Accessibility Buu-chan for 2023

[soc_puppet]

My feelings about AnimeIowa these days are still decidedly mixed. I miss a lot of the people I spent time with on staff, and I enjoyed the work and making the convention a fun place (and more accessible in general), but I'm still hurt over everything that went down. Still, I did offer my services for while I'm off staff in making art for the Accessibility Passes.

This is the art I made for this year. As prompted by chanter1944, it's Buu-chan using a white cane!



After going back and forth with the idea for a while, I decided to give Buu-chan dark glasses reflecting the Disability Pride flag instead of a t-shirt this year. I know that not many blind people wear dark glasses, but it can still be useful visual shorthand, even if it's outdated, and I don't think it's offensive. ...In retrospect, I should have actually researched that before making the art. Oh, well. Things to remember for the future. I can always make a new blind Buu in five years or so, do things better. Having multiple versions of a disability represented is better than just one, either way!

I'm not entirely sure what I'll do for next year's art; maybe I'll give Buu-chan a prosthetic? Hearing aids are an option, as well (especially since Buu-chan doesn't have enough fingers to use ASL, and I'm not sure there's a specific sign for "anime" anyway aside from spelling it out). Invisible disabilities are naturally going to be a little harder to depict, of course, but I'll also be trying to find a way to work on those! Oh, maybe I can have him cosplaying a zebra for EDS...? I wonder if other invisible disabilities have mascots like that...

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I just caught up with your AnimeIowa heartbreak -- you've been through a lot.

The Disability Pride flag would make a lovely hubcap for a wheeled device, or drape it over a plain old chair -- since those do provide crucial resting opportunities for folks with non-evident impairments.

Another approach is showing a group of disabled people -- those of us who use assistive technology hanging with folks. The homepage photo of ADA.gov right now just makes me squee with delight -- although it's not described, because it's a "hero shot."

I'm gonna post about describing this one!

[soc_puppet]

It was a lot. I'm reasonably sure I'll go back eventually, but I don't think I'll ever trust the so-called "health officer" again.

I actually did the hubcap thing for 2019! Sadly, that was with the old version of the flag that gave people migraines (etc), unlike the updated, visually safe flag we have now. But I didn't get any complaints about it, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't do as much damage in person as it does on a screen, and/or the size made a difference (the buttons the passes are made of are only 2.25"/6-ish cm in diameter, so the size of the problem-causing zigzags were much reduced). ...Oh hey, looks like I even have that image uploaded to Dreamwidth! Right over here, but with an Eyestrain Warning. Then in 2021 I did a version of the "active wheelchair user" graphic but replaced the generic person with the mascot Buu-chan. ...Actually let me upload that as well: Buu-chan on wheels.

...Hang on, just discovered something unsettling at the AnimeIowa website, gotta send an email and message someone.

...Okay, done. Where was I? Oh, yeah! So at this point, I've done two wheelchair graphics, forearm crutches for 2022, and a white cane for this year. Since the available space on the badges is so small, I'm mostly trying to stick to one or two figures at most, and Buu-chan is the official convention mascot; Buu-chan does have an unofficial friend, Millie the hippo, so I might include her on some stuff in the future, but with how small the badges are, there really isn't much room for a lot of characters/people on them.

Which is just one reason I made a different graphic for the official Accessibility Department sign! The sign got lost in the shuffle some years ago, and I have no idea if a new one has been made or not, but it featured Toph, Teo, and Korra from the ATLA-verse traveling as a group; between the three of them, that was a blind character, a wheelchair user, and a character with depression/PTSD and recovering from heavy metal poisoning. First thing I do if/when I rejoin the con is make sure we get a new sign. I'll make new art if I have to, but it will be done.

I love all the images

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for making 'em, and looking 'em up!

(As far as the health office goes, I learned something useful on Metafilter: if someone tells you who they are, believe them. Kind of grim, but a useful life lesson for me.)

Re: I love all the images

[soc_puppet]

My pleasure on the first count, and the second count led to an action item for me, so I would count it as a win across the board 👍

(The problem is, I thought she had. She'd tried the mask stunt previously, in 2021, but I didn't actually know how much of that was her, and she made sure to announce it to con staff via email first, which allowed us to push back and get a full mask mandate instated (with medical exceptions, like for an attendee with oxygen tubes). And then at the 2021 post-con wrap-up meet, she told me that we would definitely be having mandatory masks in 2022, because said wrap-up meet was shortly after a major anime con was suspected to be a superspreader event for Delta. So having her pull the "masks are no longer mandatory" decision, and without informing staff at large, definitely felt like a gut punch. Anyway, I certainly won't be forgetting who she really is any time soon!)

Re: I love all the images

[jesse_the_k]

Aiiiiieeee.

That's so painful. It undermines your trust mechanism when a colleague you believe in becomes unworthy of that trust.

Re: I love all the images

[soc_puppet]

I was just re-reading the comment you're replying to here and noticed that I've got the Buu-chan on Wheels art linked twice instead of the Buu-chan with Forearm Crutches art 🤦‍♀️ I'm gonna fix that here: