#op is a wheelchair user

[lanceeselhombre]

Wheelchair user ! Tighnari Au

⚠️ Spoilers for the Sumeru archon quests. TW for canon major character injury, spinal cord injury ⚠️

It’s so unlikely that Tighnari would have walked away from and fully recovered from a lightning strike as depicted in the archon quest. So for the purposes of this Au, vision holder plot armor has been removed.

• Immediately following the strike, he’s blinded, deafened, and loses consciousness. It isn’t until he comes to that he realizes he was thrown several meters away by a shockwave.

• Everything hurts, but particularly his head, his right ear, and his back. He stays on the ground regaining his bearings until Dehya helps him to his feet. It’s then that he realizes he can’t feel his legs.

• Dehya mentioned that she has seen lightning strike victims, and so has Tighnari. They both know that his immediate symptoms are temporary, and that he just needs to rest for a few hours. This is why he insists he is fine, even as his legs get so weak that he needs to sit as they talk.

• Except even after those hours of rest and most of the symptoms are gone, his head, ear, and back still hurt, and he still wobbles like a newborn deer when he stands. It only takes him a moment of trying to walk it off to realize that his tail is limp.

• That is when he realizes that something is very, very wrong and that he needs to see the bimarstan. Tighnari makes the decision to leave Hypasia where she is, knowing his back might be broken, and that trying to lift her might hurt both of them. He takes Karkata with him too, in case he can’t continue. He’ll send someone to check on her as soon as he gets to the city.

• He makes it to the bimarstan in the middle of the night, collapsed over Karkata and exhausted. Someone is sent for Hypasia and he is rushed to a bed for treatment.

• The next few hours are hazy and he falls asleep at some point. When he wakes up again, several days have passed. His burns and head are wrapped in bandages. A hand flies to his tail to make sure that it is, in fact, still there.

• A doctor tells him that he has a concussion, a blown earn drum, and nerve damage. They couldn’t determine the extent of it with him asleep and with the concussion, so they have to wait until that heals to know the true extent of the damage.

• It’s nearly a month before his concussion is gone. In that time, Cyno, Collei, and traveler have come to visit him. He hasn’t been able to stand at all, otherwise he would have returned home to heal.

• The neurological eval determines that he has no reflexes or sensation at and below his pelvis. Without imaging, they can’t tell what exactly caused the complete spinal cord injury between the lightning strike and his arrival at the bimarstan. Tighnari doesn’t remember what happened either. Either way, the damage is already done.

• Understandably, he is devastated by the news. He already knew that was the case, but it never sunk in until it was confirmed by a doctor. At the same time, he insists that he won’t let it limit him from his research or working with the forest rangers. He can’t.

• The next day, an evaluator comes to fit him for a wheelchair. Tighnari stubbornly advocates for it to be made for an active life in the rain forest, despite the evaluator insisting that he wouldn’t be able to return to his job. In the end, he gets the modifications he asked for, and it will be ready for him to use in a week.

• One of the biggest fights he has with the medical staff is to keep his tail. They all want to amputate it, since it’s ‘useless’ now and a huge risk for injury, but he fights hard. He will not let them take it.

• While he waits for the wheelchair, the doctors teach him how to care for himself long-term: how to get dressed, how to clean himself, how to self-cath and do a bowel program. And, at his request, they also come up with methods for him to do the above without injuring his tail.

• As soon as the wheelchair is ready, he starts learning how to transfer, push himself, do wheelies, all the important tasks for self independence. He isn’t allowed to go home until he can prove he can get around on his own, so he practices and practices all day long.

• He gets discharged several days later and finally, finally gets to go home. Cyno is there to escort him, which is great even though he wants to push himself the whole way. It takes time to build up strength for that, and he was confined to a bed for the greater part of two months.

• While he was gone, Gandharva ville was made as wheelchair accessible as possible. All the ramps and roads have been leveled and cleared of obstacles. Initially, they’re too tiring for him to push up, but with practice he can eventually get up them just fine.

• Some things need to be lowered in his home, but once that is done, his life returns to normal. Collei did a great job of keeping things in order while he was gone, and despite the other rangers’ initial worry, he is still a strong, capable leader and completely independent.

