Disabled Developers / Players?

[Ephram Cole]

I finished the "demo" and I must say... "Well made"

I was born "Legally Blind" with my vision sitting at around 20/200 with correction(20/400 without) so when I read the premise for this VN I was a bit wary, half expecting some half-hearted attempt at putting humour with disabilities. You guys certainly proved my fears misplaced. I'm very impressed with how you handled the characters so far, they seem real.

When I was little, I actually had an opportunity to be placed in a school similar to the one portrayed in this game, but my parents protested, claiming that I didn't need the special care and that my vision was enough to get by, and maybe they were right... but I can't help but wonder what it would have been like. Would I have been more tolerant of... get this... the blind. And yes, I've had days where I couldn't really focus and I'd almost have to pull a Kenji and get up a bit closer than normal to someone to make sure who they were (if I wasn't familiar with their voice yet).

[kobe]

pull a Kenji

I'm so using this one if i don't have my glasses with me in school.
teacher:'haven't you got your glasses with you'
me:'Yeah, mind if i pull a Kenji?'
i think the results would be hilarious!

not really a disability: but i'm a very restricted in physical activity, my heart beats way faster than it should, 80-90 BPM instead of 60-70 ( not as bad as the main char though, i am able to jog two miles if i walk a bit in between the jogs), and my lung capacity is way too low, even swimming makes me gasp for air sometimes, i once tried to push myself too hard ( actually, it was last week, i wanted to prove myself to my friends), bad idea, REALLY bad idea. I had to sit on the ground puking and close to fainting, my head spinning after just 5-10 minutes of mountainbiking And you know what the worst part is? The mountainbiking wasn't even going uphill, it was going DOWN. And that's why I now prefer casual rollerblading on a paved street above riding a bike. I've managed to save energy very efficiently by jogging at a certain speed. But hey, what am i gonna do about it? might as well ''get on with it!'' as the the monty python guys would've said it.

also: Hi there!

[Dootsy]

pull a Kenji

I'm so using this one if i don't have my glasses with me in school.
teacher:'haven't you got your glasses with you'
me:'Yeah, mind if i pull a Kenji?'
i think the results would be hilarious!

If by hilarious you mean causing everyone to roll their eyes in silent, confused annoyance as you slink back to your seat embarrassed that no one knew what you were referencing, then yeah.

[kobe]

pull a Kenji

I'm so using this one if i don't have my glasses with me in school.
teacher:'haven't you got your glasses with you'
me:'Yeah, mind if i pull a Kenji?'
i think the results would be hilarious!

If by hilarious you mean causing everyone to roll their eyes in silent, confused annoyance as you slink back to your seat embarrassed that no one knew what you were referencing, then yeah.

that's the point, totally confusing the teacher (and all the others for that matter).
It's like that one time I started a conversation with my religion teacher, and at a certain point, I referenced a strange video game, she didn't know what we were talking about anymore, and she stood there for at least five minutes. My maths teacher would get into a speech about how you shouldn't reference stuff nobody knows about, and everyone would like me for giving them a 'break' from the lessons. me (and this other guy) tend to do this kind of stuff, it has become pretty common now, so nobody gets annoyed at it.

Tl;Dr: In the context of my class and teachers, it would be funny, or at least handy.

back on-topic: A family member of mine is mentally disabled, it's this condition where mentally, you never grow up, the guy acts and thinks like a three-year old, he lives in this house with a bunch of people like him and some adults.

[goldblade0]

I have been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome but not quit sure if I have it. I kinda boreline everyone thinks. Well everyone around me dosent know about it for the most part, but I do have trouble talking with people. I dont know quite if it affeted my social interactions, but I do have a few disabled friends.

[ai-honey]

As I mentioned, I've had clinical depression for three/four years now. I dunno, despite how severe it is sometimes I still find it weird to think of it as a mental disability. x__x Even though, thinking about it, it does stop me from doing a lot of things. I take medication and I've taken therapy.

Funnily enough I didn't start to get it until after I had started to get over the bullying/physical issues. I just sort of burned out, didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I am at Uni. I have the worst attendance in the class but I'm still going. :< If I didn't keep trying I might as well be dead.

I guess thinking about it, maybe it's a subconcious reason as to why I like this game so much. ^^

[MageShift]

Dunno what you'd call me, but I can't move the right side of my face. I also have anger/rage issues that stem down from family genetics. I also have light ADD.

