Disabled People Need to Exist in the Future

Photo by Hans Moerman on Unsplash

Science fiction has a long term ableism problem. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t always been the best at dealing with it myself.

There tends to be an attitude that in “the future” there won’t be disabled people because, well, we’ll have fixed those issues. Either they’ll get gene therapy, or they will get fantastic adaptive technology like Geordie’s VISOR.

To many SF writers, it’s hard to envision disabled people in the future because you have to work out why a higher level of technology didn’t just fix the problem.

So, here’s some thoughts on ways to get around that, to include disabled characters.

Not Every Treatment Works on Everyone

I have a book I’m working on where I use this to explain why a character uses a wheelchair. She’s “not a candidate” for spinal cord regrowth therapy. I don’t go into why…the specific details of the injury? Genetics?

But every single medical procedure or drug we have has people who are “not a candidate” for whatever reason. It’s an easy way to advance medical technology without it necessarily helping everyone.

Not Everyone Wants to be Cured

I just read something by the wonderful Elsa Sjunneson (look her up). She’s a…