Announcing: Festibility! Please Signal Boost!

[sasha_feather]

Announcing access_fandom’s first Fanworks Festival, Festibility!

What: Hosted by access_fandom, Festibility is a fandom festival accepting all kinds of fanworks (fic, meta, art, icons, podfic, vids, recs, picspams, drabble sets etc) about disabled characters. Works can focus on canonically disabled characters or canonically able-bodied characters that you reimagine as disabled. Pieces can be as long or short as you like.

When: July 15 to September 15, 2010 (for those who work best under deadlines). Yes, this starts one week from today!

How: We’ll make a post soliciting prompts from you tomorrow! Prompts can be general or fandom-specific. Feel free to respond to prompts with commentfic, or use them for longer works posted during the festival posting period. You don’t have to claim particular prompts to post, and claiming a prompt does not mean you’ve committed to posting a fanwork filling it. You can also post fanworks without filling any prompt--basically, anything goes!

ETA: Here is the prompts post!

Who: For Festibility, your mods are kaz, lightgetsin, sasha_feather, and were_duck. Any and everyone is welcome to participate!

We will also host a beta pool of folks willing to check other folks’ fanworks for portrayals of disability. This is entirely volunteer and optional, though we ask that participants make a strong effort and do their research in order to create positive and affirming portrayals of characters with disabilities. Your mods will do our best to provide resources to help you reach this goal!

Please note that you can post links to fanworks or recs in this community at any time. The end date of this festival is when your mods will stop cheerleading; it does not mean that you have to stop posting. This is intended to be a low-pressure festival.

Please watch this community for more information. Leave comments here or contact one of the mods listed above with any questions or concerns.



Canonically Disabled Characters in Fandom-- A starter list

Felix Gaeta (Battlestar: Galactica)
Professor Xavier (X-Men)
Scott Summers (X-Men)
Logan and Max (Dark Angel
Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood)
John Locke (Lost)
Oracle
Daredevil
Artie (Glee)
Jake Sully (James Cameron’s Avatar)
Geordi LaForge (ST: TNG)
Capt. Christopher Pike (Star Trek: TOS/reboot)
Kerry Weaver (ER)
Greg House (House)
Monk (Monk)
Dr. Gabriel Fife (Private Practice)
Dr. Al Robbins (CSI)
Joe Dawson (Highlander)
Toph Bei Fong (A:TLA)
Johnny Smith (Dead Zone)
John Watson (Sherlock Holmes 2010)
Thakur Baldev Singh (Sholay)
Alex Krycek (X-Files)
Xander Harris (Buffy)
Augustus Hill (Oz)
Joey Lucas (West Wing; a prominent guest star)
President Bartlet (West Wing)
Pete Thornton (MacGyver)
Riddick (Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick)
Toothless (How To Train Your Dragon)

ETA from comments:
Kevin (Joan of Arcadia)
Miles Vorkosigan (Vorkosigan series)
Diana Reid (Criminal Minds)
Scott Macintyre (American Idol)
Cassandra Cain from Batman (DCU comics)
Aquaman
Lex Luthor lost a hand in some continuities
Slade Wilson (DCU comics)
Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Gobber (How to Train Your Dragon)
River Tam (Firefly and Serenity)
Sarah Connor (Terminator 2 and Sarah Connor Chronicles)
Roland (Saved!)
Teo (Avatar: the last airbender)
Lireal (Garth Nix books)

Please see comments for more! Lots of great suggestions!

Comments

[ghost_lingering]

psst how do you do grey on grey text? I'm not finding it in the faq.

[ghost_lingering]

Lindsey from Angel, yes?

And if we're going for unspecified stuff then, Parker from Leverage.

Page, Box, Taiko, and possibly others from Akihabara@Deep. (Haven't seen all of the show, so I'm not an expert FYI.)

If fictional disabilities are accepted then Harry Potter has the Longbottoms (Neville's parents) and probably quite a few others--Bellatrix, Remus, etc.

