In literature and film, those with disabilities often appear as antagonists, or as weirdos, or as wounded souls in need of rebirth. Think of Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump. Or look even to Clifford Chatterley in D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The same is true in speculative fiction, but Redstone Science Fiction wants to change all that. Check out the magazine’s new contest!:
Redstone Science Fiction is calling for contest submissions that incorporate the values discussed in the essay The Future Imperfect by Sarah Einstein.
What does a world, or space station, or whatever look like when it has been designed to be accessible to everyone and how would people live together there?
The submissions should portray disability as a simple fact, not as something to be overcome or something to explain why a character is evil. The submissions should also incorporate the portrayal of disability in a world where universal access is a shared cultural value.
This could be tricky, since they’re seeking material in which disability is an essential ingredient, yet also an element of the background, not exactly the main action. Are you up to it?
(Thanks, io9.)
Source: Redstone Science Fiction
Image by {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}, licensed under Creative Commons.
