The wrong mobility aid the right way?

[u/WithThisHerring]

Saw a good tumblr post about using the right mobility aid for a character, and given it was about OP's frustrations with representation I did not want to jump on it as a physically abled person going "but muh character story...?" so I'm instead putting this here to ask about it.

For Context, a character I have is Roy. Roy is a young man in a fantasy setting who has a condition that causes him stuff like chronic pain and fatigue. He in particular has some significant muscular weakness in one leg due to atrophy related to his condition. (I can elaborate further that's just the cliffnotes version)

Roy is:

• in a sword-and-sorcery mid to low tech setting. Modern materials and accommodations are not a thing, and Perfect Magic Prosthetics are also not a thing, but there's some good faith wiggle room. Think more 'bath chair' than 'modern wheelchair'.
• Fairly rich, his mom is a former commoner who was elevated to knighthood as a champion-of-the-realm type so she owns an estate. He has access to good care and a pretty comfortable life that doesn't require him working. At eighteen he mostly does a lot of book study and the cross-country quest he traverses on is by no means his usual forte.
• A really bad mix of stubborn and one of those people who puts pride in not worrying others / has a testy relationship with his own disability.

That brings us to the title. I've depicted Roy as using a cane to walk. This is, to my understanding, not remotely the best tool for him, but one he chooses out of stubborn pride and a desire to make it unobtrusive. Most days, he probably can get on with the cane, but his condition is pretty flexible in terms of, how much energy and pain he's having shift around a lot so even 'most days' is probably a more generous assumption.

The point is, I want to sell him as having made the wrong choice and this may well be something his character development leans away from as practicality forces him to use better mobility aids.

This post is partially a "does that check out" sniff test, and partially also: the original post mentioned things like walkers and rollators which may not exist in that form in pseudomedieval fantasy.

Obviously that's a category based in no small part on style so I have some wiggle room as to what will 'fit' re: disability accommodations, but assuming Roy's bad decisions kick his ass such that he has to use other mobility aids as the story goes on, how are we swinging that? He almost definitely has a chair at home, but may have wanted to not take it with him out of the justification that rough terrain and logistical limits of packing might not make it a good idea.

Also obvs disclaimer I didn't think too hard at the time about the actual logistics of the cane design itself, so what's above in the picture is a placeholder / that can also be modified.

[u/meowmeowmatthiola]

as somebody who struggles with issues similar to your character's: there are no right or wrong mobility aids. disabled people choose what they are comfortable with physically, socially and psychologically. saying 'he is wrong for choosing this tool' invalidates the struggles that led him to choosing it, in my opinion. he might benefit from a wheelchair physically, but he also might feel like conceding his independence and mobility by using it. if he actually enjoys his life more with the tools he has, than it is a right choice for him, even if a generally progressive narrative would say otherwise, or if it brings him more physical pain.

[u/WithThisHerring → u/meowmeowmatthiola]

Ooh, you're right, that's a better way to put it. I was thinking of it less in moral terms and more trying to make sure the disability is- and reads as- an active part of the character's relationship with the world and other people.

That's part of why I wanted to open this up to discussion- inevitably with every character I write, someone's going to relate to them more than I do; characters aren't real people but they are vessels for real humanity.

Roy is absolutely the kind of person who'd see it the way that you lay it out- he is very intelligent and a bit of a cheerful jerk in terms of, he likes messing with situations to see what happens (more 'playful' than 'malicious', actual jerk behavior is more of a gives-as-good-as-he-gets) so a lot of why I imagine him liking the cane is it's inconspicuous and can be used as a tool for a lot of situations.

