Disabled Students

[OliveOil_Med]

I was recently just thinking about what Hogwarts and other wizarding schools would help to accomidate students with disabilities. Surely, there are blind wizards, deaf wizards, paralyzed wizards. Magic can't fix everything.

How do imagine school would accomidate disabled students?

[Inverarity]

Interesting question, and it would make an interesting story.

I imagine that disabilities are somewhat rarer among wizards than among Muggles. They can heal broken bones overnight, after all. They can probably heal a lot of things that Muggle medicine can't. But you're right, magic can't fix everything.

On the other hand, magic can come up with unique solutions that Muggle technology can't match yet. Voldemort gave Pettigrew a silver hand to replace his missing one. Maybe most wizards can't just conjure one out of thin air like he did, but I'd imagine Healers are capable of creating such things. Mad-Eye Moody had a magical eye to replace his missing one. So magical prosthetics definitely exist. I don't see why they couldn't make magical ears as well.

Can wizards suffer irreparable spinal injuries and become quadriplegics or paraplegics? We know magic can regrow missing bones -- can it regenerate damaged nerves?

If it can't, then magical wheelchairs would probably have Levitation Charms. And a quadriplegic wizard could still use a wand -- he might have to hold it in his mouth. They would be much more capable and self-sufficient than a paralyzed Muggle.

For either blind or paralyzed wizards, the magical world can certainly offer companion animals as helpers that are far more intelligent than seeing eye dogs. (It seems to me this would also be excellent employment for a free elf.)

How about mental retardation? I don't think wizards would be immune to giving birth to children with congenital birth defects. A mentally handicapped wizard would be potentially dangerous if unable to control his or her magic. Would they give a retarded witch or wizard a wand?

Interesting questions indeed!

[Azhure]

How about mental retardation? I don't think wizards would be immune to giving birth to children with congenital birth defects. A mentally handicapped wizard would be potentially dangerous if unable to control his or her magic. Would they give a retarded witch or wizard a wand?

This reminds me of a story I was beta reading a while ago, and I would stilll be working on it had the author not disappeared off the face of the earth. The story was about a girl who had Autism. It was quite a magnificant story as it dealt with not only the girl's life at Hogwarts, but also her father's - he was a Death Eater, one mentioned in canon, no less. Unfortunately, the story didn't get onto the archives before the author vanished, and I haven't been able to find it on other sites. However, to be honest, I haven't look too thoroughly as I actually forgot about the story for a time. :o I will renew my search and try to contact the author again, as the story really was quite amazing, even though the author didn't get very far into it before she disappeared. I think the story would greatly benefit this type of discussion...

Anyway... I have to agree with Inverarity here. Wizards and witches would be much better equipped to deal with conditions such as paraplegia and the loss of sight, etc. It is also highly plausable that if the blindness or deafness was not genetic or something the person was born with for whatever reason - what I mean is that the disability was caused from an accident, etc. - that it would be curable. However, if it's caused magically - like George's loss of his ear - it probably would be permanent. The same thing could go for paraplegia.

Hmm, very interesting question, Molly.

[OliveOil_Med]

For either blind or paralyzed wizards, the magical world can certainly offer companion animals as helpers that are far more intelligent than seeing eye dogs. (It seems to me this would also be excellent employment for a free elf.)
Wow, seeing-eye elves? I never would have thought of this, but it is a wonderful idea. I have a blind student making an appearence in one of my stories, and I love the idea of her having one. I wonder how well known the concept would be? If Hermione didn't know about it, she might try to free the elf, in effect, stealing from a blind kid! LOL! I'm sooo using this consept.

This is a fun topic! I wonder how devices to help paralyzed students would work? I'll have to do some brainstorming.

[LucillaJoanna]

Great topic, yes, Molly.

I've always wondered about this... but in my mind, I wouldn't be deaf in the Wizarding world. I like the thought of magical ears, Inverarity! :D Or charms that easily spell out conversations/spoken words across the lenses of a pair of glasses.

Also, a blind wizard could easily make a book read aloud... A wheelchair can be equipped with magic that turns steps into inclines as the chair approaches... the possibilities are endless!

