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

[binz]

For The Dresden Files, as well as physical disabilities there are a bunch of characters with a range of unspecified and broadly hinted at (night terrors, phobias) mental illnesses post-magical conflict and attack, including:

Karrin Murphy, Daniel Carpenter, Elaine Mallory, Rosie Marcella and Nelson, Anastasia Luccio, theoretically the entire Senior Council and most of the wardens.

Justine is alluded to having an unspecified mental illness since childhood.

[thingswithwings]

I was thinking about Stephen King characters with disabilities - partially because he tends towards "magical disabilities" (or, sometimes, for a change, "creepy disabilities") in his fiction, and so a lot of them could use some fic to fix these problems! I thought of:

Nick Andros (The Stand)
Tom Cullen (The Stand)
Leo "Joe" Rockway (The Stand)
Donald Merwin Elbert, "The Trashcan Man" (The Stand)
Polly Chalmers (Needful Things)
Danforth "Buster" Keaton (Needful Things)
Nettie Cobb (Needful Things)
Slopey Dodd (Needful Things)
Dinah Bellman (The Langoliers)
John Coffey (The Green Mile)
Paul Sheldon (Misery)
Jack Torrance (The Shining)
Danny Torrance (The Shining)
Johnny Smith (The Dead Zone)
Seth Garin (The Regulators)

[simonejester]

Signal boosted here and at LJ. This should be fun!

I'd also like to add Manuel Garcia O'Kelly Davis (aka "Manny" or "Man") from Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. He's missing part of his arm and has several prosthetics for various uses.

[simonejester]

I like it too, and it has to really be handled well to make a good fic. capsy_wennet has a great story When Light Is Spent and its sequel Pulse Night To Pulse, about Paul McDermott, DAAS (the Aussie band) and Good News Week (the Aussie comedy/news/game show), in which Paul is injured and loses his sight.

[secretstaircase]

There's also Susannah Dean from The Dark Tower, a woman of colour with multiple personalities (mislabelled schizophrenia in the text) who uses a wheelchair.

[gorgeousnerd]

I wrote a fic that doesn't fill a prompt, but I want to share. Should I post it in the main community, or link in the prompt post?

[(Anonymous)]

If other people have mentioned them before, sorry, but since the Degrassi marathon is on, here's some more to add to the list:

Jimmy Brooks - paralyzed
Connor Deslauriers - Asperger's Syndrome
Craig Manning - bipolar
Shane McKay - brain-damaged
Caitlin Ryan - epileptic

That's just a few off the top of my head.

[were_duck]

Hooray, you wrote fic for the fest!

Good question! We think it'd be best to make a post to the main community, and put Festibility in the header. That way it doesn't get buried in the prompts post.

[gorgeousnerd]

Okay, will do. Thanks!

[tiny_tin_spider]

Jeff "Joker" Monroe from Mass Effect has Vrolik Syndrome.

[(Anonymous)]

And Dawn was diabetic.

[ang]

All three Doctors Mid-Nite (Midnight) were/are blind: Chuck McNider, Beth Chapel, and Pieter Cross.

[bliumchik]

There's an AU by synecdochic that goes pretty indepth with Cam.

[trialia]

Yeah, I saw that one on Fandom Wank a while ago! Not really the best recommendation for it.

[(Anonymous)]

Adding to the list:

Death the Kid (Soul Eater) has OCD.
Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody (Harry Potter) has a prosthetic leg and a glass eye.
Nunally Lamperouge (Code Geass) is blind and paralyzed.

[(Anonymous)]

Lietenant Dan (Forrest Gump) is a double amputee.
Stevie (Malcolm in the Middle) uses a wheelchair.
Bruce Wayne (Batman Beyond), in his old age, has to walk with a cane and has heart issues.
Loren (Animorphs) is blind and has a German Shepherd service dog named Champ. She also has facial disfigurement from the same accident.
The Auxiliary Animorphs (Animorphs), including a guy named James, were all recruited from a hospital for children with various physical disabilities.
Mertil-Iscar-Elmand (Animorphs) is an Andalite whose tailblade was cut off. He is considered a vecol: "An Andalite with a disability, such as being without a tail blade. They are shunned from their society and often sent into exile, viewed as inferior and useless to society. The reason behind such treatment is that Andalites believe the solitude of a vecol is the only dignity he or she has left."

[bliumchik]

Whoah, why was that on fandom wank?

[trialia]

http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/1250964.html - that'll tell you all you need to know.

[full-metal-ox.livejournal.com]

If Spencer Reid counts on the strength of pinging the fandom's Aspie-dar, I'd also suggest fellow CM character Kevin Lynch; note his glaring obliviousness to obvious social cues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoRXQOgrqxI

[alicamel]

I know I am late to the party, but I thought I would mention a couple I don't think I've seen:

Tuvok from Voyager, in the Year of Hell AU.
Melora Pazlar from DS9 (and later the Star Trek Titan books) uses additional equipment (a wheelchair basically, from what I recall) in earth standard gravity.

In fact there are a few characters/aliens from the Star Trek universe (and probablty other sci fi universes) who require additional technology to function in whatever the standard environment is - would that count?

[sasha_feather]

Yes, that counts! Our view of disability is an inclusive one at access_fandom. Good suggestions.

another one for the list

[rm.livejournal.com]

Auggie on Covert Affairs is blind and I don't see him on your list yet.

oh and!

[(Anonymous)]

Eugene Morrow in Gattaca uses a wheelchair.

[anoel]

Also Odell Watkins from The Wire is in a wheelchair.

Question for the mods...?

[(Anonymous)]

The prompts post encourages writers/artists to post to the comm instead of the prompt post if they're providing fills after the deadline... but what are our options if we don't have a Dreamwidth account or (for whatever reasons) wish to stay anon?