I’ve done a few writing prompts where I’ve discussed how representation matters, especially with the LGBT+ Community, as this is what I’ve longed to see reading books, playing videos games and watching TV or movies when I was growing up.

Representation of people with disabilities (or differently abled) is also important. There are plenty of articles and studies out there that explain by representation matters but it’s another representation that matters to me as a person with disabilities.

Limitations vs Abilities

Writing Prompt: (5 Minutes, a paragraph to half a page) Create a character taking part in a public event or scenario. This could be going to the shop, library, amusement parks, etc.

Writing Prompt: (5 Minutes) Now add a disability to this character.

When adding a disability to this character did you focus on the limitations of this disability? How visible did you make it? Many medias when including a differently abled person tend to focus on the characters limitations, even if it isn’t important to the main plot.

Did you focus on any abilities your character could do?

Harmful Representation Versus Positive Representation

Back in college, we were asked to asked to study a 1932 film called “Freaks”. It cast disabled performers however it is criticised for the depiction of disabled people. We also studied “Of Mice and Men”, where the disabled person is arguably depicted very poorly and is considered to commit atrocious acts, leading to his death. Other examples where the people are victims, sufferers, killed or murderers would be: Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Tiny Tim in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and so many more. Other depictions, where some might argue people with disabilities are romanticised, glorified or even given superhuman abilities (Rain Man 1988, I Am Sam 2001, Percy Jackson 2010).

I remember the first TV I watched with positive representation was Life Goes On (1989), a series that showed how capable someone could be as a differently abled person. I remember the discourse surrounding this seemingly revelation and the argument I would year for years to come of incorporating differently abled people into society.

Books of people with disabilities as the main character: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Hadden, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Wonder by R.J. Palacio, The Pretty One by Keah Brownl–just to name a few.

Many representations focus on disabilities that are visible, but not all are. When I first started writing differently abled characters I didn’t realised just how much I had been educated to view disabilities as limiting. I’d describe the wheelchair, the problems with going up the stairs, or fit through doorways, etc. Though limitations can be a factor it shouldn’t be all about what the character is about! My disabilities are not visible and I can be judged to be capable of doing things that I would normally struggle with and it’s just important to represent.

Writing Prompt: (5 minutes, paragraph or half a page) Write from a perspective of someone else viewing your character with a disability.

What would they see? What would they notice? Would they act differently? Ask yourself why they do. What would happen if they didn’t notice anything and/or the disability was revealed differently?

Writing Prompt: (5 minutes, paragraph or half a page) Write another character with a disability that is not visible (or visible if the previous prompt was already not).

With these writing prompts, it might show areas of improvement and just how much positive, authentic representation is important and that focusing on just the limitations can be harmful and convey toxic tropes or stereotypes. Writing the abilities a differently abled person CAN DO is just as important.

Writing Prompt: Write about a disability. Separating it from a person. Just exploring the different aspects. Does any of the above in which we explored influence this piece of writing?

Here’s mine:

the collective of memories that flip with the dime
the breathing the breathing will come back anytime
the thoughtless calamity fulfilling the mind
5 things I see, touch, smell sometimes aren’t that kind
be mindful of mindfulness take parts of your skin
but that’s where the trauma touched that lives deep within
don’t make me don’t break me don’t shake me with pills
whose side effects that cumulate and kill kill kill kill.