*tries to compute * Failed. Retry Y/N ?
Ko-Fi | Commissions | DeviantART | Tumblr Art Tag | Puzzle Peaches
Tag: Representation Matters
See, the problem with people who aren’t in wheelchairs writing about and/or drawing people who are in (manual) wheelchairs is that the people who aren’t in wheelchairs tend to think that there’s only like four movements that you do in a wheelchair. You can either push forward, push backwards, turn left, or turn right. And the characters do it all while sitting up straight or bending forward so that their noses touch their knees.
But the amount of motions that I go through on a daily basis are actually amazing. And the body language…you could write an entire book on the body language of someone in a wheelchair.
Like right now, I’m more relaxed, so I’m slouching slightly. I’ve got my right foot on its footrest and the left foot on the ground. Every so often, as I stop to think of something to say, I’ll push with my left foot to rock the chair slightly.
But usually, I sit mostly upright with my upper-half slightly leaned forward. When I’m wheeling across the campus, especially if I have somewhere that I need to be, I’ll lean and shift my weight in whichever direction it is that I’m going. It helps make the wheelchair glide that much more smoothly. How far/dramatically I lean depends on how fast I’m going, the terrain, if there’s a turn, etc.
Plus people who don’t use wheelchairs don’t understand the relationship between grabbing the wheels, pushing, and the chair moving. Like I’ve seen things written or have seen people try to use a chair where the character/that person grabs the wheel every single second and never lets go to save their lives. Which isn’t right. The key is to do long, strong, pushes that allow you to move several feet before repeating. I can usually get about ten feet in before I have to push again. It’s kind of like riding a scooter. You don’t always need to push. You push, then ride, then push, then ride, etc.
And because of this, despite what many people think, people in wheelchairs can actually multitask. I’ve carried Starbucks drinks across the campus without spilling a single drop. Because it’s possible to wheel one-handed (despite what most people think), especially when you shift your weight. And if I need to alternate between pushing both wheels, I’ll just swap hands during the ‘glide’ time.
I’ve also noticed that people who don’t use wheelchairs, for some reason, have no idea how to turn a wheelchair. It’s the funniest thing. Like I see it written or, again, have seen people ‘try’ a wheelchair where they’re reaching across their bodies to try to grab one wheel and push or they try to push both wheels at the same time and don’t understand. (For the record, you pull back a wheel and push a wheel. The direction that you’re going is the side that you pull back.)
Back to body language. Again, no idea why most people think that we always sit upright and nothing else. Maybe when I’m in meetings or other formal settings, but most of the time, I do slightly slouch/lean. As for the hands…A lot of writers put the wheelchair user’s hands on the armrests but the truth is, most armrests sit too far back to actually put your hands on. There are times when I’ll put my elbows on the edges of the armrests and will put my hands between my legs. Note: Not on my lap. That’s another thing that writers do but putting your hands in your lap is actually not a natural thing to do when you’re in a wheelchair, due to the angle that you’re sitting and the armrests. Most of the time, I’ll just sort of let my arms loosely fall on either side of the chair, so that my hands are next to my wheels but not grabbing them. That’s another form of body language. I’ve talked to a few people who have done it and I do it myself. If I’m ever anxious or in a situation where I want to leave for one reason or another, I will usually grip my handrims – one hand near the front , one hand near the back. And if I’m really nervous, you’ll find me leaning further and further into the chair, running my hands along the handrims.
Also, on a related subject – a character’s legs should usually be at 90 degree angles, the cushion should come to about their knees, and the armrests should come to about their elbows. You can always tell that an actor is not a wheelchair user when their wheelchair isn’t designed to their dimensions. (Their knees are usually inches away from the seats and are up at an angle, the armrests are too high, etc.) Plus they don’t know how to drive the chair.
Let’s see, what else? Only certain bags can go on the back of the chair without scraping against the wheels, so, no, your teenagers in wheelchairs can’t put their big, stylish, purses on the back. We don’t always use gloves since most gloves actually aren’t that helpful (as stated above, wheeling is a very fluid motion and gloves tend to constrict movements). Height differences are always a thing to remember. If you’re going for the “oh no, my wheelchair is broken” trope, nobody really has ‘flat’ tires anymore thanks to the new material for the wheels but it is possible to have things break off. We use the environment a lot. I always push off of walls or grab onto corners or kick off of the floor etc. Wheelchair parkour should really become a thing.
This is all of the physical things to think about. I could write a thesis on the emotional treatment of your characters with disabilities. But for now, I think that I’ll stop here. For my followers in wheelchairs, is there anything that I left out?
Also why isn’t wheelchair parkour a thing? Somebody make wheelchair parkour a thing.This is all REALLY GOOD and I wish something like this would be in more art guidebooks and classes.