My friend and lover has no arms. I've known her since I was little, and when she had a wreck, I freaked out. Her left arm was completely ripped off, and her right one was basically gone. I try my best to help her, i.e. put clothes on, bathe her, etc etc. She also gets in moods where she just doesn't wanna go on, which breaks my heart when she says it to me.

[TKPsycho]

I have been diagnosed with OCD, ADD, depression, and some other shit. I also get migraines and have a strong genetic disposition for bipolar disorder. I no longer take meds because I have had too many issues with them having no real effect or working, but having horrible side effects that made me completely useless. I get by just fine without them. Sometimes when I am feeling really shitty (about twice per year) I will think of seeing a doctor again, but for the last 4 years or so it just hasn't seemed worth it.

Yeah, not really a disability, but since we were posting such things...

[Caesius]

I got halfway through reading the first page of this thread before I realized that being deaf in my left ear could almost count, but it really isn't a disability at all - just an inconvenience at times.

I do appreciate it when people are talking to me realize that they're sitting or standing on my left side and offer to switch places if it's obvious I'm having trouble hearing, and I don't mind the lengths people will go to get my attention when I can't hear them (like throwing a bag of chips at me).

What I do find annoying and rude is when people mention the fact that I'm deaf the moment they introduce me to someone, and even worse, when that someone asks if I can hear them immediately after being told that I'm deaf. This happened once when my mother took me to the doctor's office, and the first thing she says after the doctor starts talking is that I'm deaf in my left ear, and then the doctor asks if I can hear him. The checkup had nothing to do with my hearing, and it was obvious that I could hear the doctor as well as my mother (who was sitting to my left) just fine, so there was no need for any of that. And then during the checkup my mom said stupid, embarrassing things like mothers tend to do, and I said, "...What?!" So she repeats herself, obviously not catching my sarcastic tone (or just making sure) - that ticked me off.

So basically if you know someone with a disability (no matter how small) you shouldn't go out of your way to make their disability obvious or to be overaccommodating - do just enough to make them feel comfortable, or else they'll resent you for being a jerk.

[Thistledown]

I'm deaf in my right ear and mostly deaf in my left. Most people I know don't really know this, as I've learned to read lips fairly well, as long as I have even a small amount of audio inference. A few of my friends from my time at a hospital are plastics patients and amputees.

When I first heard about KS coming to a reality I thought I'd be disgusted. Though, I'm extremely surprised at how much an actual non-issue the disabilities were. Really, all the characters are normal people (well, save Kenji) with unfortunate circumstances. Props to the team for handling this much more maturely than I thought it would be back when I first saw the thread on /a/.

[E-AK-M]

I wouldn't call it a disability at all, but I have Type I diabetes, so I can sympathize with Hisao having to take lots of medication, as I'm putting needles in me 3-5 times a day.

[Pato2747]

Well, not that you could really count them as a disability, but I have a very poor eyesight (I'm not sure how the imperial measurement would be, but it would be around 20/650 or more), which basically makes me blind without using these big-ass glasses. Then it's a case of Tourette's Syndrome that, although it hit me badly in my childhood, it's pretty much controlled by now(Although I find myself with coprolalia attacks very often).

[KnightofNEE]

Not quite the same category as the ones in the VN, but ADD and a couple of Learning Disabilities. The latter one(s) I cope with and they don't even really matter that much anymore (except for the sequentiality deficit...numbers don't really have that much meaning to me and as the name implies sequence (such as essay writing, following a path of information; I see the path from 1 to 5 and so instead of going through (and explaining) each individual step I go from 1 to 5...if that makes sense) can be difficult for me.)

[stranger]

I just sort of burned out, didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I am at Uni. I have the worst attendance in the class but I'm still going. :< If I didn't keep trying I might as well be dead.

...This sounds like something just about every college student I've ever met would say.

On topic, I do have some mental health issues, but the good thing about those is that they aren't really a disability unless you let them be. Come to think of it, I guess most disabilities are the same way...

[PCJedi]

I just sort of burned out, didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I am at Uni. I have the worst attendance in the class but I'm still going. :< If I didn't keep trying I might as well be dead.

...This sounds like something just about every college student I've ever met would say.

On topic, I do have some mental health issues, but the good thing about those is that they aren't really a disability unless you let them be. Come to think of it, I guess most disabilities are the same way...

That's sort of one of the lessons I took away from playing KS. I mean, look at Emi. She doesn't have any (organic) legs, but does she ever let it bother her? Nope. It seems like one of the points that the devs might have been trying to make with the game is that to at least some extent, the severity of one's disabilities depends more on their mindset than their physical condition.