• If he can help it, though, he never wants to go to Sumeru city again. That place is completely inaccessible.

#my headcanons #other content #genshin headcanons #genshin impact headcanons #disability headcanon #genshin tighnari #tighnari #wheelchair #op is a wheelchair user #op has nerve damage #spinal scord injury #major character injury

[gothamcity-official]

How was the bar fight in Crime Alley? Did you have fun in the bar fight in Crime Alley?

It was so fun Red Hood was there my chair almost got knocked over. Everyone is always very respectful of my chair even when there's fighting. Sure they'll call me names and whatever but never because of my chair mostly because I deliberately steal a barstool and take its spot and it's so funny to see how mad it makes people.

#mod rusty (oc) #only in gotham #only in gotham rp #onlyingotham #op #dc #in character #first in story mention of Mod Rusty's wheelchair! they're an ambulatory wheelchair user but they like to take it everywhere #because Gothamites aren't gonna knock you down for being disabled #but they WILL if you're disabled AND an a-hole

[just-your-average-tangerine]

One thing that bothers me in the argument that autistic people are always accommodated in queer spaces (aside from the fact that its often just not true) is that in every single queer space I've been in that did offer accommodations, those accommodations were just 'theres a quiet room/ sit outside/ otherwise don't participate'.

And like, it great to have that. Quiet rooms are valuable tools and the option to not participate in an activity that's overestimating is good. But like, I came to this group because I want to be a part of it, I want the support that this group provides, I want to make friends, I want to participate in the activities that are happening, but my only options are 'not participate because of overstimulation' or 'not participate because I'm sitting in a quiet room alone'. If I wanted to sit in a quiet room by myself, I can do that at home.

The lgbt center I went to for years, that was the only option. When I went to the summer camp they did, that was the only option, "you can either sit in the cafeteria with 200 other people who are all talking and having good time, or you can sit outside alone", "you can make bead bracelets in this small room with 50 other people who are all talking and laughing and playing music or you can sit outside alone". That week long camp had maybe one activity per day that I was able to participate in. And that center is the only queer soace I've been in that had any kind of option for autism accessibility, the group at the college I went to amd the group I'm trying to go to now have absolutely nothing.

#actually autistic #accessibility #queer #and the center specifically was accessible physically #there were wheelchair users crutch users cane users etc. fairly regularly without issue #like im not saying physical accessibility isnt an issue #and isnt frequently ignored #it is #im just saying accessibility for autistic people isnt there either #op

[skies-full-of-song]

So I am finally writing a canonverse fic where Raistlin uses a wheelchair.

I headcanon that, like me (and I do think it's really canonically likely from what I know of canon...), Raistlin cannot use a manual wheelchair, so I suppose his chair has to work on magic.

The thing is I know nothing about dnd. And I'd like to find a way for the chair to move without him actively having to move it with magic himself, because it would probably strain him?

Only found manual chairs by tumblr searches "dnd wheelchair" and "dnd magic wheelchair".

#leviathan op #dragonlance #raistlin majere #canon disabled character #dnd #wheelchair user #powerchair user #(i am not yet though) #mobility aid user #(that i am yea) #dnd magic #dnd questions #fanfic questions

[crengarrion]

my surgical coordination team all heard my concerns about my wheelchair being handled without my supervision/permission [as would occur when i was triaged pre-op, or after i was wheeled into the OR, depending on what the hospital staff agreed to] and rallied together against my insurance for. approval for me to be admitted the day before surgery, so no one has to interact with my wheelchair unless directed to by me ;;

#shout out to mount sinai i love you guys. also this means i'll BE IN THE HOSPITAL FOR BOTH DAYS OF THE WPATH CONFERENCE...... #so pre-op i may be able to meet the fellows who will be in the OR day of. and my coordination+surgical team members may visit me pre-op #this is a massive accommodation for a wheelchair user and i wish this was standard. fellow mobility aid users: #ask your surgical coordinators for pre-surgical admission! even for ambulatory procedures! call your insurance and get your therapist/ #a clinical social worker/hospital psych in on this to advocate for how much duress day-of admission subjects you to related to your aid #long post #[ whispers ] #surgery date is may thirteenth but i will be admitted may twelve and discharged ?. i am packing crafts and TWO books

[evergreen-pumpkin]

A snapshot of one morning, on a relaxed day with mild weather. Now imagine this when it's crowded or when it's raining or snowing.

