Disability and Representation: Or, the Barbara Gordon Conundrum
Here’s something you probably don’t know about me: I’m blind. I’m not completely without sight; with glasses and magnification, I see well enough to read and write. I get almost all of my comics digitally for this reason. Computers are wonderful things that let me enlarge the comics until I can see the illustrations and read the text; without digital comics, I’d be hunched over each issue with a magnifying glass and a headache. As I’ve said in previous articles, comics are a form of escapism for a lot of people, myself included. They’re a look into a world where people with incredible power work for and protect normal citizens, where justice is something that happens whether it’s through the legal system or not, and where, no matter what happens to our heroes, they almost always get better. It’s something that I struggle with reading or seeing in a lot of different mediums; while it’s great to encounter characters that I love recovering from things that I haven’t been able to beat, it’s also frustrating, because I’d like to see situations like my own handled with a touch of realism, too.