Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is the most popular version of the game ever released, and one reason for its widespread appeal is that the game has been redesigned to be more inclusive. During the early years of D&D, a stereotype emerged that players were white cis straight men with antisocial behavior. That stereotype is now deader than a zombie on the Elemental Plane of Fire.

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D&D is for everyone. This includes people with disabilities. However, it can sometimes take a bit of extra work to accommodate people's specific needs.  Thankfully, with the right resources and a bit of understanding, there is a lot that DMs and players can do to make games more accessible to people with disabilities. Everyone should be able to enjoy a game to the fullest, and a few reasonable accommodations can go a long way toward that.

NOTE: This author of this article is disabled, and wrote it in consultation with disability educator Kass James, CEAC of The Spoonie Advocate.

10 Always Be Willing To Listen And Learn

Dungeons & Dragons

The most important thing in any game for ensuring people have a good time is a willingness to be open. Dungeons & Dragons is about having fun, but everyone has different experiences.

Historically, there has been an unfair burden placed on people with disabilities to educate others about their experiences. No matter who you are, you have more to learn. Being willing to listen to the experiences of players with disabilities is important, but you can also take the initiative to learn more on your own to try and help them. Ask questions and be open to feedback, even when that feedback may challenge you. This should be the starting point for everything you do as you keep in mind these other points.

9 Use A Session Zero To Make Sure Players Feel Comfortable

Dice Rolling Stock Image

In recent years, people have begun using what is called a "session zero" where the Dungeon Master (DM) meets with players to discuss expectations before they begin to play. It's a chance for players to design their character sheets and to say what they hope to get out of a game, expressing what they find the most fun and what might ruin the fun for them (including possible triggers).

A session zero is also a great way for players with disabilities to express their needs and possible limitations. It also gives everyone a chance to consider possible resources and accommodations that will work best for all involved. Players with disabilities who want to design characters that reflect their lived experiences can work with DMs.

However, sometimes a session zero is not enough. Some people may not feel comfortable voicing their needs in front of others, especially if they are new to a group. Consider creating a Google document where everyone can anonymously write down their needs and express their feelings. Anonymity helps ensure that everyone feels safe while advocating for themselves.

8 Understand The Difference Between Disability Accessibility & Disability Representation

Adventurers drink and celebrate in a tavern

There are two separate broad topics to consider when talking about disability in D&D: accessibility and representation. Accessibility concerns recognizing the needs and potential struggles of players, and developing techniques that make a game easier to play. By contrast, representation is concerned with creating characters and a fantasy world that are welcoming to and empathetic of people with disabilities.

Both of these are important and should be considered. However, addressing one does not replace the need for the other. Also, note there are many types of people with many different disabilities, so don't assume that accommodations made for one person will work equally for others.

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It is also important to be aware of the social pressures that impact people with disabilities beyond your game, which will influence their feelings when they sit down at the table. Kass James, an Accessibility Technology Specialist and ADA Administrator for the disability resource website The Spoonie Advocate, had this to say: "The issue with disability is always access, but in this case, it's also a social issue of representation and social stigma. There has been an attempt to facilitate the legitimate representation of disabilities within role-playing games, but there has been severe social backlash to many of these attempts." Fighting against this stigma requires a willingness to not just make games accessible, but also to be mindful of representation.

7 Understand WHY You Are Representing Disability In Your Campaign

Carionettes in Odaire

D&D is a fantasy game where anything is possible. There are fire-breathing monsters, teleportation circles, and mortals who ascend to godhood. In other words, since anything is possible, there's no reason that characters with disabilities should be stigmatized. But you also need to be aware that representation is not merely tokenism.

To quote Kass James, "[representation] shouldn't be purely aesthetic (i.e. to make a character more sympathetic or visually evil). It should be due to their history (possibly profession) of that character. Any disability has a story behind it, even if that story is 'I was born this way.'" Just as people with disabilities have real lived experiences, inclusion within a world should feel real and reflect the lived experiences in that world.

6 Consider Whether Characters With Disabilities Are Represented Realistically

Snail Racing At The Witchlight Carnival in Dungeons and Dragons

No matter how fantastical the setting, games still need to have a sense of realism. Consider what it means for people with disabilities to exist within that world. One way to address this is to include NPCs with disabilities – and make sure characters who have disabilities also have other personality traits beyond their disability - and that villains are not the only characters to have disabilities. Of course, that's just the start.

Writer Jennifer Kretchmer, who uses a wheelchair, designed a dungeon in Candlekeep Mysteries without any stairs, thereby making it a wheelchair-accessible dungeon – one she could see herself using. When worldbuilding or adapting pre-written adventure modules, you can easily replace stairs with ramps or make other small changes. Consider including Braille spellbooks, familiars that can be used as support animals, or magical hearing aids.

