6 Tips on Writing Characters with Disabilities

Disabilities are too often either portrayed in books or movies not at all or terribly, terribly wrong. Many times disabled characters are either the “inspirational cripple” or the “bitter cripple.” They are cardboard, flat characters which often promote the wrong idea of “overcoming” or using willpower to “cure” the disability. Examples in movies such as A Beautiful Mind and Silver Linings Playbook which do a better job at showing disabilities still promote that willpower, rather than medicine, therapy, or other adaptive devices, can make someone’s disability or illness go away.

But you actually want to write a good character, right? Start by throwing out almost every character with a disability you’ve read or seen. Begin with a clean slate, an open mind, and a readiness to learn. When you start there, writing a character with a disability isn’t all that hard! Here are six tips to make it even easier.

1. They Are Human

As with writing any character, they are human first. Give them human attributes and qualities. People with disabilities have strengths, flaws, desires, and struggles just like everyone else. An ableist view of people with disabilities can make you think we are broken or abnormal. I can assure you that disabilities only make us different, the way some people like peanut butter and some don’t are different.

If you give a character a disability, remember that they are not their disability. They might have one, but their identity is not that struggle. That being said, here comes the conundrum. Disabilities can affect every part of life, even down to simple acts like brushing teeth. People who have a disability probably don’t even realize all the ways their disability affects them. That is just their normal way of life.

2. Do Your Research

I don’t mean Wikipedia and WebMD. If you want to accurately portray someone with a disability, you have to find out what someone with that disability looks like. This means reading things people who actually have the disability have written and even asking them if it’s okay to ask them questions about it. If they agree, ask them questions and listen to their response. They are the expert and you are not.

When choosing which disability, don’t necessarily jump to the obvious ones involving traumatic experiences that leave someone in a wheelchair or without a limb. The Census Bureau found that 96% of people with illness have an invisible illness. This means you can’t tell a person is ill by just looking at them. 73% of people who live with a severe disability do not use devices like a wheelchair. I think I speak for the majority of the disability community when we say that we are tired of only visible disabilities getting portrayed.

3. Stop the Curing and Inspiration

Let me say it louder for the people in the back. Stop using people with disabilities as your inspirational porn. If you don’t know what inspirational porn is, read this Huffington Post and find out why it’s bad. When you write your character with a disability, don’t make the story about them overcoming their disability, accomplishing something “in spite” of their disability, or give them a “happy” ending by curing them of their “horrible” disability. This is by far the most prevalent misrepresentation of people with disabilities.

In real life, disabilities are not something to overcome in an attempt to be “normal” again, but something that you live with every day, like an unruly roommate who you can’t kick out because it’s your twin. While they can’t be difficult and frustrating to live with, there are also good things that come out of disabilities. The number one way to avoid the stereotype is to not make the entire story about the disability.

4. Give Them Complex Struggles

A disability is not a person’s only struggle. This brings us back to my initial point that people with disabilities are human. They have dysfunctional families, dreams, hopes, crappy bosses, good friends, and every other thing that other humans experience. They also have the added struggle of a disability and the individual struggles, like legal and social stigmas, that come with a disability.

Another thing to note involves the “bitter cripple” and “inspirational cripple” stereotypes. In trying to avoid the one, you can sometimes become the other. This is the importance of complexity and duality. A person with a disability may feel bitter about it one day, especially a difficult day with poor accessibility or flaring of illness, while the next feel completely fine, almost inspired, about their disability. If you are writing someone who just became disabled, it is perfectly normal for them to go through a grieving period, but do your research and make their struggle complex and realistic.

5. Make the Disability Crystal Clear

Many writers want to add a disabled character to diversify their characters. That is totally fine! Diversity is great. However, some don’t specify that their character has a disability because they are afraid of getting the disability wrong. Doing this completely negates the diversity you were trying to add.

Now you don’t have to make your character wear a big sign that says “I have bipolar disorder” or “I have Rheumatoid Arthritis.” However, illustrate their disability through their thoughts, their accommodations, careful dialogue, and the key factor that it won’t go away through willpower. Disabilities are not a character flaw. Accommodations can look like a character who sits down every time they have the chance, shower seats, using devices to open jars, or even special lighting in their room. Consider almost every terrible infomercial you’ve ever seen and realize those devices are actually built for those with disabilities.

6. Please, Please, Please Add Humor

We are tired of characters with disabilities being so melodramatic! I’ve never seen or heard of a person with disabilities who didn’t joke about it. Humor is a great way to break up your story, no matter what genre it is, and a great coping mechanism. If you look up the “X disability humor,” you’re likely to find a few good jokes your character can use. However, sift through them and find tasteful ones. You should even ask people with that disability if that joke would be funny or something they would say.

A fantastic movie to watch to see great disability humor in action is Fundamentals of Caring with Paul Rudd. There are two great things that I love about this movie: the humor and the fact that the caretaker treats the boy with a disability as a human and not a breakable glass doll. The storyline and characters are fantastically written and no one with disabilities is an inspiration or gets cured at the end!

Writing characters with disabilities doesn’t have to be difficult, especially if you already have a disability yourself. I am a firm believer that more people with disabilities should write about people with disabilities (all the other minorities are doing it). However, if you are able, that shouldn’t stop you from diversifying your characters. You should also use people with disabilities as your beta readers as they will catch unrealistic details about your character faster. Be open to criticism and open to learning. Your first character with a disability may not be perfect, but I bet your next character will be even better.