Video description: POV from the lap of a wheelchair user. Very shaky. OP is going downhill on a fall day. Lots of trees and fallen leaves around. There are construction trucks to the left in the very beginning. Every now and then, you can see a German Shepherd on the left. Second obstacle shows a food robot crossing the sidewalk to drive in front of OP, but it stops suddenly and OP crashes into it. OP continues down the hill until she reaches another food robot, which is obstacle 3. This robot sits in the middle of the sidewalk while OP navigates around it. Then OP comes to a concrete ramp with iron railings, which is obstacle 3.5. It is very steep. After the ramp, OP goes to cross the street, where a black SUV blows through the crosswalk. Obstacle 4 is a ramp with red brick. OP struggles to move up and pauses at one point before continuing again to obstacle 5, where there is a big concrete building and manual doors. The German Shepherd service dog goes up to push the accessibility button multiple times to no avail. A student comes and opens the door, OP enters through two sets of doors into a hallway. Clip change to obstacle 6, OP is wheeling down a hallway and approaches a white elevator with out of order signs.

End of description.

#actually disabled #disabled #ambulatory wheelchair user #service dog #college #wheelchair #manual wheelchair #disability #inaccessibility #wheelie #city bus #college campus #campus bus #student #stem #women in stem #disabled scientist #disabled people in stem #service dog in training #dogs #german shepherd #assistance dog #shaky camera #flashing

[tanuki-kimono]

Hakama like pants (skirt?) made to retain its bottom pleats when sitting in a wheelchair thanks to a mesh insertion, once again a great inclusive design work by Kei Hirabayashi for Tottolink/Bottomall. About this work; OP states:

Last year, when I consulted with a wheelchair user about clothes that look beautiful when sitting, "It would be interesting to have bottoms that fold at right angles, assuming that you can put on and take off while sitting.”

It was an interesting idea, so when I actually made it, it was very popular as "functional and cooler than I expected."  Listening is important. 

#japan #fashion #hakama #hakama skirt #hakama pants #disability #inclusivity #wheelchair #divided skirt #Kei Hirabayashi #tottolink #wheelchair fashion #wheelchair friendly #inclusive

[sky-chau]

Eyepatch Representation

Hi, as of the time of this post I am 30 degrees crosseyed and I've been wearing an eyepatch for six months or so. In that time I realized just how much representation matters, as unlike being gay or neurodivergent no amount of headcanons can really do eyepatch representation. It never dawned on me how often characters are crosseyed as a shorthand for being stupid. When my animal crossing character wears the "post op eyepatch" sometimes one of the villagers will say "Woah, you scared me there, I know it's just pretend but the thought of you getting hurt like that worries me!" Or something along the lines of. I don't know how to take screenshots on 3DS. And like, that's really demoralizing. The only representation I got reliably was in pirate media. And with Pirate media it's frequently the butt of a joke. Which the longer I think about it the more sad it gets. Like I feel the need to emphasize the fact that despite being an adult I'm getting this surgery in the pediatric ward. This is so common in children that when someone is crosseyed and the general surgeons don't feel comfortable the defacto experts are the pediatric eye surgeons. It's REALLY common for kids to be crosseyed and wear an eyepatch. And I'd also like to point out that eyepatches are typically accompanied by or attached to a pair of glasses. Which is where there's the largest void in representation. I can't make myself in the sims without using the pirate costume which cannot be worn with glasses. And it's just sad because unlike other forms of disability representation this would be a simple matter of adding a new accessory. (Which is not to say that wheelchair users and amputees don't deserve rep in video games like the sims, only that I understand from a developer standpoint why those features are hard to include retroactively.) I've never seen anything where the person with the eyepatch had an eye under it. Kids media could do with this. Heck, I can totally see a show like Arthur making a special episode out of it where Arthur has to wear an eyepatch for a week under his glasses. I forgot what point I was making with the drawing but here it is.

