero como mencioné, hay demasiadas cosas modernas que causan estos problemas oculares exactos. No confío en ninguna fuente que no sea de un estudio científico explícito, especialmente teniendo en cuenta cuánta IA hay por ahí.

[creatingblackcharacters]

That lesson on disability is absolutely AWESOME and as someone who talks about disability I’m definitely gonna reboot it, but thank you for including your sourcing. I’d run into a lot of Black ableism related research for my own disability storytelling, and I want to share a few non-fiction sources.

I highly recommend watching the film version of the book The Reason I Jump, which contains a Black African perspective on high needs nonverbal autism.

The Reason I Jump Trailer: https://youtu.be/J9ZxvR_cm94?si=w4AGRxqqbLCh7aUd

I also recommend looking through Special Books by Special Kids on YouTube and how the interviewer handles his Black interviewees across many different need types and ages. I do warn that some of the titles are dubious across the board, but the interviewer himself is always careful to ask for terminology preferences.

I’ve collected a few of the channel’s Black stories here, and just because the channel name says “Kids” doesn’t mean every interviewee is a child.

Main Channel Link: https://www.youtube.com/@SpecialBooksbySpecialKids

Anthony: https://youtu.be/mgiGW5o1Bgc?si=xM3UdAaYEt3s2EC8

Zaniah and Z’Moria: https://youtu.be/ElKXawnRFqQ?si=AWVQtXFw-B7UvruO

Jacah: https://youtu.be/QVqO5umBDZQ?si=iXMHn4fM-SGbqo9R

Sun: https://youtu.be/PV38iDwi5Gc?si=9-XX_fKsYQceblmt

Navia: https://youtu.be/Pklp_BE2_is?si=9uFU2KllMxOMcnyu

Noah: https://youtu.be/S_Oo6FaPf-8?si=pw3-L8pgNQtnK_UP

Henry and Tiarra: https://youtu.be/uI35fHlA1_g?si=sw0IuB2WvJai0PKr

Messiah: https://youtu.be/9qAG_6-F4yM?si=l4e0m4sdr1EHI1qi

Michael: https://youtu.be/Tl-_pSSfPHA?si=tTvb-Yi1EYnMdTVj

Cassy: https://youtu.be/QXXJHnE2_to?si=JpJ-QYtR8Ey3wKdm

Darius: https://youtu.be/ND4qw6N89QY?si=9AOWMULgSlmpqmHR

And so many more that I had to resist the urge to include.

I personally did not enjoy how Phoenix Rising by Netflix seemed to edit the para-athletes’ words to become inspiration porn, and did not enjoy how the film decided its one “I am depressed about my disability” perspective out of all others should be the Black French long jumper Jean-Baptise Alaize , but I am including the Paralympic Official Channel link to his clips because I want people to understand two things: Yes, disabled people should be allowed to express their depression about disability if they feel it, and yes, bad examples of disability history—and racism—should be studied for critical reasons.

Clip 1, the one that was included in the documentary where the interviewers kind of caught him raw

https://youtu.be/xLKLWKyj4Bw?si=HRwae2CzZAmnZU9r

Clip 2, the one where he actually gives much more perspective about self-acceptance

https://youtu.be/pdICv_8Ntwk?si=6b88rfLMTzhK0G9c

I also find it interesting that the Paralympic YouTube channel overal has way more Black (POSITIVE) perspectives than the Netflix documentary. A nice “hmm” moment for the masses.

On a much better note, here’s one of South Africa’s sprinters, Ntando Mahlangu, also from the Rising Phoenix playlist of the Paralympic channel:

Clip 1: Testimonial

https://youtu.be/iwaC7st0z1k?si=mQww5wlNbmZ3GAxe

Clip 2: Interview

https://youtu.be/fvDHf9WNOqs?si=_JUOma5X4XShZZ7f


Here’s the link to Nonspeaker Library here on Tumblr, and they include Black voices under the #black nonspeakers tag

https://nonspeakerlibrary.tumblr.com/

The Accessible Media, Inc. channel introduced me to Prince Amponsah’s career. Other videos of theirs contain Black experiences on disabilities like blindness and spinal cord injuries.

