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i think a lot of people in the rtc fandom don't understand the sort of disability ricky is supposed to have. canon is pretty vague about it and that's led to a lot of misconceptions. i wanted to go through some of the unclear canon lines that describe his disability and explain what they actually mean in a medical context, and what it could imply

The basics

According to Karnak's introduction of Ricky in the musical, he was "born with a rare degenerative disease". The most obvious effect of this is that he has difficulty walking - he uses mobility aids (usually crutches, but some productions have other aids) and, according to Karnak's narration, his knees began to buckle when he was six.

Based on the fact that he needs aids to walk, can't talk out loud (more on that later in the post), and specifically has a degenerative disease, it's likely that he has some form of neuromuscular disease. This is an umbrella term for diseases relating to the nerves that control the muscles. A common type of neuromuscular disease is muscular dystrophy.

There are many neuromuscular diseases that cause a wide range of symptoms, but some of the most common & basic symptoms include: muscle weakness, muscle pain, muscle atrophy/wastage, and spasticity. Any of these could contribute to Ricky needing mobility aids to walk.

With that said, Ricky's disability would realistically not only affect his legs - muscles and nerves are everywhere! He would likely also struggle with using his arms and hands, remaining upright for long periods of time (that uses muscle strength!), and potentially basic things like breathing and swallowing.

Exactly how much trouble he'd have with the above things would depend on the severity of his disease, and because his disease is degenerative, the severity would depend on how quickly it progresses. The script is quite vague about this, and different productions imply different levels of severity depending on what mobility aid he uses and how he uses it. If you want to depict Ricky in fanworks, it's a good idea to have a mental idea of how his disease is progressing and what specific symptoms he has - especially if you're doing something post-canon when his disability has progressed further.

Fun fact: When Karnak specifically says that Ricky has a "rare degenerative disease", the term "rare disease" isn't just an informal/subjective term for a disease that isn't common - it's a medical term with a specific meaning! In Canada, a disease is classified as a "rare disease" if affects fewer than 1 in 2000 people. Rare diseases come with additional challenges - they are often difficult to diagnose due to lack of awareness even among medical professionals, treatments are often experimental or nonexistent, and a lack of awareness leads to fewer resources.

Ricky's inability to speak

I sometimes notice people in the fandom who seem to believe Ricky is nonverbal due to autism (or another neurodivergence), and his physical disability is unrelated. I'm not sure if this is because people are combining the new script (where Ricky can't talk due to psychological trauma) with the old script (where he's physically disabled), or if it's just due to a lack of awareness of physical disabilities affecting speech, and due to people associating AAC with autistic people only.

However, I feel that Karnak's lines while introducing Ricky ("Born with a rare degenerative disease, when Richard lost his power of speech..." mentioning his inability to speak immediately after the disease, implying they're related) imply that his loss of speech is due to his neuromuscular disorder.

And many real-world neuromuscular disorders can cause this! Dysarthria is a medical term for difficulty speaking, and it can be caused by neuromuscular problems because speaking uses the muscles in your throat and mouth.

Autistic nonverbal people definitely need more representation. I headcanon Ricky as autistic too - and he can have autism-related communication difficulties as well as being physically unable to speak! But I feel it's important to understand that his inability to speak likely has a physical cause. There's a lack of awareness around dysarthria, and many people aren't even aware that some physically disabled people can rely on AAC to communicate.

Fun fact: It's possible that Ricky may also have dysphagia, the medical term for difficulty swallowing! There's a lot of overlap between dysarthria and dysphagia, as they both involve the muscles in the mouth and throat.

How Ricky communicates

The canon description of how Ricky communicates is "the Potts Family took a vow of silence. Usually communicating in a series of strange gestures only they understood." There are a couple of ways you can interpret this if you want to be fully canon compliant.

The first way is that the phrasing "gestures only they understood" is an exaggeration, meaning they were the only people in uranium city to understand the "gestures". This would imply that they're just speaking a common sign language. In Canada, this would most likely be ASL, as that's the official sign language in Canada.

The other way is to interpret "gestures only they understood" completely literally. This would imply a communication system invented entirely by the Potts family. This does exist in real life, and is called home sign or kitchen sign! However, home sign is primarily developed in situations where someone has no other way to communicate, because it is generally much more practical to learn to communicate in an existing language than to create a new one from scratch. Ricky truly communicating in home sign would come with implications and questions about exactly why his family would have chosen that way for him to communicate, given AAC and ASL were likely both options.