So I guess TLDR, if you're writing, especially for younger audiences, consider giving a main character an eyepatch + glasses.

#eyepatch #disability #crosseye #psa #writing #representation

[dissociacrip]

i'm gonna spare the op of that post my adderall-fueled ranting but tbqh i wouldn't say being disabled affects how i perceive my gender identity so much as its impacted how other people gender me, and then that informs my perception of my gender identity. it's not purely an internal thing.

autism and ADHD, for example, are associated with things like poor volume control and generally "boisterous" behavior (though not every person with these conditions exhibit these behaviors, of course.) a lot of behaviors i exhibited as a child (and still do today) in relation to being autistic and having ADHD are ones that are considered "masculine" and this is part of the reason that i've been read and i'm still often read as not-female or at least not feminine/girly/womanly by my peers. and that is something that has definitely affected my gender identity (aside from the fact i have various bodily features that are conventionally understood as "masculine.")

that's just scratching the surface though. i've seen this mentioned sometimes on here before but not often. there are some disabilities that i would say are very much gendered while others are kind of degendered instead (or in addition to), in that people who are disabled in certain ways are pushed out of womanhood or manhood or "acceptable" understandings of gender by external forces for a variety of reasons related to their disabilities.

intellectual disability. other (neuro)developmental conditions. certain intersex variations that lead to disability. other conditions that affect the structure or functioning of the sex organs (because gender is also wrapped up in one's ability to sufficiently "perform" heterosexuality, which is also wrapped up in normative ideas about how to perform intercourse.) reliance on mobility aids. limb differences and other structural differences. paralysis.

that's not even close to a complete list.

Because I'm a wheelchair user, people see me as incapable of having a gender identity, so often they will correctly avoid using gendered language or pronouns to refer to me, but it's not because they're recognizing and respecting my identity as a nonbinary person — it's because they think my wheelchair automatically makes me genderless. It's not misgendering as such, but it's degendering, and it's a different kind of harmful and it's part of a larger system of ableism that considers me less of a person because I'm disabled and a wheelchair user.

( "Here's What Transgender People With Disabilities Want You To Know," Buzzfeed )

idk where i'm going with this. generally the ways in which disability impacts the way someone is gendered or someone's gender identity are super complex and difficult to map out + something that is very wrapped up in the way external forces affect us in relation to gender.

there's a multitude of ways to have a "wrong" body (or "wrong" behavior in terms of how behaviors are gendered, which is more often the case when we're talking about psychiatric disability) and both womanhood and manhood are wrapped up in normative ideas about bodies, bodily functioning, and what someone does with their body. perceived deviations from normative ideas about those things irt disability are not only punished on the basis of being a "failed" person (not being abled) but often also being a "failed" woman/man.

#cripple punk #cpunk #this post mainly focuses on physical disability so i think that tag is appropiate but-- #j #ableism

[dollsinvogue]

This is not my usual type of post, but it is something that I believe is important and I feel that talking about something through a misunderstanding with dolls can be a chance to educate people in this community!

I am not a Twitter/X user (I hear the doll community is especially brutal on there) but I was sent these tweets. I mean absolutely no hate to the original poster of these tweets, these were sent to me cropped so I am unsure of who op is or if there is more to the story, so please forgive me if I have missed something.

Op is saying “oh…” because the doll is a wheelchair user, but on the box art the doll is seen standing.

I can see why this may be seen as a problem, and it’s likely that op is someone who thinks of wheelchair users as completely wheelchair bound, which many people do so I don’t blame them (if I saw this doll a few years ago even I may have been upset my her standing). But not every wheelchair user is completely unable to walk and/or stand, this is called being an ambulatory wheelchair user.

This tweet of theirs followed up:

I do agree with op, I highly doubt that this shein/temu brand doll was trying to “represent” an ambulatory wheelchair user, this was likely a fluke that she happened to be drawn standing. But it is not necessarily a bad thing or an ableist action.

Many wheelchair users are ambulatory; whether that means they can only stand from their wheelchair to grab something high up, or they can go for a walk three days in a row before they flare up and have to rely on their mobility aids to get around. These individuals are still disabled and are still wheelchair users.