One thing I’d add is that some of the posture stuff here is specific to wheelchair users who have the right chair; a lot of people (hi, past me) have to use chairs that aren’t at all the correct size, and that’s going to change posture, ease of use, etc. That’s such a broad variable that it’s probably useless to try and cover here, but it’s something to be aware of and research if it seems relevant to a character.
(and then I suspect there’s occasionally things you probably aren’t supposed to do with the wheelchair, like when my little sister was a kindergartner and decided to take her somewhat ill-fitting chair down a hill so fast she outpaced her kindergarten class and jack-knifed into a bush. And then waited calmly while her teachers panicked. Or cut to present day when she, every once in a while, uses her arm crutches as ski poles while in the chair just because she can)
more on writing muslim characters from a hijabi muslim girl
– hijabis get really excited over pretty scarves
– they also like to collect pins and brooches
– we get asked a lot of questions and it can be annoying or it can be amusing, just depends on our mood and personality and how the question is phrased
– common questions include:
– “not even water?” (referring to fasting)
– hijabis hear a lot of “do you sleep in that?” (we don’t) and “where is your hair?” (in a bun or a braid, usually)
– “is it mooze-slim or mozzlem?” (the answer is neither, it’s muslim, with a soft s and accent on the first syllable)
– “ee-slam or iz-lamb?” (it’s iss-laam, accent on the first syllable)
– “hee-job?” (heh-jahb, accent on the second syllable)– “kor-an?” (no. quran. say it like koor-annn, accent on the second syllable)
– people tend to mess up our names really badly and you just get a sigh and a resigned nod or an awkward smile, maybe a nickname instead
– long hair is easy to hide, short hair is harder to wrap up
– hijab isn’t just covering hair, it’s also showing as little skin as possible with the exception of face, hands, and feet, and not wearing tight/sheer clothing
– that applies to men too, people just don’t like to mention it ( i wonder why)
– henna/mehendi isn’t just for special occasions, you’ll see people wearing it for fun
– henna/mehendi isn’t just for muslims, either, it’s not a religious thing
– henna/mehendi is not just for women, men also wear it, especially on their weddings
– there are big mehendi parties in the couple of nights before eid where people (usually just women and kids) gather and do each other’s mehendi, usually just hands and feet
– five daily prayers
– most muslim kids can stutter through a couple verses of quran in the original arabic text by the age of seven or eight, it does not matter where they live or where they’re from or what language they speak natively
– muslim families tend to have multiple copies of the quran
– there are no “versions” of the quran, there has only ever been one. all muslims follow the exact same book
– muslims have no concept of taking God’s name in vain, we call on God at every little inconvenience
– don’t use islamic phrases if you don’t know what they mean or how to use them. we use them often, inside and outside of religious settings. in islam, it is encouraged to mention God often and we say these things very casually, but we take them very seriously
– Allahu Akbar means “God is Greatest” (often said when something shocks or surprises us, or if we’re scared or daunted, or when something amazing happens, whether it be good or bad; it’s like saying “oh my god”)
– Subhan Allah means “Glory be to God” (i say subhan Allah at the sky, at babies, at trees, whatever strikes me as pleasant, especially if it’s in nature)
– Bismillah means “in the name of God” and it’s just something you say before you start something like eating or doing your homework
– In Shaa Allah means “if God wills” (example: you’ll be famous, in shaa Allah) (it’s a reminder that the future is in God’s hands, so be humble and be hopeful)– Astaghfirullah means “i seek forgiveness from Allah” and it’s like “god forgive me”
– Alhamdulillah means “all thanks and praise belong to God” and it’s just a little bit more serious than saying “thank god” (example: i passed my exams, alhamdulillah; i made it home okay, alhamdulillah)
– when i say we use them casually, i really mean it
– teacher forgot to assign homework? Alhamdulillah
– our version of “amen” is “ameen”
– muslims greet each other with “assalamu alaikum” which just means “peace be on you” and it’s like saying hi
– the proper response is “walaikum assalam” which means “and on you be peace” and it’s like saying “you too”As a Muslim this post is so very important and it makes me so happy that it gives the small facts and details that one might be unaware of or confused about.
