no jarred convos regarding disabilities with writer jarred, who says "get it right"

when mcginnis became disabled he states "more than 20 years ago, didn’t wake up to a PhD in disability studies, but I was introduced to a menagerie of annoyances and prejudices from people and architecture, which has definitely been an education." don’t choose to read a book because it has a disabled character: at best, that tells me nothing about the story and at worst, I know exactly what kind of story I’m going to read. However, I appreciate that representation is important, and one of the impetuses for The Coward came from not seeing anything resembling my understanding of the disabled experience in fiction. Writing it, I sought to undercut the trite “triumph over adversity” trope with humor and honesty.

"i don’t choose to read a book because it has a disabled character: at best, that tells me nothing about the story and at worst, I know exactly what kind of story I’m going to read. however, I appreciate that representation is important, and one of the impetuses for The Coward came from not seeing anything resembling my understanding of the disabled experience in fiction. writing it, I sought to undercut the trite “triumph over adversity” trope with humor and honesty."

disabled characters can be angry, pitiable, depressed, a problem for someone else or desiring of a cure. The problem comes when that is all they are. "it’s vital to have access to stories where characters with disability reflect the experiences we have rather than the experiences we are assumed to be limited to." speaks mcginnis

read article in its entirety here