Disability AUs

[chordatesrock]

Is there an existing dialogue around the Disability AU (a story where a canonically abled character is written with a noncanonical disability)? Or do people simply have their private feelings, or public fanfics, without discussing why they feel and write the way they do?

I'd be interested in knowing what people think.

Comments

[chordatesrock]

Maybe writers should stick with temporary injuries if they want that kind of dynamic.

It sounds like the problem with Disability AUs is mainly that they tend to have the same kinds of very basic fail as most other depictions of disability. Does that sound right?

Of course, portraying most disabilities as needing to be cured for a happy ending is usually faily for several reasons.

[sqbr]

Maybe writers should stick with temporary injuries if they want that kind of dynamic.

Well, sometimes death/permanent injury, or it's threat, is part of the plot. But it could certainly be dealt with better.

It sounds like the problem with Disability AUs is mainly that they tend to have the same kinds of very basic fail as most other depictions of disability. Does that sound right?

No, there's more to it than that, let's see if I can articulate it.

There are certain holes I've noticed able bodied writers fall into more with Disability AUs than they do writing about canonically disabled characters. Certainly the fic is more likely to be ALL ABOUT DISABILITY, and can often frame disability as this MASSIVE UNIQUE HURDLE OF ANGST that their super amazing favourite character will overcome with their SHEER AWESOME, rather than presenting disability as an everyday and not always so terrible thing that happens to lots of people. Canonically disabled characters will have been shown doing more boring everyday stuff without it being a massive drama. Of course both tend to ignore what disability is really like or show more than one disabled character at time, sigh :/

[chordatesrock]

That makes sense. I've only read two Disability AUs that weren't written from a disability rights perspective, and neither had the AU-disabled character being awesome and overcoming. In fact, neither was ALL ABOUT DISABILITY, either. One was All About how a canon sort-of villain was actually a good person because he cared enough to take the AU-disabled character under his wing. The other used the AU disability as an excuse to get the character out of the action so other people could take center stage, but then mainly focused on shipping two characters who, in canon, would never have met and would have hated each other if they did. The pairing apparently worked out because being given an intellectually disabled member of Despised Group to take care of makes you abandon your prejudices, as opposed to, say, hating the person even more than canon. That said, it was good about showing everyday life (it was Slice of Life, so, if it couldn't even do that...), so the AU-disabled character had a scene with his girlfriend and watched someone do magic tricks. The first fic had scenes of ordinary things, too, but they were there to show the sort-of villain Taking Care Of That Poor Disabled Child in diverse ordinary circumstances (like shopping, eating lunch and waiting for a train). And in that one, the AU-disabled character lost his entire canon personality and became helpless and woobified. (In canon, he stood up to everyone who bullied him or anyone else, to the point that it was a character flaw. He also rarely asked for help, and when he did ask, it was usually only from his friends, unless there was a desperate crisis. Again, this went so far as to be a character flaw.)

[sqbr]

WOW THOSE SOUND TERRIBLE.

I have managed to avoid any "secondary character is made disabled to show how awesome main character is" disability AUs, all the ones I've read have made the main character of the fic disabled, which creates quite a different (if not neccesarily better) dynamic.

[chordatesrock]

Well, one of them was terrible. The other wasn't bad at all, except for some OOC.

It actually was the main character who was made disabled for the purpose of giving other characters a chance to care for him. Significant portions of the story were from his point of view. (Imagine reading something narrated by Tiny Tim.)

Actually, now that I think of it, I read a really good Disability AU in that same fandom that was actually a reaction to all of the bad ones. Aside from the implausible lipreading, it got the disability stuff right, which is to be expected, since the author was a disabled person who decided to write xyr own Disability AU because the other were so bad.

Maybe I should start a list of Disability AUs, organized by how the disability is treated.

[sqbr]

Maybe I should start a list of Disability AUs, organized by how the disability is treated.

That would be super useful! A lot of work though.