on the rare occasion that anyone in this fandom is actually willing to talk about the Disability Erasure i am always left with the impression that nobody actually understands what disability erasure is or why it's a problem. or that people think it only "counts" as erasure, or only matters, if it's like prefaced by a big flashing sign saying "I am erasing Ricky's disability on purpose because I am overtly ableist!"
that's not how it works. no amount of (presumed) good intentions changes that it is ableist to get rid of a character's disability. even if you replace it with a different disability that you're more comfortable depicting, even if you can justify it with some vague "karnak did afterlife magic" explanation, even if you can make the claim that actually ricky needs to be able to talk in the afterlife because otherwise how would he be included in the musical. even if you have a million excuses it's still erasure
the whole #saverickypotts thing has clearly just become a bunch of slogans people parrot without understanding it, because like. i've seen "disability rep is so important i would never erase that!" in the authors notes of fics that explicitly erase ricky's disability, but oh it's okay because they headcanon him as having another condition. i've seen people constantly dismissing the fact that ricky becoming able-bodied upon dying, in the vast majority of productions, is Not Good. i've seen countless ideas that suggest ways to "avoid" the canon erasure... but instead are just suggesting a slightly different form of erasure
even when people DO acknowledge the disability erasure they talk about it like it's a technicality. like of course this is actually a good depiction that disabled people want to see, it just so happens that the term "disabilty erasure" is way too broad and happens to include too much stuff around ricky. like the intended use of the term is only for when people say "I am erasing representation on purpose due to my ableism" and ricky becoming able-bodied is just like, a good thing that got caught in the crossfire. i don't think people realize that like, rather than this being a situation that unfortunately happened to fall under the "disability erasure" term, the concept of "disability erasure" was coined to describe situations like this because we don't like them
because the fact is. you don't understand what erasure is or why it's bad. you've just memorized a few out-of-context facts like "the 2022 script changes were disability erasure" or even "ricky being able bodied in the afterlife is disability erasure".
i hate that i have to explain this, but like. you really cannot Spread Awareness about a problem, or Fix it, without first understanding it. not everyone is a disability representation expert of course and thats fine, but its always really obvious when (mostly able-bodied) people are running forward with a genius solution and they don't even understand the problem. like i promise if you don't understand the topic at hand then the first thing you think of is NOT going to be a genius new solution that no disabled people have ever considered.
sometimes - frequently, even - it is time for you as an able bodied person to step back and listen. and to actually sit with what's being said and try to understand it, instead of just being like "right, we're using the term Disability Erasure but i dont have to know what that means or change anything about my behavior, got it". sometimes it is time for you to, at the very least, be willing to Ask Questions instead of just assuming your first assumption is right.
i hate how much this fandom makes me feel compelled to defend canon's disability rep considering everything, but like. if you want to "fix" canon then you need to actually put effort and care into it, including listening to disabled people, and frankly? most of the fandom is not yet at a stage of being as good as canon in terms of disability rep, let alone improving on it. people think they're going to come up with a genius solution to fix all of canon's disability erasure and all other problems... and meanwhile they can't even use canon's disability depiction as a starting point without erasing more of it.
disability erasure is not just like, a thing that happened in the 2022 script edits. it's not even just some weird trivia thing that was technically in the musical all along. it is a huge problem that plagues the whole canon and fanon in various ways and if you don't understand that, you shouldn't be trying to talk over disabled people about it. and yes, if you've assumed we agree with you and thus you assume sharing your able-bodied thoughts is just Sharing What Disabled People Think, that is STILL talking over us.