Disabilities In Science Fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction in which the stories often tell about the science and technology of the future. It has influenced or led to a change in technology. As a genre, there needs to be some possibility that the events could possibly happen. While either reading or watching science fiction, it makes the viewer or reader constantly wonder, “what if?” It teaches lessons about the value and the dangers of advanced technology. Science fiction presents and discusses many real world issues like disabilities. Science fiction helps us predict, cope with and understand issues within our society. Science fiction can help us predict issues within our society. Disabilities in science fiction can predict the changes within a society. Through science many advances have been made to help people with their disabilities like electric wheelchairs. Disabilities have become more socially accepted than in the past; “Why is disability in the present constantly deferred, such that disability often enters critical discourse only as the marker of what must be eliminated in our futures or what was unquestionably eliminated in our pasts?” (Kafer). As time goes on, life for people that have disabilities is …show more content…
Most times in science fiction, characters hide their disabilities because it can be a setback to their mission or goal. In Daredevil, no one knows that Matt Murdock is blind. He is using his disability as a disguise and if his disability were known then villains would treat him differently. On the other hand, characters try to find a cure for their disability; “Regardless of ethical intent, those on the receiving end of (limited) beneficence are never able to claim equal agency while their vulnerability remains” (Shildrick). Whether they are hiding behind a suit of armor or take medicine to change their genetic makeup, they still have to recognize and understand their