https://youtu.be/v85aTjd0XxM?si=tpki2OdU7a7saa8_

Here’s Black blind dancer Natalie Trevonne from the Infinite Flow accessible dance troupe

https://youtu.be/O_3IbPeB5UQ?si=Ij96twi4dpg4keIi

A compilation from the Language and Life Project on Black American Sign Language

https://youtu.be/grpyswPABa8?si=ScjsTFpADLbKgP9h

Tiffany Freeman, a Deaf Black woman, talks about a Black pioneer in Deaf history

https://youtu.be/AlUeQy4zZ_Y?si=xdX6MUDCVolKzKAf

There are SO MANY other resources I could info dump since I’m personally interested in disability advocacy, but I have to keep this short or else we will both go insane trying to paste this haha.

To you, Ice, I hope you have an awesome week, and to everyone else, find the stories that are already told instead of waiting for them to be spoon-fed.

Thank you for this massive list of resources! I'll tag it with disability and should be able to find it in the future, if ever asked about resources 🙏🏾

[wolfcat-hybrid]

My experiences with a smell disorder, for writers

Hello howdy hi! I’ve maybe mentioned it before, but I have congenital hyposmia! That means I have an extremely reduced ability to smell things (basically nonexistent except for once in a blue moon) and have been like this for as long as I can remember. For reference, having no sense of smell is called anosmia. Smell disorders gained some publicity during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic, but anosmic characters are still pretty rare. I reached out to @cripplecharacters and they encouraged me to write out some of my own experiences for folks interested in writing anosmic characters, so here we are!

As a caveat, I am but one person with one perspective and can only talk about my own experiences. For more information, you can also visit the r/anosmia community on reddit; though, as of writing, the latest post was published a year ago. If you have any other questions, feel free to shoot them my way, I'd be happy to take a crack at them (though I am in no way a medical expert, haha)!

Growing Up

Ah yes, a sense of smell, a thing we all definitely have…

I fully just accepted that everyone was exaggerating about being able to smell things. Entirely convinced we were all just in on the same lie. Haha, right, sure, you “smelled” that. 

In my defense, I also thought everyone was already exaggerating about things like “having a gender identity that aligns with their assigned sex,” “getting crushes,” “mentally picturing things,” “not being in pain after standing too long,” or “liking meatloaf” (turns out I’m transgender, arospec, and have aphantasia and high arches. There’s no reason for the meatloaf one, I just hated it so much that I genuinely thought people were lying about liking it). Adding “being able to smell things” to the list of things that we’re all pretending to do/be/have wasn’t too big of a leap in logic for me.

“Wait, you guys are actually smelling things?”

Eventually it became apparent that other people genuinely were smelling the things they said they were smelling, and that I was the odd one out. Some of the things that tipped me off were when my family was able to tell our dog had pooped somewhere in the house, that something in the oven was burning, or that someone had silently farted, which all seemed like some sort of witchcraft to me. I don’t remember the exact conversation I had with my parents about it, but I do remember finding out they had already been fighting an uphill battle against my body odor for me for my whole life ^^’

Safety Concerns

Gas leaks

Typically, oderants are added to natural gas lines, so if there is a leak, then people will be able to smell it and evacuate the area. This is, obviously, useless if you don’t have a sense of smell. There are gas detectors that function like smoke detectors, but they are less widespread, and generally, unless I have been explicitly told otherwise, I assume any given building has none. Being alone in a building can be a bit nerve-racking.

Kitchen Mishaps

Being able to smell what you’re cooking is pretty handy when it comes to not burning dinner. My smoke detectors, for example, will trigger if there is actually a fire, but food can start letting off smoke well before that point, which I don’t always notice. Some recipes will specifically say to “do [x] until it gives off a(n) [adjective] odor,” which is basically useless. Additionally, because of the impact smell has on taste, it’s entirely possible for me to make a dish that I think tastes fine, and everyone else thinks tastes terrible.

