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This weekend, my daughter attended a birthday party for one of her classmates at a ninja gym. As a child who climbed before she walked, she had a fantastic time. All of them did.
My daughter is in a small class for students with a wide range of developmental disabilities. She doesn’t get invited to many birthday parties, and we worry about how she’ll be treated in public spaces. But the man staffing the gym for the party was great. He celebrated the kids, encouraging them to use the equipment each according to their own abilities, including an obstacle course race that everyone, including those with mobility differences, could enjoy.
But mostly, he treated the kids like kids. They were able to say, “Hey! Watch this!” And he cheered them on. He coached them when they wanted him to. Nothing was off-limits or discouraged.
It seems so strange to be excited about being treated with dignity, yet we and other families that we know have often avoided settings like this for fear of how we’d be treated. Even restaurants and malls have been places of disdain and judgment. Just hearing the ableist comments is like the poisoned condition, and responding to try to educate people can use up what few spell slots we have left.
Șo we fight where we know we can make a difference. We literally roll initiative in our fight for inclusion, accessibility, and acceptance in the TTRPG space. We face a huge horde that has a wide range of attack methods.
And we have two secret weapons:
Creative Problem Solving. A lifetime of daily adaptation to an unending series of challenges has conditioned us to start outside the box when thinking of solutions, since we know that typical solutions rarely work. That gives us advantage on all of our reaction rolls.
A Huge Adventuring Party. As we spread awareness, we add more adventurers to our global party every day. The battles continue. We encounter setbacks. But we’re slowly gaining ground together. And meanwhile, we’re well-equipped with healers.
We have many quests ahead of us. Some are one-shots. Some are extended campaigns. But few of them are solo adventures. We’re in this together. |
