access_fandom | Entries tagged with annalee flower horne

Annalee Flower Horne leeflower, an SF writer and coder, just published an outstanding essay on disability representation. It’s a great entry point for educating folks with no disability experience. It also offers a useful new-to-me concept “TV paraplegia.”

Disability, Representation, and the X-Men

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Professor Xavier has “TV Paraplegia,” which is a form of nerve damage that completely paralyzes the legs of people on television without causing chronic pain, muscle spasms, or incontinence. Depending on the version of the X-Men universe he’s in, Xavier either has a spinal cord injury or his legs were crushed. Neither injury is portrayed realistically
[…snip…]
Realism aside, the big problem with Xavier’s TV paraplegia is that while it’s the leading cause of wheelchair use in popular media, the overwhelming majority of people who drive wheelchairs in the real world are not paralysed at all. Those who do have some form of paralysis exist along a broad spectrum of motor function.
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https://thebias.com/2017/10/31/disability-representation-and-the-x-men/)

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/

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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.
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"TV Paraplegia" and the X-Men

Disability, Representation, and the X-Men

Great essay for educating about disability representation

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