People with Disabilities: Where are Our Avatars?

Where's My Avatar?

I love the Internet.  On the Internet, folks just know you by your handle.  They don't know what you look like or what issues you may have.  Despite this, for several years, there has been a move to personalize the Internet experience.  Many sites and forums now allow you to create an Avatar to be your physical representation online. 

Yahoo, one of the largest Internet communities for decades, has a very intensive avatar-creating application.  Using it, you can create an avatar that has many of your own physical features.  You can adjust the shape of the face, the eye color, and the hairstyle.  You can dress your Avatar in a number of different outfits, and you can add cool accessories like sunglasses, hats, skateboards, and MP3 players.  But is there a single accessibility device amongst the avatar-decorating choices?  No.  My avatar can be riding a skateboard, but she cannot hold a cane!

1Avatar.com is a popular source for forum avatars.  They have 4 pages of avatars in just the “shoes and legs” categories.  But is a single one of these avatars wearing a brace or an orthotic shoe?  Is there a single prosthetic leg amongst the avatar choices?  Unfortunately, no.  Not a leg with a disability amongst the lot.

Try doing a site search for “disabilities” at 1avatar.com.  The result says: “Your search - disabilities - did not match any documents. “  You get the same results searching “cane,” “crutch,” “wheelchair,” or “hearing aid.”  At http://avatars.jurko.net/ you can find x-rated avatars, but a similar search on assistive equipment comes up empty.  Avatarsdb.com also comes up with no matches found when searching disability-related terms.  I can choose from a dozen Simpsons-related avatars though.

Avatarist.com actually has some search results for “cane” – a few sports logos and a picture of the doctor from “House”.  The Second Life store is the ONLY place I could find assistive equipment as accessory options for avatars.  Unfortunately, these have to be purchased through the second life marketplace, and they are more expensive than similar fashion accessories.

Wikipedia's definition of an avatar says:

“An avatar is a computer user's representation of himself/herself or alter ego whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games, a two-dimensional icon (picture) or a one-dimensional username used on Internet forums and other communities, or a text construct found on early systems such as MUDs.  It is an object representing the user”

My yahoo avatars DO NOT represent me.  I am “The Chick with the Stick.”  For my avatar to truly represent me, I should be able to add a cane.  (You can see my avatar at Laurelnev and at Laurel .)

Too bad all crips are not represented by House, M.D.  Is there a female with a disability on televison?  A happier character with a disability?  Any TV character that might come somewhat close to being "an object representing the user?"

I found another person complaining about the same thing at Yahoo Answers.  Here is the discussion:

Resolved Question: I am disabled and would like my avatar to reflect a truer image of me,how and where can I do this? including wheelchair, amputee and or nice clothing

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

I have someone added on Messenger who has a wheelchair in their avatar, so I'm sure it's possible somehow.

I don't know about the amputee part though. Generally speaking, avatars that contain imagery that others might be sensitive toward are frowned upon due to the fact that trolls can get them just as easily as anyone else can.

By that reasoning, we shouldn't have goth accessories, the ability to add Asian features, or just about any options that are not plain vanilla.  Can't a troll misuse an X-rated Avatar far worse than he can abuse an avatar with an assistive device?

We are about to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Twenty years later, I still cannot have equal rights when it comes to my graphical representation.  The world still assumes that we want to hide our disabilities, whenever possible.  And that, my friends, is not always true.

Many people with disabilities spend more time in the virtual world than we do in “the real world.”  You will find a person with a disability amongst the most valued of contributors on any forum or Internet community you visit.  And other community members are still surprised when they discover their community guru is a crip.  Maybe that's because they've gotten used to our physically perfect avatars, staring at them day after day when they read our posts, avatars we can accessorize in almost any way with the exception of adding the equipment that helps get us through our days. 

Internet Behemoths, please hear our cries.  You have worked hard with us to make your communities accessible to us in every way except one.  You give us the tools to create graphical manifestations of ourselves, yet you leave out the accessories that are most important to our lives.  My avatar looks a lot like me in every way but one: where is my cane?

If you truly want me to feel welcome in your community, please make me feel equal and important.  I am the chick with the stick; my avatar should have a cane as well.