To be completely honest, I do not care that Defa Lucy is standing, I’m more curious about how she moves as she has no access to her wheels, nor a control panel? To me, that is a poor design choice, even if she is just a doll and can’t move the wheels on her own so there is no “practical use” of the access, it is a significantly more incorrect design choice than her just being drawn standing up. (Not that I think the brand cares about portraying this topic accurately in any way, however, I feel one is more realistic than the other, even if it is “just a doll.”)

#idk how to tag this #defa Lucy #dollblr #doll collector #fashion dolls #dolls #non fashion postings

[cuntess-carmilla]

Expanding on my own tags:

The car hating people won't like this... But a lot of disabled people STILL couldn't move around a city like the one op is describing, which WOULD be accessible to them as a wheelchair user and is absolutely much better than able-bodied walkable cities, but is still not enough.

I use a rollator (mostly) for fatigue reasons, but I can't travel any longer distances without the help of a car, and buses and other forms of public transport are a nightmare, and they'd still be torture even if the accessibility in them wasn't a fucking joke.

I, personally, do need individual use vehicles as accessibility, and a city built to make their use a hostile experience, would be hostility for my whole existence.

That's not even getting into how this affects people who're not non-ambulatory wheelchair users, but wholly bedridden. Are you gonna get their medical beds into a fucking bus or train?

Sometimes, disability does require solutions that are NOT eco-friendly and you all have to get over that if you actually care about disabled people. Sometimes even the most accessible eco-friendly solutions are gonna be hostile hell or even downright deadly for a lot of disabled people.

Single use plastic of any kind (not just straws) and yes, even walkable vs accessible vs car-dominant cities are relevant to that notion.

A lot of disabled people's needs are not eco-friendly, NEVER will be eco-friendly, and if you have a problem with that, work out your ableism in your own time.

[blindbeta]

hi, this is like, a REALLY oddly specific question, but i wanted to ask. would it be seen as wrong if i were to have my character's guide dog be in some way magical?

for more context on the specific situation, my characters are in a world where basically nothing is without some level of magic to it. my character has a guide dog, but i felt like it didn't fit the theme to have just. a normal dog? because i wouldn't put a normal dog somewhere else. the dog isn't like, telepathic or able to fix her blindness, (ive made it VERY clear to myself that at no point will i do that) i was mostly thinking something like the dog having some sort of elemental component to it, which would be a pretty common power in this world.

I just wanted to make sure it fit in with the rest of the characters in its world, instead of sticking out as just kinda being shoved in with no worldbuilding around it. there wouldn't really be 'normal' animals normally, so it feels like underdeveloped worldbuilding if i don't.

I'm worried though, that this is going to be wrong in the way that it'd seem... glamorizing? that's not what i intend, but I don't want it to come off as something in that vein. if that makes sense.

i hope this is like. sensible to ask about and not wasting your time. thank you so much, and thank you in general for running this blog, i think it's a really great resource.

I think having a magical guide dog is fine. You aren’t using the magic to erase the handler’s disability, as you mentioned. As long as you are actively working on that, it seems fine to me.

As long as the animal can make a good guide, be trained from infancy, and can navigate well, it doesn’t matter if they are a magical creature.

I list some qualities a guide should have in this post if it helps.

@moth-time created an excellent addition to this post in the notes:

i reread the guide linked by OP and now I'm thinking some kind of earth elemental or otherwise particularly magically heavy/stocky dog could be neat, bc it provides more stability than a regular dog (so more like a miniature horse). it could have a rocky/armored back that is easier to lean on than slippy dog skin, for example. Much like irl certain dog breeds are favored as guide dogs bc of breed specs, a magical universe could favor "earth elemental dogs" for same reason

you could have some magical component of the dog be helpful to the guided person, though i am struggling to come up with a good one for a blind guide dog. But for example a fire elemental therapy dog that can regulate it's body to be toasty warm and offer deep pressure and temperature therapy would be neat. It doesn't negate or "fix" the disability, but it's a little different/more magical while still recognizable

BlindBeta’s thoughts:

So I love this. An earth type dog would add excellent stabilization, orientation, and be additionally good at avoiding obstacles such as uneven ground. They could be great for balance and probably deep pressure therapy as well. Maybe they are favored as guide dogs because they are dependable, while also good at selective disobedience to keep a blind person safe, such as refusing to cross the street when it is dangerous (due to quiet cars or such). I could also see water or air type dogs being good alert dogs, perhaps.