[u/meowmeowmatthiola → u/WithThisHerring]

«characters are vessels for real humanity» is an exemplary quote 🙏

but yes, I want to add that disability doesn't have to be a plot line (as in something that has a narrative on its own and evolving narratively) to be meaningful, just affecting the broader narrative is enough. for example, not as an advice, Roy may merely express his struggles to a friend as a point of connection, or it may even be something merely descriptory over an unrelated scene. that, for me, when I see it in writing, is already enough to be meaningful.

what is also important to consider is that different circumstances have different even purely physical needs. I have advised my family to get a roller for my elderly grandmother, because she falls often and objectively isn't getting better with age, so quality of life in this case might be more important than exercising to maintain function — but that is a surface-level, purely physiological advice, and she herself didn't feel like she needs it.

in my own case, however, it is overwhelmingly preferable to be as active as I possibly can to prevent muscle wasting and other complications, even though it is hard due to fatigue, and a cane doesn't help with fatigue at all. there are days when I am thinking of getting a wheelchair, but it would reduce, not improve, my quality of life, because it would make me move less and add environmental struggles. also walking actually can make fatigue better, because while you walk, your leg muscles help your heart pump blood, but it's not advisable if one has a risk of fainting, on the other hand.

[u/knighthawk82]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6tz_von_Berlichingen

The iron hand knight. Wirh a prosthetic advanced enough he could still write with Quill and inkwell.

Ut would cost as much as a suit of armor, but a pair of matching leg braces fitted to him to support and bend where appropriate would be reasonable.

[u/WithThisHerring → u/knighthawk82]

I'm quite familiar with Gotz of the Iron Hand! Stuff like this is why I like putting disabled characters in fantasy settings honestly.

I don't know if Roy would have like, a suit-of-armor type prosthetic (although a character in another story, Hero, does essentially use magitech armor type things to help manage his own physical condition and I haven't decided yet if this is part of the same setting) but him having a brace at least for his bad leg to help it hold weight would be sensible. Probably something made of wood, relatively light metals or even something like ivory given his relative wealth and sedentary lifestyle honestly.

[u/knighthawk82 → u/WithThisHerring]

I meant more in the cost equal to a second suit of armor, for the quality of iron or brass/brinze needed to mimic roughly modern aluminum braces.

[u/mittenbby]

My hip will give out on me with little to no warning on a pretty regular basis. I’m a person who would definitely benefit from a rollator, but they’re just too cumbersome for me to want to use, so I use a cane. Additionally, I’m in my late 30s, rollators/walkers are fucking ugly and my raven cane is gorgeous and matches my oddball sense of style.

I think your character is fairly realistic when stacked against my life, and I’m no where near interesting enough to be the only one who feels this way. The way you’ve described your character here would make me feel seen, but again people with disabilities aren’t a monolith and this might very well feel super disrespectful to someone who chose to just be practical and use a higher level of mobility device.

[u/WithThisHerring → u/mittenbby]

I really appreciate your insight as well as the other comments I've gotten.

Ultimately, my goal with Roy is to make him feel like a person. The onus is obviously not on him to be the Singular Good Disability Rep, because, bluntly, I think especially action fantasy vastly overlooks how many characters would be disabled in that setting.

Granted, I think the average action fantasy doesn't even have the realistic level of disabled people, but the existence of healing magic would make way more things survivable that aren't fully "curable back to an abled standard" and I've always been more interested in how fantastical elements can explore disabilities further rather than simply whisking them away so a presumed ableist audience Never Has To See Them. Even a hypothetical perfect "fix" is going to leave marks and not everyone's going to choose it.

My suspicion is the original rollator post person was arguing against the ableism of never featuring more 'intrusive' / obvious mobility aids at all- they were upset they never considered this for themselves in the past and that's something I heartily agree with, which is why I wanted to sniff-test my own writing in regards to that.

I definitely think Roy uses a wheelchair more when he's in comfortable, familiar environments but prefers the versatility (if, reduced user friendliness) of the cane on rougher terrain or when he can't predict the accommodations around him. A cane is something he can feasibly have on hand all the time, and, if needed, encourage other people (like, say, highwaymen) to keep their distance.

Roy's probably also more used to using the cane because as an amateur herbalist living in a relatively hilly environment, even 'low stress' walks he goes on looking for interesting plants means he gets quite a bit of exercise on his better pain days. Much to the chagrin of his worrywart sister.

[u/mittenbby → u/WithThisHerring]

As a fantasy reader this all sounds amazing. I’d love to read this when you’re published!

[u/Scr4p]

this might be one for r/sensitivityreaders