Spoiled Food

There are some foods, such as milk, that develop bad odors when they start to spoil. Unless the flavor, texture, or appearance also clearly changes, there is a very real possibility that I will not notice and eat it anyways. If something is suspect, then I usually have to get someone else to check if it’s still good or not. If there’s nobody there to check for me, then I have to toss it, or risk food poisoning. I have accidentally eaten a lot of spoiled food before learning this lesson.

Hygiene Concerns

"Do I smell okay?"

I cannot smell my own body odor. As a kid, this meant skipping showers and not doing anything about my bad breath. Now that I know other people actually can smell me, it means I have to do my best to maintain an undetectable standard with no idea how well I’m doing, or risk social isolation. As a result I often have to ask people I trust if I smell okay. Most people will default to the polite answer, which is nice, but if I’m asking it is because I genuinely cannot tell and need to know if I have to go shower.

Overcompensating

I know there are some garments that can be worn multiple times between washes without starting to stink too bad, but since I can’t tell, I assume everything I wear becomes stinky after being worn once. As a result, my options are either ‘do laundry more often’ or ‘own more clothes’ in order to not run out of clean things to wear, each option coming with its own drawbacks. 

Common Questions

Flavor versus Taste

Scent plays a huge role in the flavor of food, so sometimes people will ask if I’m able to taste what I’m eating. The answer is... kinda? Flavor IS heavily reliant on scent, but the taste buds on the tongue can detect sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and savoriness with no smelling needed. So, I can tell if something is sweet, or sour, or savory, etc, but I can’t really differentiate similar-tasting things—plain chocolate ice cream is more or less the same as plain vanilla ice cream. As a result, texture is a big part in what makes a food "distinct." (Fun fact, Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is anosmic, which is why their ice creams are so full of mix-ins!)

When do I tell people I can't smell?

Well, it’s not something I usually bring up in casual conversation with strangers. For new friends, I might bring it up in conversation if it's relevant to an anecdote I'm sharing or, more often, when they ask me to smell something and I have to explain that's not a thing I can do. However, if I'm going to be in close proximity with someone for a while, I usually have to bring it up sooner than I'd like. When I lived in campus housing, I’d usually let my new dormmate(s) know early on, because I needed them to tell me ASAP if there was a smell, either because I needed to clean something or because there was a leak in our building. That’s a lot of trust to put in a near-stranger.

"No, it's not COVID-19 related"

When I do mention that I don’t have a sense of smell to someone that didn’t already know, I usually have to clarify right away that it’s not because of COVID-19, because that’s become most people’s first reaction. I don’t really blame them, and it’s nice that more people are aware that smell disabilities are A Thing, but it’s not fun that most people first associate anosmia with the pandemic.

"What do you mean [thing] has a smell??"

Logically, I understand most, if not all, things have a smell. However, I am still regularly caught off guard when someone says “it smells like [thing].” Like, what do you mean, a “cucumber” smell?? A cucumber is like 99% water. What next, water has a smell???? And you expect me to believe this isn’t all some big scam?? …I mean, I do still ask my family to describe scents for me. Mostly because it's funny to watch them try to come up with comparisons that don't rely on other scents or flavors.

(Hyposmia-specific) Once in a Blue Moon...

VERY occasionally, for seemingly no rhyme or reason, I am able to actually smell something. I'm sure I'd be able to find a common thread if I really tried, but it happens rarely enough that I haven't bothered to.

Anyways. When I can smell something, it is basically guaranteed to be an unpleasant experience. I have had to leave rooms before because a sudden scent (which didn't bother anyone else) overwhelmed me to the point that it felt painful. I've yet to experience a "good" scent.

Thanks for reading! Again, feel free to send me any questions you may have, and I'll take a shot at it.

[hard-times-paramore]

Art I made of Grace in his wheelchair from my fanfic Dignity of Risk

I missed drawing wheelchairs, especially speculating how I can adapt them to different environments (like rocky sand on a beach). They're hard to draw but they're so cool and it's so worth it.