Also not sure how common this is, but on this page about seizure alert dogs from the epilepsy foundation, it says some dogs are trained to put their body between the handler and the floor to cushion falls. Air type dogs might good at this because they are probably softer and could gently cushion a falling person without them hitting the floor.

I also had an idea that wood types might be more flexible and good assistance dogs for older adults, wheelchair users, etc. Like dog breeds, they have certain qualities that make them good at assistance, such as being depended on to retrieve any number of items, pull door handles, etc.

This is fun. I would love to see ideas from anyone else.

#blind #blind characters #writing blind characters #creating guide animals #guide animals #ask

[detransraichu]

heyy wassup i'm lay :]

♡ 27yo

♡ detrans soft butch dyke

♡ gendercrit tirf? idk

♡ single & yearning

♡ wheelchair user & autistic

♡ french, living in ontario (gta)

♡ feel free to send DMs/asks!

♡ if i sound stupid i'm probably high ✌👅

i'm currently writing a book about the possibility, issues and potential benefits of creating trans-inclusive radical feminist spaces, and how some trans people are actually joining radical feminism and doing feminism & trans activism within radfem! i'm still in the drafting stage, but i'm passionate abt it

i have many trans friends who i love dearly, i want a world where radical feminism and trans people aren't constantly at war so that we can all FINALLY use that energy to fight and dismantle the cispatriarchy 👏👏

more about that under readmore!

CW: misgendering in some posts i reblog!! this is a research blog, i will be reblogging from various sources to find writing material and just generally know what issues radfems have against some trans folks and the concept of gender as a whole. i believe in knowing thy enemy, in building bridges, and in respectful discourse. some radfems use male/female instead of amab/afab, and misgender based on sex/agab, make negative generalizations, and mock looks. it can be disrespectful. but if they makes good points on their post, i will reblog. i don't believe in "omg op is xyz" bc it just creates echochambers. that's not how real activism works, you need to actually interact w the other group, especially if both groups are oppressed. feel free not to follow, and i'm open to polite debates

i try to gather as much good info about radfem & trans issues as i can even if i don't agree with all of it, so if you're trans pls be safe!

(psst… i'm also a wheelchair dyke barely surviving on disability aid, with bills, debt, and bunnies to feed! i do writing commissions and take in donations. my post about that is here thank youuu)

i'm a detransitioned butch lesbian who still loves the trans community dearly, and while their struggles and traumas are very real to me, i do believe that cis women also have unique generational worldwide traumas and experiences that trans people can never understand and have often been mocked and downplayed; afab-specific misogyny, especially afab misogyny specifically experienced by someone identifying as a woman.

imo, transmisogyny and afab misogyny are two different issues, despite overlaps, with unique experiences that the other camp just cannot understand. the afab misogyny experienced by both transmasc people and binary cis women is unique, and they need a voice. each side, cis women and trans people, needs to consistently show up for the other and be good allies. i want to know where things went wrong. i'm looking for instances of misogyny and lesbophobia against afab women, and other ills within the trans community that only radfems seem to call out consistently. i also want to find detrans community. i might not agree to many or any radfem ways of thinking. i'm just observing!

posts about my trans history will be put under the "my journey" tag

#text

[crippled-peeper]

Do u know what the term is for some who can walk most of the time but it's extremely tiring and painful but there 40% of the time wen they struggle to walk idk

Also who is allowed to follow the cripple punk tag can anyone support that and reblog that stuff or no?