Striped Candycane once posted in the Character Clinic about Arianna possibly being autistic or mentally damaged. This topic made me think that perhaps the damage probably stemmed in the first place from her being cooped up. It would be improved with therapy-- which would include regular sessions in which Arianna can purge her repressed magic. In time, I'm sure persons with the same problem as Arianna can be given wands... or especially-crafted wands that would only perform certain rudimentary spells necessary in daily comfort and life.

[Merlin_Helz]

Interesting concept. What if say, a muggleborn was deaf, blind, paralysed ect, but when they got to Hogwarts, they were told they could have spells set on them to fix this problem. However, the spell takes a long time to go into effect, so as the year goes on, the person gets better and better, and say they were blind, begins to see more and more. Interesting concept.

[babekitty_92]

Striped Candycane once posted in the Character Clinic about Arianna possibly being autistic or mentally damaged. This topic made me think that perhaps the damage probably stemmed in the first place from her being cooped up. It would be improved with therapy-- which would include regular sessions in which Arianna can purge her repressed magic. In time, I'm sure persons with the same problem as Arianna can be given wands... or especially-crafted wands that would only perform certain rudimentary spells necessary in daily comfort and life.
Well my brother is severly Autistic and so I don't nessarily picture Ariana to have Autism. Remember that Dumbledore said that it stemmed from what the Muggle boys did to her, which would mean that she wouldn't have Autisim unless she had it from birth (but I'm sure Dumbledore mentions she was mentally healthy beforehand).

I think you would still find there would Wizards with Down Syndrome, Klienfelter's Syndrome and other chromosonal syndromes because they are all (obviously) caused in the DNA.

I'd always thought though (this is going into physical problems) that the Sketle Gro potion was only newly-developed within around ten years of Harry starting school because I'd imagine it's not an easy thing to develop something to grow a bone. You could create something to copy the actions of another (such as Wormtail's silver hand), but I'd imagine to completely heal or re-grow something, it would be much complicated.

I think maybe there would be (like most have suggested so far) potions or spells to help lessen the effects or help everyday life for the Wizard or Witch in question, but I think mental illnesses and physical problems like blindness, paraplegia, etc. would not be entirely cured.

And I must congratulate you Molly on starting this discussion.

Abbi :)

[OliveOil_Med]

I have a student coming up in one of my stories who is going to be blind (a condition she's held from birth, which magic cannot cure.) I am already debating the use of a seeing-eye dog or a seeing-eye efl, possibly both, but I want to expand more. What challanges might she face as a student in a wizarding school? How would she be accomidated?

Just anything you all think might be helpful.

[Inverarity]

I have a student coming up in one of my stories who is going to be blind (a condition she's held from birth, which magic cannot cure.) I am already debating the use of a seeing-eye dog or a seeing-eye efl, possibly both, but I want to expand more. What challanges might she face as a student in a wizarding school? How would she be accomidated?

We know Hogwarts is constantly rearranging itself, causing even sighted students to get lost. Blind people usually learn to navigate by memorizing routes and landmarks. At Hogwarts, that's going to be very difficult.

Potions will obviously be a challenge, though if she has an elf to describe colors, when things are boiling, etc., she might be able to manage.

She wouldn't be able to do much in Astronomy either.

Depending on how critical you believe the exact angle and positioning of a wand may be in casting a spell correctly, she might have trouble learning wand-work. She may require another student to hold her hand and guide her, to get the motions correctly.

If she's inclined to compete/duel/fight with other wizards, I think she'd get very good at Nox, Obscuro, and any other spell that can blind others. (We never see any "Darkness Charms" in the books, but maybe she can conjure a dense fog.) Putting out the lights for others would give her an obvious advantage.

I think Peeves would torment her mercilessly until he gets bored, or they figure out some way to keep him away from her.

[Tim the Enchanter]

Couldn't she have her eyes replaced with magic ones, like Moody? I know it sounds really drastic to have an eye-swapping operation to cure blindness, but I think it could be done.