Description:

Grace on his wheelchair, in front of the ocean. The sand is brown and there's a boulder some distance behind him. Grace is wearing his beige sweater with orange drawings and "you matter" atom shirt. The wheelchair is motorized, has a high backrest and belt wheels made of xenonite. He's operating it forward into the sand. The wheelchair is orange at the base with blue and white details, while the seat and backrest are black. There's a cannula in his nose, the rebreather tucked somewhere behind his back. There are casts on his legs, light blue and signed with Eridian writing. From the casts dangle a few tubes. He is smiling.

[saszor]

Happy face equality week. One mildly finished drawing due to #mysurgery and adjacent events.

[aromanticsky]

*trumpet noises*

PRESENTING

Princess Seitlēn Kēya Sulūbao-Rian of the Rāmian Empire!

[ID: a pencil crayon drawing of Sei. She is a slim young woman with bronze skin and very curly teal hair. She is wearing a gold tiara, silver glasses and earrings, long purple gloves, and an orange rubber necklace. She has a long face with big ears, and she has scarification on her forehead shaped like a partial sun. She is using a pink gait trainer and an AAC tablet. Her big smile is outlined in purple lipstick and her layered, embroidered dress has a slit in the middle of the skirts. Her dark brown eyes point inwards. /end ID]

This is circa Empires Always Fall, since she marries Yna at the start of The Fractures That Follow and married Feka wear headscarves.

@cepheusgalaxy

@face-equality-in-art Sei has Fragile X Syndrome and esotropia! happy belated Face Equality Week everyone :)

[cripplecharacters]

Can My Character be Deaf and Non-speaking?

[Plain Text: Can my character be Deaf and non-speaking?]

Short answer: absolutely! This is not uncommon at all.

Long answer: what you mean by non-speaking is going to influence a lot about this character and how they navigate the world.

Deafness makes it more difficult to speak, because d/Deaf people don't pick up language through auditory reception.

If a character is born d/Deaf, especially if they have Deaf family, they may not do very well at speech therapy or even bother going to speech therapy at all. They likely have a noticeable Deaf accent if they do speak. (See the guide on Deaf Speech [link] for more information about Deaf accents!)

A lot of d/Deaf people are told that their voice sounds weird, so they might feel self-conscious about voicing and choose not to do it. They might also prefer not to voice, even or perhaps especially if they have a less noticeable Deaf accent, because hearing people assume voicing equals hearing ability.

If a Deaf person has early access to sign language, they might never feel a pressure to speak, since they have an accessible first language. Alternately, if they were language deprived, they might never have learned to speak, since d/Deaf people do not pick up spoken language naturally.

In short, there are plenty of Deaf people who don't speak at all, just because they are Deaf. This has historically been called "deaf-mute" or "deaf and dumb" which are considered offensive terms. However, some Deaf people have reclaimed the term DeafMute to describe their experiences as Deaf people who do not voice. As with any reclaimed term, please don't use this to describe your characters unless you are Deaf yourself, or working closely with a Deaf person who can advise you.

If your character is non-speaking or nonverbal for a reason other than Deafness, that can be a totally different life experience. The Deaf community tends to treat Deafness as not being a disability at all; DeafDisabled people are a large but distinct subset of the Deaf community.

Being d/Deaf and having a physical disability that impacts speech (and possibly also signing) like cerebral palsy or apraxia is a different experience than being non-speaking for Deafness alone. Someone who is Deaf and unable to speak because of physical disability might use AAC in both Deaf and hearing spaces. Or, they may be able to sign but not speak, depending on the exact disability, although sign language requires a good amount of fine motor control.

Being autistic, intellectually disabled, or cognitively disabled and d/Deaf is also its own unique experience. Deafness may end up masked due to developmental disability--many deaf children whose deafness is not caught at birth are assessed for autism before being assessed for hearing loss. Low responsiveness to stimuli or less ability to follow directions from an audiologist can also make diagnosing deafness in developmentally disabled people hard.