Regardless of whether Ricky uses ASL or a home sign, I feel it's important to mention - sign language is specifically part of Deaf culture, and is not just AAC. Sign languages are primarily developed and spoken by d/Deaf and hard of hearing people, who often find it more practical as a primary language and form of communication because it is solely visual.

While some hearing people do use a sign language as their main form of communication because they can't speak, it isn't very common. It's important to remember that ASL is not just "English with hands", but a separate language which is as difficult to learn as any language. In most cases, when someone is unable to speak verbally, it's much more practical for them to find an alternate way to communicate in a language they already know, than to learn a whole new language and then only be able to communicate with people who speak (sign) that language.

Now, it's possible that Ricky is also d/Deaf or hard of hearing, or that one of his family members is, which would explain his use of sign language. It's also possible that he/his family had some other reason for choosing sign language over AAC. It's also possible (and quite likely) that the description of Ricky "communicating in a series of strange gestures" is simply because the writers of RTC were ignorant about how real people in Ricky's position would generally communicate, and assumed "strange gestures" would make sense rather than doing research on the subject.

Because of this - and also because of practical issues, such as the unlikeliness of the choir being fluent in sign language - Ricky is often seen using typical AAC in fanworks.

Regardless of whether you choose to depict Ricky communicating via sign language or AAC, I think it's important for that to be an informed choice, made with an understanding of the life circumstances that would have caused him to communicate that way. I also think it's a good idea to research whatever communication method he ends up using - it's fine to just put his dialogue in italics with a quick explanation of how he's communicating, but it's also interesting to see more detail put in to exactly how he talks!

Fun fact: Since Ricky's disability would likely affect his whole body including his hands, he may have physical difficulty communicating even without having to talk out loud! Assistive tech (such as AAC) doesn't necessarily make things easy for disabled people - it just makes things possible.

Conclusion / TL;DR

Ricky is implied to have a neuromuscular disease that affects his whole body. He is canonically unable to speak, likely due to dysarthria, and requires mobility aids, likely due to the neuromuscular disease affecting his legs. Ricky is also usually only disabled on-stage for a short time before becoming able-bodied in the afterlife, and even in productions where he still uses mobility aids in the afterlife, it seems that some sort of "musical magic" is allowing him to do physical feats (singing and dancing) that he may not normally be capable of. If Ricky's disability was depicted realistically for an extended period of time it would likely cause more effects than just the ones shown on-stage and described in the script.

There are many misconceptions about Ricky's disability and it is important to research before depicting, rather than just make assumptions.

Fun fact: It's common for disabled people to decorate and name their mobility aids. In one version of the script, Ricky's crutches are named Lady Marzipan and Dame Judi Dench! The first name is named after a dessert, and the second name is named after a British actress. (There's also a book called My Lady Marzipan but it came out long after RTC so it's probably unrelated.)

Thanks for reading!

Happy birthday to the late great Rik Mayall

with love and violence

STUILLY NATION WE STAY FUCKING WINNING

I like to believe there’s purpose behind the roles assigned to the kids when they’re acting out each others backstories.

For example, having misha play ocean’s stoner dad. She’s made that comparison in her own head, a reflection of her perception of misha

So then keeping up with that idea,

maybe jane sees ricky as someone like her

my names vinnie (not really), i’m an 18yo expat kid (🇮🇪/🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 but living in 🇫🇷) and i work part time as a cook when i’m not in school

partially here to try to improve my drawing and work on trying out digital art

i also run @aannggeevvvviinnee for reblogs and general side stuff

my interests vary massively, but for the moment this blog is mostly about ride the cyclone

DNIs: basically just be a kind normal person and ur welcome here (bigots of any kind and nonces are inherently neither kind, nor normal.)

dividers by @firefly-graphics

thanks for taking ur time to read this, have a nice day :)

trying to figure out what to do for rtc secret santa. i’m talking about my person like how charlie kelly talked about pepe silvia

been trying to figure out how to word this but my favorite type of spacedolls in productions is when ricky likes jane right off the bat. like everyone is terrified of this headless girl who apparently died along with them and then there's ricky

being a bad-to-beginner artist while having super talented friends is so nerve wracking holy shit

like they’ve just rendered this modern art masterpiece only for me come up and show them the floating heads im proud of

hi again!! this might be too much of an obscure reference but could i please ask for penny and ricky as lizzy and fred from drop dead fred? totally cool if no!

It’s always interesting researching things I’m not familiar with for these requests. Here you go!! Have an ESU Ricky and Penny.