Everyone can view/reblog/engage with cripplepunk content so long as you’re respectful and the OP hasn’t specified it’s for folks with cerebral palsy only for folks in wheelchairs or something like that

You can call yourself physically disabled if you want, you can call yourself a part-time mobility-aid user or an ambulatory mobility aid user or just a mobility aid user (if you use one. If you don’t I recommend trying one)

There’s no like… threshold you have to meet to belong in this ‘cripplepunk’ space. Just that you consider yourself physically disabled and that you’re not only there to perpetuate mainstream ableism into a somewhat insular online community

You don’t have to be quadriplegic or missing limbs or anything. The OG creator of the community had fibromyalgia for example 🖤🤝

#anonymous #cripplepunk #cripple pink #cpunk

[beth0ftime]

Some thoughts about cpunk and mobility aids

I recently saw this post by @satellites-halo:

I think OP brings up a very good point here: if your mobility aid is obviously dangerous you can’t bring it places you’ll need to go. That said this isn’t the end of the story.

As a practitioner of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts; using historical weapons from Europe) there are actually a lot of writings on using things like canes and chairs for self defense/offense. For example there was a several year streak in London where walking staffs were the most deadly weapon. When these books and treatises were written they weren’t adding spikes or barbed wire to these things.

I am pretty much a full time cane user due to my hEDS and POTS. I will not use it for a little bit but I end up unstable and in pain afterwards, I mainly do this for exercise/practice. So I have been very interested in learning how to use a cane in this way, as well as seeing how other, similar, aids have been used throughout history.

While not all of these forms of fighting are useful for all mobility aid users, such as full time wheelchair users or some forearm crutch users, there’s a surprising amount of people it will work for. For example, I’m currently reading a treatise by a man who is partially blind, that is his term with modern vocabulary we would call him legally blind, and he is good enough at fighting to be considered one of the most amazing swordsman and cane fighter. (It should be noted that he did not have access to glasses and mainly navigated the world tactually)

The only real requirement is that the aid should be built from a single piece (not any of the foldable kinds) and be of sturdy materials: metal, solid wood, etc. While I recognize that this does exclude a fair few mobility aids there’s still a fair few this works for: canes, rollators (though lifting them into position for fighting might be untenable for some people), forearm crutches (if used like a Roman forearm blade, again some may not be able to do this), and even some leashes for service dogs (used as a rope dart) to name a few. There are probably more in forgetting but it’s a lot.

The key thing about all of this is that you don’t have to add scary spikes that might make the TSA balk at you, you can just use a normal looking mobility aid to do the same thing. It should also be noted that most courts consider mobility aids to be part of the person using them for the purposes of assault charges; if someone touches your mobility aid in a way you don’t like, that’s assault and you can respond in kind. That isn’t legal advice and there’s still ‘appropriate force’ president to consider but twapping someone who is grabbing at your cane, especially maliciously, isn’t out of question for a normal reaction, and being good at doing so is preferable.

Ok, cool Beth, but what do I do with this info?

There’s a little part of this post that’s me trying to get more disabled people like me into a sport I love but I can’t do so without some caveats. Not all HEMA clubs are built the same and some can be downright nasty, please look up any club you consider joining and maybe ask a physical/occupational therapist before launching into a contact sport. If it’s not in your interest then that’s also fine, there are several forums that post book recommendations for learning cane fighting or uses of a chair in WWII fighting (what rollators are great for).

If you’re a cane user, there are actually custom canes that you can order that are especially made for fighting (that aren’t objectionable enough to be confiscated by anyone who does security) but also just getting a cane made from a hardwood works. The website https://canemasters.com has a great selection and a really nice custom ordering system.

I wish I had more for other forms of mobility aids but my research is limited, if you have more sources for this stuff please comment/repost with them. If that’s not your style my dms are always open for cool fighting stuff!

Be safe and stay punk!

#cripple punk #cpunk #physical disability #mobility aid #mobility aid user #physically disabled #c punk #disabilties #disabled #actually disabled #pots #heds #HEMA #historical european martial arts #cane fighting #ableism #disability rights #self defense #using what god gave you #forearm crutches #ambulatory wheelchair user #kind of #rollators #chair fighting #angry cripple

[fantastic-nonsense]

Okay so....there was a post about Barbara Gordon and visible vs. invisible disability floating around on here awhile back. And someone wrote an excellent response already (thanks so much to @dilfdoctordoom for pointing everything out that they did), but I wanted to add my own two cents onto it because I felt there were some unaddressed issues...only when I finally got around to actually responding to it, I found out I was blocked by the OP (because tumblr is a hellsite that doesn't actively tell you you're blocked until you try to hit "post"). That's all a preface to say: this is a response to that post, and it's largely responding to the OP's comments about how the current depiction of Babs' disability is "great, actually!" because it provides representation to people with invisible disabilities.