Some developmentally disabled people, both Deaf and hearing, use some signs as a communication method, but many struggle with language as a whole, not just speech, and won't pick up a full sign language. Again, a visual method of AAC is probably helpful. They may also require other Deaf people to sign more slowly or clearly to them, use fewer words or a simplified vocabulary, or switch to a different method of communication entirely (like writing or picture cards) depending on their receptive language skills. Some Deaf people get very frustrated slowing down their sign language for others, even other d/Deaf people, which can lead to isolation.

Being Deaf and developmentally disabled has many other challenges. Deafness can compound with lower situational awareness. Both signing and stimming are often seen as dangerous behavior by abled hearing people, especially to law enforcement. For a d/Deaf and developmentally disabled person who often interacts with hearing people, they may be more reliant on communication partners to help translate.

Disabilities like situational mutism can also affect d/Deaf people. For signers, situational mutism will probably affect their ability to sign, not just voice (if they do voice), but they may feel comfortable writing.

Being DeafDisabled is a unique experience, to navigate being disabled in both the Deaf and hearing communities. Deafness is often comorbid with other disabilities, so there are lots of people who are d/Deaf and otherwise disabled, but the exact disability will shape how someone interacts with each community.

(Because many people ask about this, the inability to speak without a neurological or psychiatric disability is pretty rare. Damage to the vocal cords or throat account for very few cases of mutism, and usually do not result in a total inability to voice. Please try and represent more complex and underrepresented disabilities than just making a character otherwise abled but unable to speak for no clear reason, which is unfortunately the most common non-speaking representation in fiction.)

In summary, please consider why your character cannot or does not speak. The nature of their disability will shape how they interact with other people, both d/Deaf and hearing, and that changes your approach to writing.

Keep writing, and I'm happy to answer more questions!

Mod Rock

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I have congenital hyposmia (extremely reduced ability to smell things) and it impacts my life in a variety of both obvious and less intuitive ways that I've rarely seen reflected in media. I was wondering, do you think there'd be any interest if I made a list of some ways it's impacted me, for use as a reference for folks writing smell-disabled characters?

Hi!

That would be awesome! Just tag us in the post and we'll reblog it :) [smile face]

Mod Rock

[cripplecharacters]

Can My Character be Deaf and Non-speaking?

[Plain Text: Can my character be Deaf and non-speaking?]

Short answer: absolutely! This is not uncommon at all.

Long answer: what you mean by non-speaking is going to influence a lot about this character and how they navigate the world.

Deafness makes it more difficult to speak, because d/Deaf people don't pick up language through auditory reception.

If a character is born d/Deaf, especially if they have Deaf family, they may not do very well at speech therapy or even bother going to speech therapy at all. They likely have a noticeable Deaf accent if they do speak. (See the guide on Deaf Speech [link] for more information about Deaf accents!)

A lot of d/Deaf people are told that their voice sounds weird, so they might feel self-conscious about voicing and choose not to do it. They might also prefer not to voice, even or perhaps especially if they have a less noticeable Deaf accent, because hearing people assume voicing equals hearing ability.

If a Deaf person has early access to sign language, they might never feel a pressure to speak, since they have an accessible first language. Alternately, if they were language deprived, they might never have learned to speak, since d/Deaf people do not pick up spoken language naturally.

In short, there are plenty of Deaf people who don't speak at all, just because they are Deaf. This has historically been called "deaf-mute" or "deaf and dumb" which are considered offensive terms. However, some Deaf people have reclaimed the term DeafMute to describe their experiences as Deaf people who do not voice. As with any reclaimed term, please don't use this to describe your characters unless you are Deaf yourself, or working closely with a Deaf person who can advise you.

If your character is non-speaking or nonverbal for a reason other than Deafness, that can be a totally different life experience. The Deaf community tends to treat Deafness as not being a disability at all; DeafDisabled people are a large but distinct subset of the Deaf community.

Being d/Deaf and having a physical disability that impacts speech (and possibly also signing) like cerebral palsy or apraxia is a different experience than being non-speaking for Deafness alone. Someone who is Deaf and unable to speak because of physical disability might use AAC in both Deaf and hearing spaces. Or, they may be able to sign but not speak, depending on the exact disability, although sign language requires a good amount of fine motor control.

