An Informal Thing, An Update

Today I wanted to draw attention to an aspect of my blog that has only been addressed twice formally. First was my Learning Guide from late last year, and second was my Disability piece presented by Michiru - both are, in a sense, pedagogical materials that are useful for conveying disability. As I think about creating these materials to teach disability, I can't help but wonder how I can progress further. One important perspective missing from my guide or materials is what an able-bodied child would look like, or able-bodied adult. For that reason, I think a scene from Non Non Biyori would be apt to that end - in many ways, Renge, Natsumi, Komari, and Hotaru are portrayed as typical in ability for girls of their respective ages. So they may provide a clear example of that normed ability. Otherwise, this talk about normality may seem a bit abstract if I only give examples of the typical case. This example of normality must be obvious, even exaggerated, to convey the right message, I'd say. Thus, Non Non Biyori could be germane in this case, and so would other works depicting active children.

One way that I wish to expand my repertoire, when it comes to pedagogy and disability, is t incorporating scenes and images from anime shows, manga, and light novels. Yes, Michiru highlights one potential route - incorporate a character's words into the learning material itself; that allows it to feel personal and more fluid. Learning materials should never feel too stuffy, which I think I managed to capture. However, I need to spend more time thinking about characters that represent disability well. The observant reader may notice that I spent some time taking notes on characters without actually posting on them at all. These notes and observations may still factor into new essays. I thought of a new character, recently, who may be appropriate. Fortunately, I have buried this information deeply so I don't need an overt spoiler warning (I guess I just did)....The person is Rena from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni[1] and she has a neurological disorder. I feel that in some ways this disorder is offered as a convenient explanation and in other ways is used to demonize her. So, I could write something on Rena's experience and perspective - and that would allow me to look beyond physical disability. I wish to capture a greater range of abilities because disability appears in many shapes, and is not simply just obvious, physical ones.

New learning materials will eventually be shared on this blog, so this post serves as a warning of sorts, I suppose. I may update old materials or create new ones.  On a semi-related note, I will be sharing my short story "5 Centimeters Per Second" on the Muscular Dystrophy Association's blog devoted to the theme of transition from childhood to adulthood. This way I will have a more public platform to write about my disability but I will also be able to further my other ambitions in this area. I would like to be able to draw upon my collaboration with the MDA for further work, so this works for me.

That said, I can give an update on the other posts I have been working on.

List of Blog Ideas, Updated

1. Continuation of the Murder Mystery Story
2. Serial Killers Post
3. Amaburi Post
4. Kokoroco Post (expect this one very soon)
5. Gochuumon post (likely a short post)
6. Sound Euphonium post (eventually)
7. Rewrite and the Earth (this one will require replaying a short section of Rewrite)
8. Potentially some posts about my disability (But I likely will not post them here but rather give them to the MDA blog; I do not want Nighttrail to have all of my content)