[cypher]

I snagged the code from kink_bingo's posting template, and it looks like they picked it up from this post. :3

[hopefulnebula]

Add to the list: Kevin Blake (Eureka).

Also, nitpicking: It's Geordi LaForge, no second E.

[sqbr]

Sweet.

...and I can't think of any examples. But I'm excited :D

[jalendavi_lady]

Roy too. PTSD flashback shown in the first anime, not sure about the manga.

[jalendavi_lady]

That might depend on how society views them and/or what side-effects their condition has.

Even if the wizarding world in Harry Potter didn't have a strong anti-werewolf societal bias, I think I'd personally count Remus Lupin as disabled on the basis of just how much the full moon takes out of him (at least in movie canon) even when he takes the anti-transformation potion.

[lea_hazel]

Just going from blatantly-obvious-but-never-addressed PTSD you could make a whole other list.

Anyway, all the characters from Karin Lowachee's Warchild series have PTSD, of the specifically acknowledged kind.

[lo_rez]

Joe Dawson from Highlander. D'oh!

Also played by the actor Jim Byrnes: Lifeguard (aka Daniel Benjamin Burroughs), from Wiseguy, who uses a wheelchair.

David Creegan, who recovered with unspecified brain damage from a gunshot to the head, and Cyril Kemp, who has schizophrenia, from Touching Evil (US).

Erica Bain from the Neil Jordan film The Brave One. (PTSD)

Emma Pillsbury, from Glee, who has an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Vicki Nelson, from Blood Ties, who is losing her eyesight.

Rebecca Locke from The Inside. (PTSD)

[elf]

George Weasley
Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader
Ragetti (PotC)
Remy "Thirteen" Hadley (House) is just starting to feel the effects of Parkinson's disease

South Park characters:
Timmy
Jimmy Vulmer
Ned Gerblansky

Characters from literary fandoms:
Several characters in the Wild Cards universe (more than half, if one considers disability to include most Jokers; also, Sprout Meadows, Dr. Cody Havero, Bagabond)
Asher (Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter)
Thomas Covenant (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)
Hile Troy (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)
Elric of Melnibone (Elric books)

Characters from single-movie fandoms:
Ken Pile (A Fish Called Wanda)
Max Carrigan (Across the Universe)
Rochester (The Libertine)
Baroness Kessler (The Ninth Gate)
Winslow Leach (Phantom of the Paradise)

[such_heights]

AWESOME. \o/

[rydra_wong]

\o/

[rydra_wong]

And now I'm wondering whether vampirism/being a werewolf/etc are disabilities for the purpose of the challenge? Do you want to go there?

This reminds me of the "is Gaila a person of colour?" question that came up a while back.

There are definitely fictional characters whose magical conditions are treated very much as metaphorical disabilities. But fandom doesn't seem to have any hesitations writing about those; it's fic dealing with real-world disabilities that tends to be in short supply.

Inevitably there are going to be some blurry boundaries (you have some characters, like River, where a real-world disability -- mental illness -- has an sf/f cause), and there are going to be cases where people disagree.

But personally, I'd like it if the festival encouraged people not to go the "being a ghost is totally a disability!" route.

[tree]

Anne de Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice?

[ariaflame]

Billy Homer (Press Gang)

[toft]

Wonderful! I hope I'll be able to take part in this challenge!

Adam Savage (mythbusters) has a hearing disability - he wears a hearing aid.

[everysecondtuesday]

This looks awesome!

For your list:
H.M. Murdock (A-Team) and Vincent Van Gogh (Doctor Who) both have mental illness.

[laeria]

Minor fandoms ahoy:

Vialle from Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber
The Duchess from Sylvester by Georgette Heyer
Aubrey Lenyon from Venetia by Georgette Heyer
Melody from Girls with Slingshots (webcomic!)
Hannelore from Questionable Content (also a webcomic)
Yvaine from Stardust by Neil Gaiman (also possibly the film, which I haven't seen)

[ariaflame]

Thea from Dykes to Watch Out For (print and webcomic)

[amadi]

Also from ER: Ray Barnett, Adele Newman, John Carter, Reese Benton and before his death, Robert Romano.

