Trope Discussion: Tokenism / Having Only One Blind Character
What if I told you there was a solution to that blind character youβre worried about? What if I could give you a solution to your fear that your blind character will perpetuate stereotypes? What if I could suggest a way to soothe much of your anxiety around representation in your story?
Add more than one blind character to your story.
Thatβs my suggestion to almost every story I am presented with as a sensitivity reader.
For some reason, many people give me pushback on this. I have heard every excuse about why the story cannot have more than one blind character, even while the writer worries about the portrayal of that character.
I suspect that this is because having more than one blind character is assumed to be unrealistic in general or to the setting. Perhaps it doesnβt fit the plot the writer wants to write about. Perhaps the writer simply cannot think of ways to portray blindness that wonβt feel repetitive to them.
Whatever the reason, my advice is often the same. Add another blind character.
Adding more than one blind character can have many benefits. One of which is dealing with stereotypes or tropes you may feel nervous about. Perhaps your blind character is a musician. You want to write this story, but you donβt want to feel like youβre falling close to the trope of a blind music prodigy. Adding another blind character with a different interest could help show readers that blind people are all different, with many different hobbies and careers.
Perhaps your blind character went blind through a work-related accident. You want to show a character going through this in a realistic way, but you donβt want readers to come away believing the stereotype that all blind people go blind in accidents that are super tragic and awful. My usual suggestion here is to add at least two other blind characters who donβt go blind through traumatic accidents.
My preference is actually three.
This can alert readers to many different experiences with blindness. Not only does this help to ease the issue of stereotype, but effectively challenges it. It works best if the one who goes blind through an accident or incident is not the main character.
Showing the Spectrum of Blindness
Yes, blindness is a spectrum. Not all blindness is the same and not everyone has the same experience with blindness.
Showing the spectrum of blindness is possible when the story contains more than one blind character. It allows audiences to become aware of this spectrum and may even spark the urge to learn more.
The spectrum of blindness influences not only what people see, but how they navigate the world. This will influence the kinds of assistive devices they use and problems they may need to get around. I wrote a little about this in this post on myths that harm blind people.
Having More Than One Blind Character
Portraying the spectrum of blindness may also make it easier for people to have more than one blind character. I suspect this is a challenge because of the ableist idea that having more than one blind character would be unrealistic; we must directly challenge this idea, asking why it has to be that way.
This may not work for every story, but an exercise could be helpful. While I know Avatar: The Last Airbender is certainly not a perfect show and not everyone has watched it, I will use it for a brief example. I know many people, including blind people, who enjoyed the show as young people.
Toph, for example, is a popular blind character. Her popularity and unique personality would not be diminished by Avatar: The Last Airbender having another blind character or even multiple blind characters. Perhaps the audience could have seen Iroh adapt to vision loss due to old age, or experienced Zuko live with vision loss after his banishment. If low vision was not already part of the reason his father saw him as weak, or why he targeted Zukoβs face the way he did. Perhaps we could have learned how the Fire Nation treats disabled people.
On a lighter note, it would have been interesting for Aang to remember a blind Air Nomad. How interesting would it be for a blind character to be able to fly?
Additionally, while Tophβs isolation is huge part of her character arc, imagine what it would have done for the story for her to meet other blind characters and learn how they live. Imagine how it may have felt for her to learn how other parents interact with their blind kids. The complicated feelings that would have stirred up at meeting even one other blind person on their travels.
If you donβt like Avatar or want to use something else, feel free to share it with me sometime!
Giving Your Blind Character a Community
The importance of community is discussed in this post and a reblog, so please take time to go over it.
Your blind characters should have a community even if they arenβt interacting all the time. The community means friends, yes, but it also means learning about O&M and assistive technology. It allows blind people to know others who are like them.
Giving your blind character other blind characters to interact with is so important and often overlooked.
Write For Blind People, Too
I write often on this blog about how important it is for content to be accessible for blind people. What writers donβt consider as often is that they are writing for blind people, too.
This means letting blind people have characters who are like them. Characters who are not only blind, but who interact with their blindness in different ways. Characters who have blind friends, acquaintances, teachers, etc.
Blind people need to see characters like them who interact with characters like them. Give blind characters a community so your audience can experience that, too.
If you worry that having more than one blind character might seem unrealistic, consider how unrealistic it is to have all abled characters and only one disabled character. You arenβt only writing to avoid stereotypes and reach a non-disabled audience, you are reaching a disabled audience as well. You are reaching, even drawing in, a blind audience. They donβt need to be convinced about the realism of community.
Donβt forget to write with your blind audience in mind.
In the end, having more than one blind character can only enhance your story.
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