But assuming she doesn't want to do that, there's always a seeing-eye... elf? I'd go with an elf who's master is the blind character, if only because House Elves can do many more things than guide dogs, plus they can help the character with things that require more dexterity than just walking.

Though there would be a multitude of problems for such a blind student, the only one I could think of off the top of my head is how to do assignments. For instance, how does she know if her potion is correct if she can't see the colour, or how would she write reports? Dictate them?

Tim the Enchanter

[JCCollier]

I have a student coming up in one of my stories who is going to be blind (a condition she's held from birth, which magic cannot cure.) I am already debating the use of a seeing-eye dog or a seeing-eye efl, possibly both, but I want to expand more. What challanges might she face as a student in a wizarding school? How would she be accomidated?

Such an interesting concept to consider. Of course there would be innumerable challenges since so much of the magic in Harry Potter is visual. Transfigurations could be as much of a problem as Potions. How will she know if her spells have been successful or not without viewing the result?

Probably like normal blind people she would develop her senses of hearing and touch more to compensate for the lack of sight. Perhaps there are even special spells for that purpose that professors would give her individual training in. Ron mentions a Supersensory Charm in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, the Homenum Revelio spell might have variations she could learn, and maybe the Point Me spell could be used with an added destination command. I'm sure she would not want to feel completely dependent on a seeing-eye elf her whole life.

So many other interesting questions come up. What would her Boggart be if she can't see it anyway? What would her Patronus be if her she has never seen an animal for her magic to create an image of? Could she learn to perform Legilimency and 'see' in that way when she reads someone else's thoughts or memories? I think you have a gold mine of possible storylines, Molly.

[Azhure]

It would be very hard at Hogwarts, as it is in RL, to be blind. I'm thinking that the student wouldn't attend all of the normal classes... Hmm, maybe a couple like History of Magic, etc. The less practical ones - or maybe HoM would be the only one they could attend... Personally, I think the student would be relying more on a private tutor than anything for their education.

What would her Boggart be if she can't see it anyway?

Complete and utter silence. That's what I think a blind person's worst fear would be. It would be terryifing, though, wouldn't it? Not being able to hear OR see? But there's some people out there that suffer through being blind as well as deaf. *shudder* I wonder what their Boggart would be? Maybe losing the sense of touch?

[OliveOil_Med]

What about students who are deaf or who are mute? What services do you imagine would be in place for them?

[Inverarity]

What about students who are deaf or who are mute? What services do you imagine would be in place for them?

Given that, for reasons previously discussed, there probably aren't very many disabled students (it's unlikely Hogwarts ever has more than one deaf student at a time, for example), I suspect there wouldn't be any regular set of services in place. More likely, when they occasionally get a student with special needs, they find out how such students have been accommodated in the past (if at all) and try to do likewise. And given the haphazard nature of education and standards at Hogwarts, just how well they are accommodated probably depends a lot on the good will of the current Headmaster/Headmistress and staff, as well as their House.

Deaf and mute students would have to learn non-verbal spells sooner than other students. This accelerated program of advanced techniques would probably mean sacrificing some of the fundamentals that everyone else gets thoroughly drilled in. So you get a student who can do non-verbal spells early, but probably isn't as good as most students at a lot of the basic spells.

As for more magical accommodations, for a mute student, I am picturing a Thought-pad -- a magical notepad that transcribes whatever the student is thinking, so he or she can communicate with others. (Or maybe it's a Thought-Quill.) Of course, embarrassment and hilarity may ensue if the student forgets to close/deactivate it at inopportune times.

How about a Silver Tongue? A magical item that can be placed in a mute person's mouth to allow him or her to voice his/her thoughts. The catch being that the tongue uses the voice (and language) of whoever enchanted it.

For a deaf student, something like Rita Skeeter's Quote Quill would be useful -- assuming the student is not a proficient lip-reader. Also, maybe a ring or a pendant that can flash when someone is yelling or otherwise trying to get their attention.

[weasleywannabe47]

In my story, there is a girl with a severe lung disorder.

She has to take brething treatments (ie, spells with her wand, simple enough) on the hour.