Which...first it needs to be said that the OP is using "invisible disabilities need rep!" to excuse visible disabilities being erased and minimized. Because this isn't a situation where people are looking at a character who's always had invisible disabilities and going "they don't count." This is a character who for thirty years was disabled in a highly visible way and promoted as DC's most prominent physically disabled character...and a character whose existing physical disability (complete spinal cord injury leading to paralysis) was then erased, changed, and continuously minimized to justify making her a walking Batgirl again. DC also did this while erasing two other female characters (one of whom, Cassandra Cain, was disabled herself and actually is an example of someone with an invisible disability).

Barbara's disability, by its nature, is not one that should be portrayed as invisible. She was shot in a way that completely severed her spinal cord and shattered the surrounding bone structure. That was always her disability and despite the spinal chip magi-cure it technically remains her disability. Even if she can walk, she should still either be an ambulatory wheelchair user or using a cane/forearm braces, on the page, consistently. Her disability should be visible; that was the intention of her creators (one of whom was a disabled woman) and that was the representation she provides. She's also worn glasses since her introduction as a character, a disability that was also erased in the New 52/Burnside era via editorial mandate (and one that we have only recently won back post-Infinite Frontier). I find it interesting that OP chose not to comment on that.

Cassandra's disability, however, is invisible and always has been. Her struggles with speech and language are not ones that can be seen just by looking at her. She's been an incredible avenue of representation for people with learning, speech, and language processing issues for 22 years. And yet she got first character assassinated, then pushed to the sidelines, and then erased from the universe entirely because DC couldn't bear to have a disabled Asian woman wearing the Batgirl mantle instead of Barbara Gordon.

And while Stephanie isn't relevant in a conversation surrounding disability, I would like to point out that she became Batgirl largely by accident due to being resurrected at a time when 'who should be the new Batgirl?' was a topic being hotly debated. Babs was as close to being magi-cured and Batgirl again in 2009 as Dick was to being killed in Infinite Crisis (which is to say, pretty damn close). Steph becoming Batgirl only delayed the inevitable, which was a coordinated multi-year editorial effort to push Cass out of the cowl and Babs back into it.

So if people like OP want to talk about the representation of visible vs. invisible disability, I think we should talk about how making Babs a walking Batgirl again erased representation of both types of disability in the process. Because it was not a decision made to give representation to people with invisible disabilities. It was a decision made because Dan Didio and a small group of similarly powerful old, white, male, able-bodied managers wanted the Batgirl from their childhoods to be on the pages again, and if they had to erase two disabled characters and multiple female characters entirely to make it work, they were willing to do so.

Nearly all subsequent writers have effectively erased her disability by omission via giving occasional lip service to it-occasional comments about the chip, the back brace, the cane-and then disregarding it entirely whenever it suits them to do so (repeatedly showing Babs in inaccessible living and working environments, having her continually suit up as Batgirl despite saying it should be an "emergency only" thing, constantly showing her standing/with her legs crossed/in weird positions when she is sitting like there's an editorial mandate on artists to remind people 'she's not paralyzed! she can walk now!', etc).

And those creative and editorial decisions need to be talked about when discussing the treatment of Babs and frankly all of the Batgirls since 2011, because it's objectively ableist writing and it's frankly incredibly tiring to have to continually point this out despite the well-sourced and thorough discussions Babs fans (both abled and disabled) have written on the subject over the past 11 years.

#barbara gordon #long post #ableism #batgirl #oracle #barbara gordon meta #cassandra cain #clearing out my drafts #we deserve to have Babs' disability accurately and consistently depicted on panel actually #we also deserve to have Cass's disability accurately and consistently depicted on panel #and both of those things are currently directly at odds with DC's creative decision-making staff #and have been for over a decade