Teaching Disability Awareness thru Anime

Panel Outline

Synopsis:

Many people with disabilities enjoy anime, and situations commonly encountered by people with disabilities appear in many anime series. Listen to an anime fan discuss how people can utilize anime to teach awareness of varying forms of disabilities.

Description:

As an anime fan with a disability, I have often enjoyed certain anime titles and observed similarities between the struggles people with disabilities face in real life, and situations that appear in Japanese anime episodes.

I shall begin my presentation by discussing how anime conventions and the anime community have become a “safe zone” for people with many disabilities, and have helped them find lasting friendships.

I shall then give a description of several anime series and how they relate to different disabilities. The descriptions may vary based on the age of the attendees to make them understandable to all ages.

Such examples may include, but are not limited to:

“Pokemon” – Ash Ketchum’s struggle to get up in the morning in the first episode mirrors how people with disabilities have different sleep cycles, and Brock’s constant inappropriate behaviors towards Joys and Jennys mirrors the tendencies of some individuals with social disabilities.

“Say, I Love You” – the social anxiety among Mei mirrors the social anxiety among people of different disabilities.

“Karin: Chibi Vampire” – Many physical issues that Karin goes through as the “unvampire” mirror medical issues common among many people with disabilities.

After these descriptions, I shall open the floor to questions anyone in the audience has about disability awareness and anime, and let people with disabilities in the audience offer their own anime series they feel can be utilized to teach disability awareness.