For me this ties in strongly with @MaryRobinette's saying that ignoring diversity is unrealistic. These are dangerous worlds we write. Even if you ignore large swaths of disability, no one's lost a leg to a guar? No one's had a hand crushed in the gears?
sfwa.org/2018/02/buildi…
sfwa.org/2018/02/buildi…
Does your society ignore their war wounded? What happens when someone loses an eye to a stirge attack? After a dragon's roar destroys their eardrums? Even if you only pay attention to externally imposed, post-birth disabilities, there's a lot out there. Show me how they handle it
Is there braille? Sign language? Are they widely used, or rare? Wheelchairs? Gravbelts a la Dune? How do they interpret MS? Albinism? Dwarfism? What happens when you lose a foot to a plow? What happens when the spiderblight plant dissolves your hand?
Is there a system for service animals? Are they accepted? What sort of people have them?
If you're building a thriving metropolis, these things will be there for your characters to see, if not deal with personally.
If you're building a thriving metropolis, these things will be there for your characters to see, if not deal with personally.
It's interesting to play with simple changes and follow consequences. In the world I'm writing in now, the ink is raised and the writing system can be read by touch because the culture grew out of living in dark caves. So "braile" is near universal, and librarians are often blind