Being autistic, intellectually disabled, or cognitively disabled and d/Deaf is also its own unique experience. Deafness may end up masked due to developmental disability--many deaf children whose deafness is not caught at birth are assessed for autism before being assessed for hearing loss. Low responsiveness to stimuli or less ability to follow directions from an audiologist can also make diagnosing deafness in developmentally disabled people hard.

Some developmentally disabled people, both Deaf and hearing, use some signs as a communication method, but many struggle with language as a whole, not just speech, and won't pick up a full sign language. Again, a visual method of AAC is probably helpful. They may also require other Deaf people to sign more slowly or clearly to them, use fewer words or a simplified vocabulary, or switch to a different method of communication entirely (like writing or picture cards) depending on their receptive language skills. Some Deaf people get very frustrated slowing down their sign language for others, even other d/Deaf people, which can lead to isolation.

Being Deaf and developmentally disabled has many other challenges. Deafness can compound with lower situational awareness. Both signing and stimming are often seen as dangerous behavior by abled hearing people, especially to law enforcement. For a d/Deaf and developmentally disabled person who often interacts with hearing people, they may be more reliant on communication partners to help translate.

Disabilities like situational mutism can also affect d/Deaf people. For signers, situational mutism will probably affect their ability to sign, not just voice (if they do voice), but they may feel comfortable writing.

Being DeafDisabled is a unique experience, to navigate being disabled in both the Deaf and hearing communities. Deafness is often comorbid with other disabilities, so there are lots of people who are d/Deaf and otherwise disabled, but the exact disability will shape how someone interacts with each community.

(Because many people ask about this, the inability to speak without a neurological or psychiatric disability is pretty rare. Damage to the vocal cords or throat account for very few cases of mutism, and usually do not result in a total inability to voice. Please try and represent more complex and underrepresented disabilities than just making a character otherwise abled but unable to speak for no clear reason, which is unfortunately the most common non-speaking representation in fiction.)

In summary, please consider why your character cannot or does not speak. The nature of their disability will shape how they interact with other people, both d/Deaf and hearing, and that changes your approach to writing.

Keep writing, and I'm happy to answer more questions!

Mod Rock

[cripplecharacters]

I’m wondering if a cane or forearm crutches would work better for a character with nerve damage due to scarring and injury on the leg near/on the knee with an x shaped scar kinda like the image below

(Sorry for not doing the image description that makes it screen reader friendly, I forgot how it’s formatted or whatever)

Image Description: a black X shape drawn on a white screen.

Hi!

Without more details like where (rotationally) on the leg this scar is, it's kind of unclear what effect it might have. The knee area, especially on the top and inner side, is pretty bony; some types of scars, if they cause contraction, might affect the ability to bend the knee a little bit, but probably wouldn't cause nerve damage. Honestly, I think tendon damage is probably more likely from a knee injury, especially with more superficial injuries.

Whether crutches or a cane (or one crutch) is a better aid depends mostly on weight bearing ability of the injured leg, and partially on mobility as well.

For single-sided injuries, a cane is a suitable aid if their injured leg can bear at least 75% of their body weight during the part of the walk cycle where the other leg is raised.

Crutches become more suitable when the injured leg cannot properly weight bear. Two crutches can bear up to 100% of a person's body weight, using a three-point gait. A single crutch is technically rated for up to 50% weight bearing, but it can feel insecure or unbalanced, and same as a cane bears a higher risk of stress injury to the weight-bearing wrist or shoulder. So it's often better for unilateral injuries to use two crutches that can each take half the load.

Another thing to consider, especially with nerve damage, is if your character has foot drop, which can happen from pressure on or damage to the peroneal nerve, on the outside of the knee. The hip can accommodate for a lot of knee and ankle problems, but with foot drop, a brace can majorly reduce the strain on the other joints. If the only major symptom of their injury is foot drop, an orthotic brace alone, or a brace and a single cane or crutch, might be the most supportive aids.

Mod Rock