Dad Creates Comic Book with Disabled Superheroes

A father has written and illustrated a comic book that follows the lives of a gang of disabled superheroes.

Dan White came up with the idea after his daughter Emily, who has spina bifida, asked why she hadn’t ever seen a wheelchair on TV. Rather than getting upset, he decided to tackle the problem head on.

In The Department of Ability (D.O.A) each hero has a different disability which doubles as their superpower. Emily is the leader of the gang and has a flying wheelchair along with superior upper body strength. Other characters include a visually impaired ghost, an alien with a prosthetic arm and a cheetah with a fusion powered running blade.

Encourage Inclusion

Dan said; “The kids I meet all tell me they have had enough of discussing their disability, they hate their stereotyped images, they want proper inclusion in the medium that they, like all kids consume – TV and comics!

“The D.O.A was designed to be as accessible as possible without losing sight of the aim behind their creation.

“I noticed that the majority of disabled characters across the media were purely static or there to educate.  If this project was to encourage positive, diverse, inclusion then it HAD to be accessible’.”

Available March 2016

The comic is being printed and published by charity Strongbones, who support children and their families who suffer from conditions of the bones. It will be available in March 2016.

Until then, Dan is campaigning on Facebook to promote and share the D.O.A. Like the page or visit the D.O.A website.