Episode 239: Writing with Disabilities

This week on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re talking about living with and writing with disabilities.

We open by first mentioning that we both have several disabilities, some that are more obvious — like our visual impairments — and others that are more hidden. Because of this, we sometimes have additional challenges that require us to adjust what we’re able to do. One of those adjustments are that we’re planning to take a break from the podcast for the whole month of July. We will, however, be back with new episodes in August.

As part of this discussion, we use the CDC’s definition that “a disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions). And there are many types of disabilities, such as those that affect a person’s: vision, movement, thinking, remembering, learning, communicating, hearing, mental health, and social relationships.”

In this episode, we touch on several areas of our combined experiences that fall under the umbrella of disability. They are:

  • Neuropathy and chronic pain

  • Anca Vascuilitis (Autoimmune Disorder)

  • Chronic pain from nerve damage

  • Autism

  • Dyslexia

  • Dyspraxia

  • ADHD

  • Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)

Our conversation covers digging in with the gray area around whether we see something as a disability or a difference (or both), hidden disabilities and choosing sometimes to self disclose or signal to engage understanding and empathy from others, and how diagnosis or even self diagnosis can help with accepting ourselves as we are — as well as our limitations and support needs.

We also talk about how knowing ourselves can allow us to potentially uncover things beyond the superficial with our own characters and write about them from a place of empathy and understanding. That knowledge can also help us get honest about our current capacity, think about and ask for/give ourselves what we need from season to season, and reject shame or guilt over choosing what works best for us — even if that means doing something that is not typical or even discouraged by the writing community at large.

Towards the end, we discuss how listening to yourself and adapting and pivot with your changing needs is self-care and to remember the many types of technology out there that can help meet and overcome challenges — such as talk to text programs and audiobooks.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Next week, we’ll be back talking about writing characters with disabilities.

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Though we don’t directly mention them by name, these previous episodes are connected with this series:

As part of this discussion, we use the CDC’s definition:

  • “A disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).”

  • “There are many types of disabilities, such as those that affect a person’s: Vision, Movement, Thinking, Remembering, Learning, Communicating, Hearing, Mental health, and Social relationships.”

  • “Although ‘people with disabilities’ sometimes refers to a single population, this is actually a diverse group of people with a wide range of needs. Two people with the same type of disability can be affected in very different ways. Some disabilities may be hidden or not easy to see.”

Here are a few articles we consulted in preparation for this series:

The Verbivore talks about her experience with learning about dyspraxia and mentions that she’d never even heard the word until several years ago and that it’s a type of neurodivergence that’s not as well known. Here are some of the resources that she‘s found helpful in her journey:

If you’d like to learn more about neurodiversity, here are a few articles and videos to get you started:

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Bethany Stedman