#disability writing

[chimetime-tkls]

Disability Writing Advice

Okay, i'm kinda feeling odd about this and i need advice from you guys.

Tw: Child/animal injury, medical neglect, abuse.

Please read the full post before commenting!

Other than my sonas, my main OCS are members of The Pack; 4 dog/wolf hybrids and their adopted fox brother. I've been making tickle content for them since middle school. My problem is with the fox.

His name is Creeper/Pearl. As a result a colt kicking his mouth, Creeper broke his lower jaw and hurt his vocal cords at a young age. His jaw healed crooked and scarred, and his vocal cords are damaged temporarily because his parents refused getting medical help as a form of punishment. Later, a wolf/dog family adopts him and he's been living with them ever since. Both as a teen and an adult, Creeper always stutters and hisses uncontrollably, as well as having pronunciation problems with certain words as a result of his injuries.

My question is that what do you guys think about a Lee/ler who has speaking problems such as stuttering and hissing? How should I write him and his dialogue? What kinds of tropes I should avoid while writing him, either as a Lee or ler? Is there anything I should add or remove while portraying Creeper's disability in my writings?

Here are the ways I've always written his dialogue, along with some notes. Please give me feedback about if this is okay or not to do, I'd truly appreciate it!

The letters "s" and "f" are written longer as an emphasis on hissing. There are some cuts in between or at the start of the words as an emphasis on stutter. Whenever there is a continuous tense used on a verb, the letter "g" is cut off. The pronoun "you" becomes "ya", "you're" becomes "ya're".

“Who, me? Offf coursssse!”

Ssso what? It's not like YA can ca-carry both offff them on your own!

“Ya’re w-welcome! Will ya help me set up da bonfire t-tonight?”

“There is laughter c-comin’ fffffffrom our home. Ya don't hear?”

Well, would ya like me to run da do-door down, then?

“Wait, no! I go-got thissss!”

“Oh, thankssssss!”

"Oh, issssss t-that so?"

"We-Well, sss- sucks to be ya, ‘cuz I jussssst have!"

"That's d-different! Fissh don't bully me wit- with their ice magic!”

“Big b-bro! I'm getti-ting harassssssed an-and assssssaulted h-here!"

"Take y-your pointed prooff and sshove it wh-where the ssun doesn't sssshine!"

"Sssor- Sorry?”

"Ssorry. I don't t-think i can sss- s-see wha-what y- ya're doin- ing, bro,”

“You gotta sspeak up for my sssake.”

"Bonfffffire!"

"Come o-on, ya sslowpokesss! Let's get goin’ alre- ready!"

"De- defffffffinitely! I want to sset thingssssss on ffffire now!”

"I under- undersssssstand, I can wait. I'm not as impatient as ya'd like to believe."

"Offf course not! I'm better than that, you kno- know!"

“You fffeel icy, what elsse?”

"I promisse!"

In an addition to that, his brothers sometimes finish off a word for him when he can't pronounce it at the moment. Not all the time, but sometimes - which i also have an example of it. I'd also want to know if that's okay to do or not.

Pearl snorted out another plume of red smoke. “Hah! Now THAT is very correct!” He turned his head back towards him and gave a crooked grin. “Which is da reass- reasss- re-”

“Reason.” Rotten completed for him.

Pearl nodded and skipped that word. “-why I've came to help ya.”

Like, does that look like babying/infantilizing him? They do it because Creeper is a Fire Elemental and has a short temper. When he gets stuck on a word, he gets frustrated and angry super fast, than sets himself on fire. So, they help him out and preventing him from getting angry by completing the word.

The Pack members are all wild animals and there isn't any Elemental power that can fix Creeper's jaw or vocal cords, other than re - breaking his lower jaw in medieval style. But that's be extremely traumatizing and painful for him, therefore his brothers don't try it.

[wetlizardheart]

POSTED THE LAST CHAPTER!!!!! AAAAAAA

Chapters: 6/6 Fandom: 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime), 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Manga) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Getou Suguru/Gojo Satoru Characters: Getou Suguru, Gojo Satoru, Ieiri Shoko Additional Tags: No Manga Spoilers, Disability, Slow Build, Vomit, (In a Getou Curse Eating Way), Everything is Romantic by Charli XCX, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, no beta we die like junpei, Horror, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Getou Suguru Does Not Defect From Jujutsu Society, Body Horror, Pre-Star Plasma Vessel | Hidden Inventory Arc (Jujutsu Kaisen), Post-Star Plasma Vessel | Hidden Inventory Arc (Jujutsu Kaisen), Gore, but also Magical Realism vibes, a little Disordered Eating, DO NOT REPOST ELSEWHERE Summary:

“And your health is okay?”

Suguru thinks of blood and gravel, remembers the breath caught in his chest. Shoko’s frustration: Ruptured esophagus. Intercostal muscle tear. Seriously, Geto, what the fuck?

“It’s great, actually. There’s a great doctor here.”

Or: Compared to Limitless, Curse Manipulation is filthy—tactile, and dirty. It breaks a body down.

