A guide to designing, drawing or writing characters who use mobility aids!!!!
I hope this is helpful for people, a lot of people seemed to appreciate my wheelchair guide, so I hope this is as helpful!!
I may have missed some bits but there are some things, such as prosthetics, that some may argue is a mobility aid, however I’d like to go into more detail and create specific guides for those things!!
⚠️ WARNING! The following art is about being bullied and the descent into depression, and includes some of the most harmful things that others have said to me. Proceed with caution!
Please note that things such as "selfish" were said because of either:
Simply expressing how someone else made me feel and that being seen as emotional manipulation / guilt-tripping due to being neurodivergent and crying easily
Prioritizing my own mental health and not wanting to make it worse because I have rejection sensitivity dysphoria and didn't want to be bullied for crying
Being misunderstood and framed as the "bad guy" for trying to defend / explain myself and being bad at it due to being neurodivergent
Also, plural tags have been used since the art depicts one of our sysmates and part of how / why they formed.
⚠️ WARNING! The following art has slight artistic nudity due to being about body dysphoria. Proceed with caution!
Please note that I experience different types of dysphoria, due to not only being trans, but also being alterhuman, plural, and struggling with an eating disorder because of our chronic illness ( celiac ).
Ngl looks kinda like an animal crossing character... Hehehe! I'm kinda proud of how this turned out.
Also ofc I'm gonna add a shameless plug: I do commissions for this type of art! ( lil drawings that can be used as stickers / icons / emojis / tattoos )
I know art can be inaccessible to physically disabled people for a lot of reasons, and I think art should be accessible to everyone, so here’s a couple of the things I found to help for a few different issues you may face that stop you participating!
I have a link to all these items (UK) in my link tree!!
Disabled children’s and comic illustrator
IMAGE DESCRIPTION
Slide one: illustration of a white woman with pink hair, wearing a pink outfit, sitting in a power wheelchair, looking at the viewer with thumbs up. Text Reese “hacks to make art more accessible”
Slide two: illustration of three different kinds, using three different types of pencil grips. One hand uses a circular grip. 100 is a large, rectangular grip. Another uses a grip that is ergonomic and fit into the hand. Main text reads “Paul, grip, strength and dexterity”. Subtext reads “there are loads of different types of pencil, grips or design for different disabilities and conditions. Increasing the width of the pencil can give more texture for a better grip using a pencil with a thicker with also reduces the amounts of pressure needed to hold a pencil you can make your own using items like pool noodles. KT tape an air dry clay. You can also put these groups on things like paint brushes.“
Slide three: illustration of a hand using a tool that looks like a wrist support with a paintbrush connected to it text next to it reads “this talk next a paintbrush to your hand in a way that means you don’t need to hold the paintbrush with your fingers and you will need to move your arm around“ on the bottom right hand corner is in photograph of a guided hand device. Text read “regarded hand as a tool designed to reduce the need for moving your hands and fingers and relies on the movement of your shoulder and upper arms and can be used with different materials like paintbrushes, pencils, pens and styluses.
Slide four: main header reads “when in bed“. Illustration of an iPad pillow with a iPad in it is next to text that reads “iPad pillows, put your tablet at an easier to access level when sitting or lying down“. In the bottom left hand corner is an illustration of a girl sitting in bed in her pyjamas with a pillow behind her and a bed table as she is drawing. On the left hand side is a photograph of a bed table with the text reading “bed tables are used to give you a flat tire up surface while in bed, and are often height adjustable”. In the bottom right hand side is a bedsit, a pillow with the text underneath, reading “ bedsitters of specially shaped pillows that you put behind you in bed to help you set up and give you a soft surface to lean back on”.
Slide five: maisie had a read out “at a desk left”. On the left hand side is a photograph of the document holder with the text “document holders put your paper at an angle to help prevent crane in your neck down”. On the right hand, middle side is an illustration of someone using a armrest and on the bottom left hand side is a photograph of the armrest. Text next to them reads “economic arm rests clip onto your table or desk and give you a surface you lean you’re forearms or elbows on. This can be used to steady your arm and reduce pain and fatigue while sitting at a desk”.
Slide six: maisie reads “foot and mouth painters” . on the right hand side is an photograph of swapping Augustine, an Indian woman with no arms, wearing a sari painting with her left foot. In the bottom left hand corner is an illustration of a woman with green hair painting using her mouth. Text reads “foot and mouth painting is a technique used by artists who do not have, or cannot use their arms so hold the paintbrush in their mouth or using their foot. Swapna Augustine is a foot painter who has painted with her feet and participated in multiple exhibitions of foot and mouth painters. Her art is stunning and I would definitely recommend checking some of help work out.“
Slide seven: main text reeds “art without brushes and pens”. On the left-hand side is a photograph of a spin art device. Text next to read it reads “spin out involves using bottles of ink and squirting them onto a spinning piece of paper to create spiral art. On the middle right hand side is a illustration of a laptop with coding art written on the screen. Text me next to it reads “coding art involves making programs that design and create art pieces digitally. This could be used in conjunction with an eye tracking software.“ On the bottom left hand side is a photograph of a child in a power wheelchair with paint on their wheels painting onto a large piece of paper. Next to this is text reading “wheelchair painting involves putting paint on your wheelchair wheels and moving around and large piece of paper. Sometimes you can connect a roller to create more marks.“
Slide eight: text reads “what do you do to make art accessible for you?”
Colorblindness affects about 8% of men and 0.5% of women around the world, with red-green colorblindness being the most common. Around ~13 million people in USAmerica are colorblind.
This is why we& draw in black and white and differentiate with (still readable) fonts and pseudonyms :)
I wanna be clear this isn't about any one blog and it isn't just about color-censoring pseudonyms! For example, I have seen blogs use colored speech bubbles or colored text to denote who's speaking or thinking at a given time with no other indicators. This can be especially confusing when a back and forth exchange occurs, there's no speech at all (symbols and feelings and such), or it's unexpected in context (say, one member's thoughts/feelings start "bleeding through" someone else's speech)
A comment pointed out that a lot of these comics are meant as semi-private diaries. But if your comic is not that, and you mean for it to be read and enjoyed by others (we& do!), consider accessibility!