Do you imagine the teachers would let it go unnoticed or announce: "Class, Leah has breathing problems..."

What do you say?

[TheBlackSister]

Personally, I think they would let her slip out of class quietly. It would be the sensitive thing to do. Madam Pomfrey could meet her in the corridor and suprevise/administer the treatment

[OliveOil_Med]

I know in real schools, they can't legally devulge a student's medical problems to the student body. They could get sued. I don't know if wizards have those same laws or can sue one another (maybe in America they can), but I still think they would respect the student's privacy.

If, however, people were talking and rumors were flying around, the sick student might ask the teacher to inform everyone about her condition, simply because it would be easier than telling everyone personally.

[Halgy]

As with many disabled muggles, disabled witches/wizards would probably find ways to cope with their disabilities, magically or otherwise. Likewise, people who are robbed of one ability often make up for it by excelling at another.

I'm toying with having a paralyzed girl in my story. She's confined to a wheelchair, but excels at telekinesis (moving things magically). Likewise, she has extraordinary focus, so she is able to levitate herself to places she needs to go, etc.

As such, if you have someone who is blind, have them use sound to 'see' (look up the superhero Daredevil the general idea). If they are deaf, make them like normal deaf people and have them read lips. Or to get extreme, consider a form of legilimency.

[HARRYHARRYHARRYs_twin]

This is a brilliant idea for a discussion, if I may say so. I'm having plot bunnies strewn across my mind.

I know that in my school, for example, four or five years ago there was a boy with Tourrette's. My English teacher told us in a classroom discussion of disabilities about how the boy's mother was always telling the children, from the time that he started school, about how Tourrette's works. It gets worse with puberty, or so I hear, but all of the students didn't think it was weird, and didn't make fun of him - because of what his mother did to prepare them for it. I personally would like people to know what was wrong with me, if just so rumours and rude comments would be fewer, or at least better informed, but it would be interesting to see a student's struggle to 'just be normal'.

With the non-verbal spells for deaf/mute students - I don't see them being that far behind. They could still attend their classes like the other children, and prehaps take extra lessons later on, like Harry does with Occlumency. They may not be able to do practical lessons with the others, until they master non-verbal spells, at least, but they would be able to do some practice, or a try at practice. I mean, look at how fast Hermione learned non-verbal spells - she was doing them her first class period. Of course, she was a Sixth Year, but if the student really consentrated, I'd guess they could do it pretty well in a month or two. Anyway, if they were from a family with a witch or wizard present, they could be learning it from the time when they learn they have magic.

That Thought-Quill is a good idea - and I can think of a few ways it could be used for entertaining purposes. I don't see it putting out every thought, unless it's a new invention - in that case, it would be hard to sort through all that a person thinks - would it work only with what the person would say, if they could do it themselves, or all thoughts? Would it be with only the forefront thoughts in a person's head, or with those of the subconcious mind? You'd have to decide that sort of thing before you could use such an item in a fic.

A student who is blind might still have average fears - prehaps they are scared of snakes or amphibians or something of that sort - the rattle of the rattlesnake, or the feel of slimey or scaley skin may be how they are terrified. But I think that sometimes, they might not even be effected by the Boggart - like if Molly were blind, she wouldn't be able to see all of the dead family members, so she might not even notice, unless she steps on it or she could hear them dying.

Now, what ways do you think would be common for a person to become/be disabled, besides being born with it? I see a curse without a countercurse being a problem, like one that deprives senses, or having something removed. Prehaps there is a morphed version of Silencio that is permanent, or something of the kind. Prehaps the character had a illness as a child that removed their sight.

I see the cures to various ailments being a gradual process - prehaps a cure for whatever the character's ailment exists, but it has a few unsavory side effects - like, I dunno, the random combustion of a person's little finger. Also, with Skele-Gro - if I'm not mistaken, I think it wasn't invented close to Harry's time. I think it was in GoF that Ron said something about how he had thought that Hagrid had swallowed a bottle of Skele-Gro as a kid after Hagrid was revealed to be a giant. I just think that it wouldn't be commonly used or available - how many people have bones completely removed? I'd also consider Skele-Grow really dangerous. I'd think it possible that it could cause a person to be seriously injured - if there wasn't a bone to be regrown, would the potion grow all of the bones? That could be fatal. But I digress.