“[Also] my parents on the show, they’re very supportive of my sexual preference, and maybe this can serve as an inspiration to parents at home watching who are dealing with a child who is gay or lesbian and not knowing how to communicate or be as a open. I hope that our family on the show is an inspiration for some families just to be open and accept your children and love them. The Pierce family does a great job of doing that.” ― Nafessa Williams for Entertainment Weekly
endless list of favorite celebs » Constance Wu
❝I wouldn’t say that just visibility is important. I would say visibility as the stars of a show is important. That says that our stories matter. We’re not here to do the taxes of the white person, or to be the chipper best friend to the white person. It’s important to see Asians in those leading roles because it changes what I’m calling the anglo-heteronormative status of TV. [Imagine] that a producer says, “Guy and girl meet-cute at an ice skating rink. They fall in love, but then she has to move away.” If you say that to anyone, including an Asian person, you picture a white person because that’s what’s become normative to us. If it’s “Asian-American meet in a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown,” that’s the only time you picture it. We need to have a picture of Asian Americans. We have a unique experience that has myriad opportunities for storytelling, if other people are willing to tell those stories.❞
Power of fictional characters right here.
Use this gifset the next time some asshole tries to tell you that “there’s no disability in this sci-fi story because there’s no point.”
Yasss hope
we are all Kelly in that second gif right now
This so rocks. 😌
nevergonnaloveagainthewayiloved:
make playable characters disabled you cowards
in which way disabled? there are characters who have ptsd, depression, soxial anxiety disorder or other psychological problems, there are characters with missing body parts or with an illness. but there is no point in having a playable character who cannot leave the house and even the bed, unless you make a game around that one character and the events indoors, and even that already exists. i wonder which games you mean in which you want disabled characters added and which disabilities you are talking about. do you want to hunt zombies in a wheelchair? or as a blind? or as someone who cant even walk for a minute before they are too exhausted to even walk another step? do you want to solve crimes while lying in bed with brainfog and in huge pain? do you want to face the enemy while being a blobbering mess of anxiety who cant even breathe? you should demand that at least sims will add more illness as character traits, and even they already have the anxious, depressed, easily throwing up loner sim who randomly falls sick every other day. do you want a game where all you do is lie in bed, watch tv and take meds? sims sounds right. they should add that.
so I made this post intentionally vague because we need more playable characters with any and all types of disabilities, but thank you for asking, I always love a reason to elaborate! honestly, what I meant was “give me a playable character who uses a cane or crutches, because I’m desperate to play as a character who has a body like mine.”
I don’t normally play video games or app games, but I started playing @thearcanagame yesterday, and it’s been really strange and kind of frustrating for the game to tell me that “I” did something that my body can’t do, such as walk up a tall flight of stairs; it totally broke my suspension of disbelief and took me out of the fantasy game mode my brain was in whenever it said something about me walking and I was like “but where’s my cane though?”
and yes, I know this is a fantasy game; obviously my character’s body is inherently doing things my body can’t do, such as magic. but it’s part of a larger issue of ableism and exclusion of disabled people in all forms of media; even if other characters in games might be disabled (without going into the ableism usually involved in which characters are disabled), it reflects that creators on some level don’t expect disabled people to play their games when they don’t include disabled playable characters.
as for the rest of your response: yes. fuck yes, I want to hunt zombies in a wheelchair, and I want people with low vision and chronic fatigue to have the opportunity to play as characters that represent themselves while kicking zombie ass. Fuck Yes, I want to play as a detective with severe chronic pain. yes, I want to play as a hero who has panic attacks. do I want a game where all I do is lie in bed, watch tv, and take meds? honestly, yeah, because sometimes taking care of a fictional character reminds me to take care of myself.
what struck me with the question about solving crimes while laying in bed with brain fog and intense pain was how that’s what I’m doing anyway—if I’m playing a crime-solving game, I’m doing that while laying in bed with brain fog and intense pain. so why not have a character who’s doing the same thing I am? you phrased this as if all of those situations are impossible to include in a game (they aren’t) and as if no one would enjoy playing them (we would). there is so much potential for the inclusion of disabled characters and their stories. abled creators just need to step up their game.
As someone who has zombie survival on the brain and uses a wheelchair
We can be badass
You walking people? Already at head height the zombies have to bend down and try to get to my head hah!
Also Boudicca wheel attachments so I can de-foot them, just long ass twirling swords of death!
Tie a pole to my chair arm and I’m a spinning vortex of death just be wary of dizziness
Have a charachter who has access to maps restricted because of their cane or because of innaccessibility.
Have a Doctor game where you play a chronically ill doctor and are fighting to get help from doctors and get help for your patients with doctors who think you are all drug seeking and in an inaccessible hospital.
Have pain meters which stop running and jumping
Have fatigue meters which deplete rapidly
Have a hero worth a cane in games
Have a cart racing game where someone in a wheelchair is being pulled by giant wolves.
A romance game where one of the options is in a wheelchair
Have a RPG where the character is notably limping
Have games where the good characters are disabled not the bad.
Have a detective game where the time limit is because of the characters endurance for standing at one time.
Have an RPG where I can use my crutches as weapons because trust me they work even on 6ft2 body builders.
It’s not that difficult to come up with ideas. It’s just putting in the effort.
Rebellions are built on hope 