Sorry if I put this in the wrong category! I didn’t want to clog the RP category ^^
According to the Syracuse University, “Neurodiversity is a concept where neurological differences are to be recognized and respected as any other human variation. These differences can include those labeled with Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Dyscalculia, Autistic Spectrum, Tourette Syndrome, and others.”
Around 1-2% of the population (including myself) are on the autism spectrum. 5-10% percent have a form of dyslexia or dyscalculia, and a further 3% have Tourette’s.
Due to more and more of the Neurodiverges coming into the spotlight, more RPs and RP characters are centered around them. I myself have a character from the (soon-to-be-revamped) RP, Legends Assembled, with level 1 autism. So, here are my questions for you;
Have you RPed a neurodivergent character? Do you plan to?
If you have, was it hard? Did you research the divergence thoroughly? How was the character taken by other RPers? Other characters?
Are you supportive of neurodivergent characters in RPs? Why or why not?
It wasn’t necessarily “hard”, but it does require research. You really need to represent them right, and make sure you don’t offend anyone. It’s tricky, but we need more representation of neurological things in RPs. They were taken just fine, it was just like any other character, because, essentially, they are!
Most definitely! I think it’s good to represent different people, and clear misunderstandings they might have regarding these sorts of things.
I hate it when the post gets written in chopped up bad grammar, Like speech and possibly thoughts then okay, but not the descriptions… I don’t have time to try and translate that.
Also think of the people who aren’t native English speakers!
I don’t not support them, as long as they are done right I’m cool with it. Unless literally everyone is Neurodivergent… that’s just a bit too much (exclusion of the rps made for those types of characters
Does it count if the character stutters? If not, then no. If so, then yes
My stuttering character was well taken by the other characters. They were much more friendlier when they heard my character stutter.
I’m not quite sure how I feel about it, but I like having different varieties of characters in RPs. So I guess I support them. This is my personal opinion, but I think everyone should be treated equally (including characters).
If you ask many of my friends you will see I have begun to RP characters in Nuerodivergency. I’ve played dyslexia (Valencia), dyscalculia (Saciente), ADHD (Daphne), Selective Mute (Evanthia), and many more. I plan to continue to. I’ve done multiple characters for each, those are some examples.
No. Psh, it’s not hard if people care to put research and be thoughtful about it. It was taken fine, I do remeber @ethereal was a fan which motivated me to do more and more characters like those.
I’m happy they’re here, as long as they’re done correctly. As an asexual I make up 1% of the population, which is small but still there. I love it when there’s diversity not only in race and ethncity, but abilities, disabilities, sexualities and more.
I guess it’s probably time I should answer these myself ^^
Yes, I have. In the past they weren’t put much effort into, though, so they never really ‘showed’ their disability. The most recent character I have is Lizzie Logan from Legends Assembled whom, like I mentioned in the original post, has level 1 autism. I’m also planning to play a character with Tourettes for RBS. Sometime in the future, I wanna RP a nonverbal auttie or a mute character.
It took a lot of effort to research for Lizzie, but it was enjoyable. I made sure to be thorough and include different aspect into her character. I haven’t RPed with her much (I think two scenes?) so I can’t really say.
Of course. I do think that people should do an appropriate amount of research before RPing a neurodivergent character and not just add them in for kicks and giggles or fudge diversity. I’m happy that these characters are getting more awareness, it’s awesome ^^
I’m pretty sure a few of my characters are neurodivergent. Lyla and Seth are for sure, Lyla with her PTSD and Gad (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and Seth with his bipolar disorder. I personally am neurodivergent with 4-5 disorders. For me with all of my characters i do tons of research. I wanted to make diverse characters after seeing that there weren’t as many. Like those who has an terminal illness or someone who is in a wheelchair. For any disorder or illness that I bring up I either have it or know a ton about. I am definetly supportive as long as someone who doesn’t have any personal experience can really dive deep into research and portray the character as well as they can.
Yeah, I have. I’m actually currently RPing a character with Dyslexia.
Not really in the case of my dyslexic character since she doesn’t talk about it or mention it all too often since she usually doesn’t have to read anything in the RP. I did do some research, there were some questions I never found answers to but I did my best. In terms of how the character was taken by other RPers and characters, I don’t think she was taken any differently because she’s dyslexic. If she wasn’t, I don’t really think people’s perception of her would change.
Yeah! I mean, I think it’s important to have different types of characters in RPs. Obviously if you are going to make a character like this, you need to do your research, but it’s nice to have diversity in characters and maybe to have characters that someone might be able to relate to. Like if I was neurodivergent myself, it would be nice to see characters like me.
As long as you are the OP you can move it yourself. You can do it with the pencil sign at the title of the thread (I think that’s only staff tho) or by editing your first post!
I love it when there’s diversity not only in race and ethncity, but abilities, disabilities, sexualities and more.
Is anyone going to join Changing Directions?
I’m happy to answer questions if any RPers have them 
Thank you! 