How best to deal with players who have physical disabilities

[hashimashadoo]

My gaming group recently acquired a new player with fairly severe Cerebral Palsy. They're a great person and a witty roleplayer but their difficulties cause a few problems at the table. They frequently have muscle spasms which cause them to involuntarily kick out, they have trouble rolling just one die, let alone multiple dice, especially d4s, they're incapable of writing anything down (character sheet edits, note taking, etc) and though volume certainly isn't the issue, it's often difficult to make out what they're saying.

Does anyone have any experience with players with this kind of disability? I'm admittedly worried about brooching the subject directly for fear of making them feel like they're not wanted. Does anyone know of any accommodations we can make to ensure our games run more smoothly with them at the table?

I've already set up a little bucket suspended on a wire that others can place dice in and can simply be tipped forward to roll but does anyone have other suggestions?

[williamoak]

Dotting. A group that I know (though I did not play with) had somebody with a similar disability and seemed to have some of the similar problems. It didnt help that the guy needed special transport, and could only realistically be at 1/3 of games.

I have however heard of "dice towers" that might help the rolling issues. Not sure what they are, but people have mentionned them on the boards.

[Kazaan]

Electronic aids like virtual dice rollers can help with the dice-rolling problem. Easier to press a button and have a computer do it. Someone can help him to write stuff. As for the speech, that's just a matter of patience. No one said it would be easy and, if his problem is severe enough, it may simply be a matter of the paraplegic who wanted to play rugby... doesn't matter how much you want to do it, if you're actually physically incapable and have no means to achieve the capacity, it just ain't in the cards.

[Imbicatus]

If soemone has a tablet, a dice roller app may be easier to use. if you just tap the screen and get a result, it may be easier than rolling a physical die.

[Goldenfrog]

Congratulations on being willing to take in a player with handicaps! Really,I have found many many role players (and people in general)who while not wanting to ostracize or discriminate in any way against the handicapped,unwilling to put in the extra effort it takes to deal with this issue. I award you a +1 permanent bonus

Each handicap is really a whole different story with it's own set of challenges but here are some things off the top of my head for someone with Cerebral Palsy.

1-Unless your game is one that uses miniatures,have the player sit away from the table or ditch the table all together.If you do use miniatures have the player sit far enough away so they don't smack the table. I have found that a well placed taller than average chair (or perhaps one with pillows ect added) lets them still see the battle-mat while sitting far enough away.

1A-If you use miniatures let someone else move them for the player. Actually I normally use this rule anyway and have one of the players move all the miniatures due to one too many battle-mat catastrophes at my table.

2-Have another player who is willing(and happy to do so)keep up with the handicapped players character sheet.Really it isn't much of a bother,in my group one of the players who is a math whiz and a small control freak (turn player disadvantages into advantages)keeps everyone's running hit point total.

2A-Have someone else roll the dice. In my game one of my players has MS and has issues rolling dice at times so we just roll for him.This player even made a special box with artwork on the outside for them to roll in that he keeps in front of himself so he can see the results.This player also reserves the right to change who rolls(so he can pick whoever is rolling hot that night!).This has added a lot of laughs for us as he often yells"your fired!" after bad rolls.

3- I don't have experience with someone with difficulty speaking but I do with players with strange(to us) accents that sometimes gets hard to understand(especially when excited). Just relax and don't worry about it and ask them to repeat it. I think as long as you don't let in annoy you then it will not annoy the player.After some time you might find you will start to understand them better.(a few months).

The number one thing is to just treat them like everyone else. They know they have a disability and hopefully are a lot more comfortable with it then you are. With issues that come up just talk about it.

[Kjeldor]

Goldenfrog has golden advice.

Ultimately patience, and usually talking with person is best. Palsy is usually something that the player has had since birth and so is most likely cool to talk about atleast 1 on 1 about.

[darkwarriorkarg]

+1 to Goldenfrog

[Jaunt]

+1 for everyone else. The best way to make someone feel wanted and included is to...wait for it...include them in the conversation. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to discuss thoughts and ideas for streamlining play with you.

[Rynjin]

A family friend of mine has cerebral palsy, though he doesn't game. People have given a lot of good advice on everything else so I'll touch on the one thing left: The slurred speech.

It really does become a non-issue after a while. Once you hang around the guy enough you'll be able to hear him just fine. Just ask him to repeat things you don't understand, I doubt he'll have a problem with that.