Our guest today is Emily Carrington. She talks to us about writing realistic disabled characters, so let's get to what she has to say!
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Creating Authentic Disabled Characters
Rant: Why Can’t I Find Authentic Disabled Characters?
Honestly, they’re all either dependent on everyone else for every little thing, or they’re superhuman. Both extremes deny the essential humanity of the people in books who happen to have challenges.
Sub-Rant: Curing the disabled just to cure them.
I’ll never forget this Regency romance that centered around a blind peer of the realm. We never found out what caused his blindness, all he wanted to learn to do was dance again, and he was miraculously cured in the end. OMG, as if his life was nothing once he lost his vision. No help with governing his lands, nothing about making sure his steward didn’t cheat him. No, all he wanted to learn to do was dance again. Give me a freaking break. And the cure at the end—some miracle that had no description. This cheapens his struggle, little though it was, and so cuts his growth arc short.
Sub-Rant: Superheroes.
I’m not just talking about Daredevil here, but the disabled people with super-human abilities that compensate for their disability. The deaf person who can read lips so perfectly that they’re never left out of a conversation. The paraplegic who can walk when he’s in his supernatural form (werewolf, dragon, whatever). The musical prodigy who’s only a prodigy because he’s blind and can play the piano. Newsflash: there are no more musicians among the blind than the rest of the population.
Rants over.
Now to the heart of the matter, which is broken down in three categories:
1. Who can write disabled characters?
2. Research, research, research
3. Foibles, flaws, gifts, and challenges
One: But, Emily, I’m not disabled. I don’t know anyone who’s disabled. I can’t!
If I said that to my therapist or Department of Rehabilitation counselor, they’d say I was allowing my disability to dictate my actions. I’d submit that if you’re genuinely interested in writing disabled characters but you’re afraid, you’re letting the ableist culture dictate what you can and can’t do.
It’s just like being white and being afraid to write People of Color or nationalities that aren’t your own. The only difference is that the disabled haven’t yet risen up to defend their rights in such a demonstrative way. At least not yet.
So, you have my permission if you need it. As long as you’re seeking to understand disabled characters as people and not as tools, go for it.
What do I mean by “tools?” The hero who has only one soft spot—for his little sister with Down’s Syndrome. Forget that she’s a human being, that she has her own likes and dislikes; she’s just her disability.
Two: Research, dagnabit!
There are tons of disabled-related groups all over Facebook. There are lots of books, articles, and YouTube videos. You can get lots of information by the click of a mouse. Never rely on just one source for “this is how all (fill in disability here) act.”
Quick example: I was being helped at a big box store that sells electronics and when I was done working with the associate, she said, “I’m so glad I met you. The last blind guy I met was a total jerk and I thought all blind people were like that.” The worst part of this is that she didn’t realize how much she’d just stereotyped and insulted me. She had absolutely no idea how ignorant she sounded.
So, if you take nothing else away from this: research, research, research! Don’t rely on a single source.
Three: A person who is disabled is a person first.
In my current college classes, we’re learning to use person-first language. This means things like “blind child” are never said. “child who is blind” is much better because it puts the child’s essential nature—that they are a child—first. Does it sound a little clunky? Yup. But you’ll get used to it.
Being a “person first” means s/he/they has made mistakes, that s/he/they has their own prejudices, that s/he/they has unexpected strengths that may or may not relate directly to their disability.
Examples, and here I’ll be using my own books, both those out and those still in production:
The deaf guy with a chip on his shoulder against those who can hear (Compassion Fatigue)
The visually impaired werewolf who has to prove he’s just as
good as everyone else (A Pack of His Own)
The grand Fae with cerebral palsy who doesn’t know how to say “Thank you” (Fae Schooled)
The blind high school student with anger management issues (Heartwood)
Each of these people has a matching gift to balance out their mulishness, and that’s what makes them loveable and human, not stereotypes.
Thank you so much for reading this far. If you’re interested in any of the above books, follow me on Facebook at Emily Carrington’sConfessions.
And if this has left you with a burning desire to create a disabled character, go for it! No one’s stopping you but you!
Best wishes!
Emily Carrington
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Emily Carrington has been writing erotic gay romance since 2011, starting with Dragon in Training 1: Dragon Food. In 2018, Emily branched out into transgender romance with a trilogy and a single title: Lady Troubles trilogy and Midnight Sons, which is part of the Wolf Schooled trilogy. This year, Emily has branched out further by writing a sweet lesbian romance, Love and the Living Tree.
She is a great believer in diversity so her books are full of people of color, people with disabilities, and different religions.
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