Disabilities in HP?

[jdr0918]

No: HPFGUIDX 60216

<<<--- shanna <slstich at h...> wrote: I'm curious what would happen if 
for some reason a disabled person were to attend Hogwarts or another 
similar magical institution.  I realize this is completely 
hypothetical and not likely to ever be included in canon, but as 
someone with a visual disability, I have to wonder.>>>

The Sergeant Majorette says:
Canon-wise, I think a disabled person would be a red herring. 

However, in the "real" magical world (i.e., any of the alternate 
universes we seem to be cobbling together around here), there is 
precedent: the blind seer is a stock character, and I suppose this 
concept could be extended to other sensory disablities under the 
theory that enforced withdrawal in one area sharpens abilities in the 
others, or facilitates focus. Muscular-skeletal or neuromotor 
disabilities are another case. The author would have to construct a 
whole logical system to explain why a witch or wizard would not 
simply correct the condition with magic, like Hermione with her buck 
teeth only way more complicated. You'd also have to decide whether 
disability in your wizarding cosmos is natural or magical, and what 
difference, if any, that makes. That done, it's a cruise -- it's not 
like these wizarding schools have phys ed classes.
Actually, when you get right down to it, Harry has a visual 
disability, albeit a mild one. In the US, he would technically be a 
member of a protected class under equal opportunity laws...

This might be an interesting area for an author to get into. Flying 
wheelchairs, bewitched canes? How about a character whose wizard 
gifts get noticed when medical tests reveal that the kid has been 
blind or deaf since birth, and has been unwittingly compensating so 
well magically that nobody noticed?