Also from The West Wing: Josh Lyman

Dark Angel: Logan Cale

In the upcoming Covert Affairs we'll have Auggie Anderson who is blind.

If we want to go old school, TV wise: Ironside! (I've been catching some reruns on the RTV network and it's shocking how well the issue is handled compared to some current shows with characters who use wheelchairs, not mentioning any names *mumbles about 19 Emmy nominations*)

Other characters played by Marlee Matlin, all canonically deaf, including: Jodi Lerner (The L Word), attorney Ruby Whitlow (My Name Is Earl), Alisa Stevens (Desperate Housewives), Dr. Amy Solwey (Law & Order: SVU), Mayor Laurie Bey (Picket Fences), D.A. Tess Kaufman (Reasonable Doubts).

Characters played by Daryl Mitchell (who uses a wheelchair since a 2001 motorcycle accident): Eli Goggins (Ed), Chill Trainor (Brothers), Chris Clements (The Game), Ron (Desperate Housewives)

Characters in Films:
Forrest Gump and Captain Dan (Forrest Gump)
Donnie Darko (Donnie Darko)
Ada McGrath (The Piano)
Melvin Udall (As Good as it Gets)
Susanna Kaysen, Lisa Rowe, Daisy Randone & others (Girl, Interrupted)
Cole Holland (Mr. Holland's Opus)
Susie Hendrix (Wait Until Dark)
Maggie Fitzgerald (Million Dollar Baby)
Jessie Cates ('Night, Mother)
Nicole Burnell (The Sweet Hereafter)
May Alice Culane (Passion Fish)
Arnie Grape (What's Eating Gilbert Grape?)
Selma Jezkova (Dancer in the Dark)
Grace MacLean (The Horse Whisperer)
Lt. Col. Frank Slade (Scent of a Woman)
Joel Garcia and Raymond Hill (The Waterdance)

[trialia]

Would Cameron Mitchell from Stargate SG-1 count? The main-universe disability is only temporary, but his alternate-reality canon self is in a wheelchair... Another mostly-temporary-but-for-most-of-canon is BSG's Laura Roslin and her cancer - she's only without that for about half a dozen episodes of the show, all told.

I'm having trouble coming up with these, as most of my fandoms' disabled characters have already been named here. *g*

CSI's Gil Grissom may or may not count, as he has inherited otosclerosis and, though he does later receive treatment that stops it developing, he does have some hearing loss.

Garnet/Dagger of Final Fantasy IX suffers from depression, and it's shown in game canon that she cannot always take actions during a battle for a while after the death of her mother. FF7's Cloud could also be interpreted to be suffering from mental illness and a form of amnesia.

[briarwood]

A couple of other characters -

Jack Kelso from The Sentinel
Terry Belfleur from True Blood
Bobby Singer from Supernatural (okay, he got a magic cure, but he did spend a season in a wheelchair)
Pamela Barnes from Supernatural, too.

[laceblade]

Joshua Lyman (The West Wing)
Barrett Wallace (Final Fantasy VII)
Lou (The Speed of Dark)
Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)
Odetta/Susannah (The Dark Tower)

[laceblade]

Fai (Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles)
Seishirou (Tokyo Babylon, X)
Subaru Sumeragi (Toky Babylon, X)

[gloss]

I am so excited for this fest! Thank you for putting it together.

Some more suggestions -
Barbara Gordon, DC comics
Rose Wilson, DC comics
Nick Fury, Marvel comics (and Iron Man films)
Bucky Barnes, Marvel comics - there's his prosthetic arm, but also a pretty clear case of psychological trauma
Matt Murdock (Daredevil), Marvel comics
Doctor Mid-Nite, DC comics
Vic Stone (Cyborg), DC comics
Roy Harper (Speedy, Arsenal, Red Arrow), DC comics

...I'll stop editing now, sorry for flooding your inbox