The Biggest Betrayal. Bffr

Being disabled has made me notice all of the ways the world is failing in accessibility. I’m fortunate that I can now open doors with my arms/hands, but do you know how many times I look around and there is no wheelchair access button on public doorways? Or how many times the button is broken? Or how there is no place to sit in a store, or the chairs were recently removed when I planned on using them to rest? Not to mention the uneven sidewalks, or aisles that are too narrow, or whatever else? People really do forget disabled people exist.

Two new LEGO friends characters, Petch and Ida, are disabled. Petch has a prosthetic leg (purple and it's an above-knee prosthetic) and Ida is, based on appearance, a, person with albinism. I am so excited to see more of these two in the future!

*mom voice* You can get these words back when you know what they mean

Do blind people turn or face whoever is talking? The comic im planning to make has a blind character and i wonder how much should i make her eyes and head move. If the blind character (lets call her A) is sitting beside her friend, B and then B starts talking, does A turn her face around to B? or does she keep facing forward? Judging by where a voice is coming from, is it possible for a blind person to have eye contact without seeing where the other person's eye is? Or can a blind person only roughly guess where the other's person eyes could be? Im sorry if this is worded weirdly. english isn't my first language lol.

Yes, Blind People’s Eyes Move

This post discusses ableism briefly, centering on social issues for blind people around eye contact.

Your English is fine. Don’t worry. Thank you for this helpful question.

Blindness is a spectrum ranging from low vision to total blindness. That could play a role in how much eye contact blind characters make. Personal preferences and culture are other factors.

Generally, blind people face the direction of the other person unless it is uncomfortable or impractical to do so. They may be more relaxed about it around friends, though this depends on the person. Blind people also try to face someone when conversing so they can hear each other better, but how this is done might depend on the setting. So, yeah, I would suggest drawing blind characters facing the person they talk to, for the most part. This could mean turning their head or their body at some points in the conversation or the entire time. It doesn’t need to be all or nothing.

As for eyes moving, I actually encourage writers and artists to include blind characters with eyes that move. This is because it normalizes the idea that our eyes move. Sometimes they move even more than sighted people’s eyes do, depending on the condition the person has, as well as light perception or any other remaining vision.

Blind people are sometimes accused of faking when our eyes move or when we make eye contact (or look toward cameras in videos).

I remember learning that the animators of Avatar: the Last Airbender tried hard not to make Toph’s eyes move. While I can understand the thought process behind this, her eyes would move even if she is completely blind. She could make voluntary eye movements and may even have involuntary eye movements, as I mentioned, depending on her eye conditions. Overall, I would have liked a show that normalized Toph’s eye movements and perhaps even commented on it plainly for the benefit of children in the audience. While it is a subtle detail, especially considering Toph’s already groundbreaking character, I think it would have introduced many children to this idea at once and in a fun way.

Draw blind characters with eyes that move, please.

On the subject of making eye contact: it depends.

Many people can make approximate eye contact using the sound of someone voice or remaining vision. In some cultures or situations, blind people could be punished socially for lack of eye contact, or viewed as distant or rude. However, some people may not care about eye contact at all; not every person who isn’t blind cares about eye contact either. Some people find it offensive or off-putting. Again, it depends.

A blind person may be able to get away with lack of eye contact if they use a white cane and disclose their blindness upfront. Even then, this does not guarantee the person they are talking to will be okay with it or understand why the person isn’t making eye contact. This is especially true for people with low vision who don’t use white canes daily. You could probably play around with that in fiction. Depending on the culture of the characters, the setting, level of closeness, and their individual feelings on eye contact, a blind character’s level of eye contact may change. This could be an interesting way to show relationships between characters, so I encourage you to have fun with it.

If you have more than one blind character, it may also be cool to show different thoughts on eye contact.

I hope this helps.

This has been cross-posted on WordPress.

[ID: An Etsy listing for the shop ShaneIsCreationsLLC with a picture of three badges. The first badge is red and says "stop, planned ignoring in progress, thanks for helping to ignore attention seeking behavior." The second is yellow and says "Need help!" The third is green and says "all clear, OK to approach." The name of the product for sale is "Behavior Support Badge Cards, Communication Cards, Special Education Behavior Management, ABA Therapy Materials, Visual Communication Tools."]

found this on etsy when i was looking for AAC communication cards for myself. i guess the new aba therapy is making autistic people wear badges that tell everyone to ignore them. i wonder how many people would accept a parent or teacher doing this to a neurotypical child? an adult doing this to their partner? a manager doing this to an employee?

I feel like people forget that pediatric illnesses generally last into adulthood like…childhood cancer survivors often have medical complications for the rest of their (adult) lives. My juvenile arthritis will be around when I’m 75. Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis, congenital heart defects - all of these things, when acquired in childhood, have lifelong complications. Childhood diseases aren’t just cute, happy kids smiling from hospital beds. Theyre pain and suffering and learning to live differently forever.

you need to get it out of your mind that psychosomatic illness is just “making up symptoms” when it’s actually much more like your body is being actively poisoned by chemicals released from your brain

These days there are legal systems in place for adopting an adult, even for adopting someone out of adult foster care (like someone could probably adopt Genie Wiley.) That's probably the closest example to what they did.

…how does adopting an adult even work..? I’m a little thrown off by that part, but regardless it seems to have been the best thing that could’ve happened for Horace. He sounds lovely, and it seems a shame the world couldn’t have had him in it for longer.

I honestly don't know. Horace was a ward of the state, as his family had handed over all rights in 1921. Unfortunately, my grandparents and my uncle who adopted him have all died so the specifics are unavailable to me.

a thing about being severe autistic adult on internet is people expect u know everything, every non-said/clearly stated boundarie, every slang, acronym, people mad when ask what things mean, need plain language, people rude because "how u not know this simple basic thing?" i feel so rejected and out of place.

i dont navigate things same as you, my brain works differently, i dont know lots things and often dont know how to search how to find dont know how to make sense how understand it hard makes me so frustrated and angry and sad.

people are so mean

Pyro culture is being increasingly annoyed with a lack of proper discussion around pyromania (and pyrophilia)

It's also being frustrated with a lack of proper lists of pyromanic characters and instead only receiving characters with fire powers or weapons.