As I said, a very excellent topic. I'll be thinking about this for a while.
~Selina

[Enneirda]

Firstly, I've always wondered about most of the subjects in this discussion too; I'm glad someone finally posted this!

Now, what ways do you think would be common for a person to become/be disabled, besides being born with it?

I would imagine that Dark Magic would cause some injuries that would in turn cause some disabilities (remember, George's ear couldn't be magically reattached because it was taken off by dark magic). Perhaps some accidents could also be a common form (maybe a spell gone awry? A potion with no cure that damages the larynx / voicebox?)

A question:
If Voldemort can create a hand for Peter, can Healers create artificial parts for those who need them?

Say that a man got hit with a spell that damaged his voicebox. Could a very powerful Healer replace it? Or would the Healer try to 'fix' the damaged one? What if the voicebox was harmed by dark magic? Would the Healer then try to replace the part?

I'm going to keep coming back; this is a very interesting subject!
-Aj

[OliveOil_Med]

I also wonder about the school's house-elves. They live to serve the Hogwarts student and would certainly do all they could to help a disabled student if it was within their abilities. How do you think the house-elves would be able to cater to their needs? With any kind of disability they might be encountered with?

[Lady Juliet]

I also wonder about the school's house-elves. They live to serve the Hogwarts student and would certainly do all they could to help a disabled student if it was within their abilities. How do you think the house-elves would be able to cater to their needs? With any kind of disability they might be encountered with?

Maybe with a blind student they'd move any object that that student might run into out of the way so they don't bump into it. Or they'd make rooms safer for a blind student.

Question: Would a disabled student sleep in the same dorms as the regular students, of would they get their own?

I can see a blind student getting their own room. It would be potentially fatal for a blind student to sleep in a room with messy room-mates. If one of their room-mates left a razor, or some other sharp object, or even a non sharp object on the floor they could trip over that object, and obtain substantial injures. I split my knee open on a "Littlest Pet Shop" house a couple years ago, and I had to have stitches. (Moral of the story: Keep your rooms clean.)

-Juliet

[minnabird]

On the question of how the disabled students would learn, I would say they would go to most normal classes, as well as having private sessions with the teachers to learn special ways to do the spells, etc. in a way that accomodates their disability--for example, I can see a mute person having to learn how to do nonverbal spells early on, before they could start learning spells. I think a blind person would be let out of a class like Astronomy, but would have to have a very patient partner or a seeing eye elf to do Potions. Maybe their cauldron could be spelled so that it screeched/made some sort of alarm if the Potion started to go wrong?
I like the idea of a deaf person having a Quick Quotes Quill/spelled glasses to tell him or her what people were saying.
I agree with the idea that a blind person's Boggart would be something that made some sort of spine-chilling noise or otherwise had non-visual effects--Banshee, Augurey, Dementor, etc. I think their Patronus would take form whether they could see or not.
Very interesting topic, and one I admit I have wondered about on occasion.

[OliveOil_Med]

I have a blind student in one of my upcoming stories, so I have been doing a lot of thinking as to what school would be like for them if they were a witch or a wizard.


I agree with the idea that a blind person's Boggart would be something that made some sort of spine-chilling noise or otherwise had non-visual effects--Banshee, Augurey, Dementor, etc.
I almost wonder if a blind student might confuse a Boggart. They are so used to knowing what people are afraid of by their sight, and blind wizards aren't that common. It might even confuse the blurrs and blackness for what they are afraid of, and turn into that. And when the students aren't afraid, who knows how it would react.

Also, if the Boggart did only know what they were afraid of, I wonder what form it would take the shape of. A blind person may be the only one to see a Boggarts true form, except because they can't see in the first place, they can't tell anyone what they look like.


I think their Patronus would take form whether they could see or not.
Maybe, but I almost think it might have a few odd features because they may percive a creature as looking a certain way, but would not be entirly right.