Wheelchair and Mobility Aid Users, how can I write a character to represent you?

[Kaylim]

Being part of a minority for what I understand is being part of people that society doesn't want to recognize because they want to keep them hidden, if LGBT people were treated as normal they wouldn't be a minority, but they are persecuted,

First of all: you can be a minority without suffering persecution, although disabled people certainly have.
Second of all: if you don't think disable people have suffered persecution, I encourage you to do some more reading about the fight for equal treatment under the law.

Videos for your viewing pleasure and education:
'The Crippled Suffragette' // Rosa May Billinghurst // Historical Profiles:

Judith Heumann’s Fight for Disability Rights (feat. Ali Stroker) - Drunk History:

Also, not all people who are disabled want to be seen as inspirational or a tragedy. They are often just living their lives, as discussed in this video:

[Maxedrox]

Yes, I remember that some characters in series or movies are treated like nothing happened to them, but their disability still being a big scar of what happened to them. Hiccup lost his leg against the giant dragon, so every time that we see his missing feet we remember that incident. Hershell lost his leg by a zombie and Merle lost his hand trying to escape, but well those are different circumstances.
I guess not all perspectives can be covered

The same happens with LGBT people, it's a nonstopping conversation about how they should be represented, "being effeminate is offensive" "but I'm effeminate and I don't find it offensive" and it never ends, so, ok leave it like that, you have your point and its valid too.

[Iris-Grimoire]

I follow so many creators with disabilities that have to walk the "oh but you don't look like you have anything" line; where at the same time they're told they're not a minority and don't get access to a lot of help, but also can't have most of the opportunities because of their health, or worse, told it's for being lazy and not wanting to break themselves further for a salary. Depicting people that need any kind of mobility aid requires just as much care as any minority because the experiences are different and yet there's a lot of similarities to other problems; not just the technical stuff, but learning about their experiences well before making a writing mistake. Research research research, can never have enough of it.

[violin]

Thank you, @eloquent, for putting that far more eloquently than I ever could have.

I wanted to add that in terms of discrimination, just look at the social institutions around you. Look at some of the examples I listed. Wheelchair bound folks forced to go around/take the long way at so many places where accessibility wasn't built in as a top priority. There are many places where there is NO accessibility at all, and thus they can't access it, period. It's definitely not equal.

And back to empathy - I'm not arguing that you shouldn't show a disabled person empathy. In fact, I think it's a good thing in general to show most people empathy. I'm not going to comment on the myriad of assumptions you made about my father and his life, but I just want to say that you haven't been particularly clear on how you plan on giving people hope. And that no matter how positive the interaction, if you attempt to give people "hope" while maintaining very clearly that they are the "other," that they are "different," (which you seem to indicate by how TRAGIC their life is), such an attitude may not give hope at all but instead make folks feel worse by singling out their differences. Maybe it'll help some, but not others, but in your post you have generalized and objectified them all to "those people" and are giving this advice applied to this entire group, so that's the issue here.

tl;dr there's nothing wrong with being empathetic. The issue is that you've lumped all disabled people into one group, assumed they all have the same experiences, and then forced a TRAGEDY label onto this group... this is by nature not very empathetic

[alliascompany]

The thing with Hiccup, losing his leg wasn't a tragedy to him as it was for Toothless when he lost a bit of his tail. He couldn't fly without Hiccup,
but Hiccup can still walk on his own and he doesn't seem bothered by the lack of leg. In a weird way, it's like an honorable battle scar among the Vikings. You can kinda get this sense from Gober who is missing both his leg and arm.
So, it's not really seen as a tragedy as it was for Toothless.

[Princessmossy]

Thank you to all the people putting things into words in a way I couldn't. I want Mira to be an inspiring and heroic character who just happens to use a wheelchair too! I want her to be inspiring and heroic just on her own, not because she's in a chair. I don't want her story centered around her loss of the use of her legs and how thats 'oh so sad and bad'. Mira is a happy, smart, and cheerful young lady. I always planned to portray her not as a tragedy but as someone that young readers who also use wheelchairs could look to and think "Wow! Thats a character like me! And she's so cool!" I just planned to ignore this person since I didn't know the right words and was surprised and happy to find that there were so many others who found the words to speak up like this. Thank you everyone!

Also thank you to everyone who has posted resources and shared their experiences from friends and loved ones! Thank you for all helping to make Mira a better character!

[indagold]

This thread is a train wreck. Being disabled isn't a positive thing, being able to overcome and recover from your disability is what is positive.

[CommanderMarty]

I believe OP said this not only before you but said it better. (I could be missing your point too but whatever)

[indagold]

I read that, i'm just browsing through here and tired of seeing these responses on every disabled thread. (i'm disabled myself)

[Princessmossy]

I'm sorry that that has been your experience. Not every disability can be recovered from and I think it's important to show people, especially kids, that people like them can still live happy fulfilling lives using media. That people like them can be heroes or have fun adventures. As an abled (body) person myself I cannot pretend to understand your experience and I think it's also important to hear these opinions. However I still want to write a girl who uses a wheelchair who is not miserable or sad or bitter. I don't want to write her a cure or anything like that. Of course her accident would affect her emotionally (hence her fear of the animal that harmed her). She wouldn't just lose the use of her legs and wake up the next day like 'this is great! best day ever!' But I still want her to love herself the way she is. I don't want to promote a mindset to children that they are bad or that they have to be sad just because they use a wheelchair.

I don't want to write a story centered around her disability because that's not what the story is about and as an abled person it's not my place to write that. But I did want to make sure I portray her properly and respectfully thus this post.

[DiegoPalacios]

I read that, i'm just browsing through here and tired of seeing these responses on every disabled thread. (i'm disabled myself)

For what i have read here (i may have missed some comments tho), people are not saying that being disabled is good. No one here would break their legs on purpose (or at least i hope so )

I can understand your frustration. A badly excecuted attempt to inspire disabled people often comes as condescending, patronizing and sometimes fetishising.

Being disabled isn't a positive thing, being able to overcome and recover from your disability is what is positive.

That`s a good point. Sadly, recovery is not always viable, so overcoming it sometimes comes in the form of learning to live a good and happy life despite it.

[indagold]

@DiegoPalacios @Princessmossy nah you guys are fine, i'm just browsing through people not understanding how a tragedy can also be positive in recovery process