Playing Disability with Purpose and Respect

Portraying lived experiences—such as disability—other than your own is a powerful way to broaden your perspective when done with respect. Equality, disability, accessibility, and accommodations are a meaningful part of fantasy worldbuilding. For players interested in exploring these elements at the table, it’s important to take care to avoid stereotypes and learn from disabled people themselves.

Disabled Identity

Like other marginalizations—such as race, gender, and sexuality— disability is just as much an identity as a state of being. When playing a disabled character, it’s important to remember that disabilities are a part of people, not a mask they can take off. Different individuals have different experiences with their disability, such as how long they’ve been disabled, how society has treated them because of it, and how accommodations for their disability are handled. All of these elements are important to consider when building a disabled character, NPC, or fantasy world with accommodations.

Disability is a broad category, and some are more visible—both literally and metaphorically—than others. Some disabilities commonly touched on and explored at the table include limb difference, low mobility and mobility aids, low vision, hearing loss, neurodivergence, and mental illness. Mobility aids and prosthetics are most commonly included in disabled representation, but it is also important to remember that there are countless “invisible” disabilities, such as chronic illnesses, chronic pain, genetic disorders, and autoimmune conditions. Neurodivergence—a blanket term that covers autism, ADHD, learning or cognitive disabilities, PTSD, and more—and mental illness can also sometimes be considered invisible disabilities. When building an inclusive world, it is important to consider disabled people from all walks of life, not just those who are most visible.

Mobility Aids, Prosthetics, and Accessibility Tools in Fantasy

A key aspect of playing and including disabled characters in your narratives is ensuring that accessibility tools are a part of the setting. “Accessibility tools” is a broad category for anything that makes the world more navigable for a disabled person, from glasses and hearing aids to prosthetics, wheelchairs, canes, and more.

These mobility aids and accessibility tools can take inspiration from real life, using modern technology or historical reference. People have invented new ways to help disabled people access the world for thousands of years. But you should also feel empowered to get fun and fantastical with it—maybe a prosthetic grown from plants and vines, or a wheelchair that floats using magic better align with your PC or the campaign. If you’d like to implement a mobility aid mechanically, see the “Combat Wheelchair” section in chapter 2.

Telling Disabled Stories

When playing a disabled character, or when including disabled characters as central elements in the plot, it’s important to know what sort of story you’re telling. Is the adventurer’s disability a central element of their character? Is it part of their backstory or something they gained as part of their adventures? How do they engage with that part of their identity—are they proud of their disability, coming to terms with it, or looking for new coping strategies? All of these stories are valid explorations and will have different implications and directions for your character’s journey throughout the narrative. Some players will want mechanical involvement for their disabilities, while others will want more narrative flavor without the mechanical aspects.

Above all, make sure to collaborate on the worlds you build, the characters you create, and the stories you tell. Be open to adjustment and change, and take care of yourself and your fellow players. The game will be safer, richer, and more fun if everyone has a seat at the table.