5 Familiarize Yourself With Different Online Resources

An image of various DM resources for playing Dungeons and Dragons

Before getting into how different resources can help, it's good to know what resources are even available. To start, both D&D Beyond and Roll 20, which were designed to help players of all backgrounds, have tools that can be helpful (as will be detailed later), while even something as simple as Zoom can help.

Jennifer Kretchmer has created a free Google Doc entitled "Accessibility in Gaming Resource Guide," as well as another paid version you can get through her Patreon. Meanwhile, D&D Compendium offers a link that has accrued tools and resources from across the web, and DMs Guild has many different resources you can check out. An amazing resource to check out is the website D&D Disability, which provides supplemental rules so players can roleplay characters with different types of disabilities. DMs Guild and DriveThru RPG each have some fantastic third-party resources. On top of these, there are groups, educational articles, and vendors with disability-friendly products, as well as so much more. This is just a start, a Google search can lead you to many more options.

4 Understand How Online Resources Can Empower Players With Disabilities

D&D Beyond

Knowing your players' needs and how they will benefit from online resources is important. Here are some ways to use some of the resources mentioned. One method that has become increasingly popular in recent years is to remotely teleconference into a game with Zoom or similar software. Covid has made this a new standard form of gaming, but players with limited mobility, social anxiety, and sensory processing also benefit from it.

Digital books make it easier to search for keywords in a PDF or web page. The online game service Roll20 is invaluable. It handles all of the complex math, dice rolls, and rules minutia that may be difficult for people with physical, cognitive, or psychological disabilities, while the display settings can be adjusted to help people who are blind or visually impaired.

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Some of the resources on DMs Guild include dyslexia-friendly character sheets and a free PDF entitled Disabilities, Prosthetics, and Guide Animals by Sam Guthrie. Wyrmworks Publishing also just released a free PDF entitled Limitless Heroes: Including Characters with Disabilities, Mental Illness, and Neurodivergence in 5th Edition, which you should absolutely check out.

3 Consider Physical Items That Can Help Improve Experiences At A Table

DOTS RPG dice

There are many simple objects that can improve the experiences of people with disabilities which non-disabled people take for granted. For example, Wizards of the Coast's "Spellbook Cards" list the rules for different spells, which can make it easier for people to keep track of the game's minutia. There are separate sets of cards for most classes' spell lists, as well as for all of arcane magic, magic items, and even a set for "Martial Powers and Races."

Physical books are easier for some people to handle than digital ones (just as often the opposite is true). Since the books' text is printed on brownish paper, copying and pasting it into a Word doc to print on white paper will improve readability.

Choosing dice with strong color contrasts helps players with color blindness or other visual impairments. The company DOTS RPG offers files for 3D printable dice with either braille or more pronounced tactile numbers.

Using miniatures does not just enhance combat, but can help with spatial awareness. Some people prefer battle tiles over battle maps, as the distinct ridging between tiles can make it easier to tell the spaces apart. Strata Miniatures has designed some truly epic minis of characters using a Battle Wheelchair, while the company Anvl, who specializes in designing fully customized prestige minis, includes battle wheelchairs under their "mount" section.

2 Small Adjustments To Game Play Mechanics Can Dramatically Improve Disability Representation

Dungeons & Dragons

While some people insist on sticking to the exact rules as written in the rule books, these books explicitly tell people to make the game their own. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything introduced a variety of rules supplements to address problematic elements of earlier books, including the division of race-based ability modifiers. It also introduced prosthetic limbs – a new type of mundane magical item that anyone should be able to access if their character needs it.

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The website D&D Disability provides supplemental rules so players can roleplay characters with different types of disabilities. These show not just the struggles that a player might face, but also the ways that disabilities can be beneficial in certain circumstances, such as characters with ADHD having an advantage on Investigation checks for things they care about.

Writer Sara Thompson created a Combat Wheelchair which lets characters with limited mobility move about by hovering over the ground, giving them the same movement capabilities as non-disabled characters. She also created a subclass for playing a Blood Hunter (an original class created by Critical Roll's Matt Mercer) whose experience managing chronic pain can be channeled into psionic abilities.

1 Be Willing To Adjust Class Features Accordingly

Critical Role Campaign 3 set and cast

Most classes can be modified in small ways that don't significantly change any mechanics while still allowing a player with a disability to immerse themself more in their character. A great example of this can be seen in the character of Shakaste on Critical Role, a blind cleric who uses a hummingbird familiar named Grand Duchess Anastacia Nikolaevna whose eyes he could see through.

Consider giving a blind or dyslexic wizard a small magic item that lets them read their spellbook and record other spells like an audiobook. A ranger's animal companion can be a support animal. A paladin with multiple sclerosis could choose to specialize in ranged combat rather than one of the other close-ranged fighting styles, using a repeating crossbow. A deaf cleric might not need verbal spell components. With enough creativity and a little bit of magic, the possibilities are endless.

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