[agentsquirrelsgotrobots]

I love the trope where a possessed disabled person does something they should be incapable of doing to show that they are being possessed, especially when it's being portrayed by a writer that understands the inherent horror of the act - it's not scary because they have suddenly started to be better, but that their body is the exact same except for the supernatural being inside them - they aren't "cured", their bodies are being used against them and it's making their disability worse.

Especially in cases where we can see their braces or prostheses - I can see someone who wears compression socks to control blood flow suddenly standing out of their wheelchair, their socks ripped and their legs blue. Bruises form as muscles that have become vestige are forced back into action, the bones in their feet splinter as they have not been used in decades and can't handle their weight.

My first thought was with a person with POTS who is transitioning to full time wheelchair use and is slowly coming to terms with the idea that they are able to do *so much more* with it. But, the possession happens, and they are forced to walk without supports, their joints dislocating, but the being doesn't care. Once the evil is vanquished, the person collapses, their condition permanently worsened.

[lancedoncrimsonwings]

Make your Whumpees Chronically Ill.

What kind? Do they have Chronic Pain? Chronic Fatigue? Dietary illnesses? Connective tissue diseases? Autoimmune disorders? Something made up or fantasy based? Something else entirely?

What does their day-to-day look like? Maybe they don't need a Whumper to be suffering. Can they take care of themselves, or do they need help? Do they get that help? What happens if they don't? What happens if there is a Whumper using this against them, or a Caretaker who doesn't understand? Make them flare up, then worsen all their symptoms!

For invisible illnesses; Do people believe them when they say they're sick even though no one can see it on the outside? Do they struggle with not being able to see what they feel themselves?

For more visible illnesses; Do they face discrimination and ableism? Do people treat them differently, do people infantalise them? How do they feel about that?

Questions;

What are their symptoms like?

Do they flare up?

If their health worsens, will it ever recover?

Do they mourn the life they had before it got to this point?

Do they have a diagnosis, or even know what's wrong?

What gives them respite?

What makes them worse?

Do they suffer with mental health issues as well, and are they because of the Chronic Illness or a secondary thing to suffer?

Pain;

Neuropathic pain;

Widespread, often nerve based pains from a nervous system disease or disorder

Allodynia- tactile, thermal or mechanical allodynia, even the lightest touch can hurt, and your skin feels raw and bruised. Pressing on it hurts deeply, to the bone. Pain can worsen with temperature fluctuations, warm and/or cold.

Parasthesia- peripheral neuropathy, partial or full numbness, tingling, pricking, vice like or lightning-like pains, weakness in the affected areas. Can worsen with compression, such as restraints or stress positions, and can come and go.

Nociceptive pain;

Somatic sharp pain that's localised to the affected area and can be caused by long term, unhealing or reocurrent damage and injury

Visceral aching pain that's widespread and can be caused by systemic disease

Inflammation- hot, aching pains that throb incessantly, seizing joints and knotted muscles, brain fog, headaches and sluggish thoughts, stabbing tendons and sharp pain in ligaments, swelling, tenderness and redness

Dislocations, subluxations and connective tissue weakness, weak joints that can contort beyond what is normal, soft skin that bruises breaks and scars with ease, never ending joint pain, grinding bone against bone and broken cartlidge, permanently altered movements from ligament damage, agonisingly powerful sharp stabbing pains at certain movements

General:

Pain that's worst when waking. Pain that gets worse throughout the day. Pain that's worse in heat or in cold, pain that changes with the weather

Dissociation as a way to cope with the pain, to the point when they realise just where hurts it's like being hit by a truck. Depersonalization to the point they don't know who they even are, they don't feel alive, these limbs are not their own. Derealisation to the point reality feels like it's taken a step to the left, like they're a ghost and the real world is behind a pane of glass. Both blanketing over them in a desperate attempt by the brain to stop the pain that would have them screaming without it.

Pain that they no longer respond to, what's the use in screaming when it never ends. Chronic pain that masks the acute pain of injuries they didn't realise you had. (Ask me how I know...) Chronic pain that has medical professionals shocked at how little they react to things that cause severe pain. Chronic pain that wears down their tolerance for everything else, that makes them snappy, irritable and angry.

Vice like pains, twisting clawing tearing inside muscles, pain when they move, speak, even breathe.

Pain that never ends and isn't touched by most medications. Pain that IS helped by some medications, but the side affects are terrible, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, hallucinations, bladder and bowel issues, slurred speech and a hazy mind

Pain they cannot see that drives them to hurt themselves on purpose just to feel in control of it, just to be able to see what they feel upon their skin

Pain that will make them do anything for it to stop, pain that takes their hope away, robs them of their dreams, makes them want to end it all

Fatigue;

Fatigue that drives a haze over their brain and tears their memory to shreds. Slurred words, sentences said in the wrong order, fatigue that has neurological bases. Fatigue that turns a once sharp mind into a rambling incoherent mess. The ability to read, write, speak, listen all taken away, so the world becomes an incoherent mess too.

Fatigue that causes insomnia, so they end up physically exhausted AND fatigued at the same time

Fatigue that's worsened with light, sound and being upright, and can only be managed by aggressive resting, lying still in the silent darkness.

