Great essay for educating about disability representation

[jesse_the_k]

Save this link to Annalee Flower's outstanding "Geeks Guide to Disability." I think it's a great resource for folks who are wondering why there are issues beyond just getting into the con.

http://thebias.com/2016/02/16/the-geeks-guide-to-disability/

quote begins

---

I’m hoping that if I walk through some of the more common misconceptions, I can move the needle a little–or at least save myself some time in the future, because I’ll be able to give people a link instead of explaining all this again.

[… snip …]

The science fiction community tends to take this diluted version of the medical model to extremes. Because we’re used to speculating about abilities that humans could have if certain fictitious conditions were met, some of us consider all human bodies fundamentally broken. It’s easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that, for example, since being able to fly unaided would be really cool and convenient, we must all be disabled because we can’t fly.

Here’s the thing, though. Because we can’t fly, we have built a world that is accessible to people who cannot fly. We build roads and sidewalks to facilitate ground travel and elevators to provide access to tall buildings.

---

quote ends

Comments

[davidgillon]

Oh, that is fantastic!

[alatefeline]

Good post. I found it educational for myself and I think I will share it.

I'd be interested in concrit of the article to add points I may have missed, though; but I think the first person who needs to question my understanding of it is me...*bookmarks for later*