Fatigue that comes in waves, fatigue that flares if they overexert; Post Exertional Malaise, limbs weak and pumped full of lead, tachycardia, inability to stand or walk, inability to eat, think, drink, speak

Fatigue that feels like the flu, fever, swollen glands, hoarse throat and blood pressure dysregulation, fainting and dehydration

Dark circles under eyes that only seem to worsen over time. Weight loss and muscle wastage, ability draining away.

Fatigue that feels like dying whilst alive, that no one understands, that isolates until there's nothing left. Fatigue that strips of everything that made them who they were, until they are just a shell of a living thing.

Make your Whumpees Chronically Ill.

Sincerely, a Chronically Ill fuck who is suffering far too much today and wants to see more representation.

This are purely based on my own experiences, and is by no means exhaustive, hell, I've only scratched the very surface of my own chronic illnesses here.

Feel free to add to this!

[johannepetereric]

So I got an Beyblader OC, Ruka, who’s a wheelchair user. Many or most elevated stadiums have stairs that isn’t wide(?) enough to hold a chair. Much less a wheelchair. Or even if it has a ramp, there’s still the curb to stop the Bladers from falling in. Ruka can’t hold herself up long enough to do anything other than a snipe win. (And I’m not sure you can launch with crutches, unless, like, you have the elbow ends of the arms on the crutch, leaving the front end able to do something. Idk, I don’t think I’ve ever needed crutches). So does a third party have to hold her long enough to launch, maybe even for the whole match if she can’t sit up on her own (I’m undecided on that part)?

[twinklipsiero]

Hi! Saw your reference for writing about canes and I had a question. Are canes hard to use on an incline? I live in a mountain region and there's a lot of people who don't usually use a cane but use one when going uphill. Is that different from using a cane usually, since it works best on level surfaces?

Thanks for the reference!

Hey! Thanks so much for your question!

Short answer: it depends on the cane and the incline

Long answer:

So for me in quite a hill-y but still urban area it's easier to walk with a cane on an incline because I can use it as an anchor point to almost pull myself up, I'll place the cane further away from myself than usual and lean heavier on it as I move to meet it to reduce the strain on my knees of having to both balance and walk.

You can get canes with special tips that have better grip specifically for mountain hiking and very steep inclines, but a normal rubber end is fine for somewhere that has normal tarmac paving.

Using a cane on an incline is definitely a skill to learn and there's different techniques that work dependent on why someone is using a cane (e.g. if it's just for extra support in case of a joint buckling just walking normally with it will still work vs my technique bc my cane is for balance mainly) but I wouldn't say it's necessarily harder overall if that makes sense? It's just another thing to get used to

Hope this helps!

Editing to add this perspective on from @geraltsboobs (thank you again for adding on!!)

From another perspective, they can absolutely be difficult to use on inclines! I personally have mobility issues in my shoulders as well as my hips and legs, which means inclines with my cane can really hurt. Imo its definitely a matter of different perspective, and both answers to this question are correct

Another important addition from @horatiowasgay !!

[twinklipsiero]

Little things I don't think non-cane users would know cause Issues™, for reference in writing!

- gusty wind not only throws personal centre of balance off but if you've got a lightweight metal cane it will throw your placement of the cane off

- same goes for being driven past by busses or lorries

- uneven pavements can suck my ass the cane is meant to be parallel to your leg and this is very hard to do when the pavement isn't level

- same goes for cobbled streets, brick paved streets tend to be smoother so I love them <3

- some paving slabs get really slippy when they're wet! This often means that I lean on my cane much heavier bc I can't rely as much on even my good leg to stay stable

- yes cane height should be adjusted to account for heels/ wedged shoes it's a bit of a bastard if you used a fixed length cane

- using a cane for the first few days/weeks hurts! If u only use it irregularly/ on bad days it can hurt every time! Wrists aren't used to taking weight in this way.

Check RBs and my asks tag for more info!

PS if you enjoy these writing tips pls consider supporting a queer disabled furry artist get his top surgery because he's my partner and gives me big gay kisses so I can keep writing cool posts for y'all thank u: https://www.ko-fi.com/buildawolf

[jgwritings]

Accessibility as a Human Triumph. An essay

“Disability: a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities.”

I am disabled. I know this, I accept it, and I adjust for it. I cannot compete on the same levels of my peers or my body doesn’t hold up well-literally, my joints have a hard time doing their job and so it takes my muscles twice the effort to adjust to them. This means that even on a good day, I do not have the physical capacity of my peers. So naturally, I have a few thoughts on it now after a few years of navigating my body. Abled-bodied people have no idea what disability and chronic illness entails. At best, they relate it to a governmental definition or worse, a moral failure. When, in reality, Disability is just a natural variable of the world, and so accessibility should be an inevitability of it as well. 

We can have a world where we can not only make accessible things, but we can make beautiful accessible things, stunning accessible things...

https://www.patreon.com/posts/accessibility-as-72862015?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link 

Rest of the essay is on Patreon, where you can support me for as low as $1 and you get access to some essays, workshops and handouts, short stories, and other poetry. If not, check out my insta jordangaonawilson where I post frequently.