At every briefing before their shift, the nurses at my local children’s hospital would glance at me with amusement. As a child, I was often in the hospital for respiratory issues, and I had acquired a reputation. Not for my SMA, mind you, but for the one request I…
Wandering the Lines — Sherry Toh
Sherry “Elisa” Toh (she/they) is a journalist who lives in sunny Singapore. Her diagnosis of SMA type II was in 1999 at 13 months old. Kyphoscoliosis and chronic neuropathy later developed as complications. As a hopeless romantic, her loves include fairy tales, tea, and gaming — the last being the primary focus of her work. She has bylines in PCGamesN, NME, and more. In 2023, her essay “Virtual Progress: A Disabled Journalist’s Thoughts on the Video Games Industry” was published in Singapore’s first printed disability studies anthology, “Not Without Us: Perspective on Disabilities and Inclusion in Singapore.” She writes in hopes of offering community and catharsis. Find her @sherlisass on social media.
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My mother tried persuading me to get a hospital bed at home for years. “Your uncle can help us source one that the pediatric hospital doesn’t want,” she said at one point. “Our neighbor doesn’t need hers anymore. She offered it to us. Do you want it?” Mom asked…
I was unprepared for the thrill I’d experience when I logged into the instant messaging platform, Discord, and clicked on the server for the two-day Games Accessibility conference. Also known as GAconf, the conference is hosted by the International Games Developers Association for people in the gaming industry…
Humans like to believe that progress is linear. We were in the Dark Ages, then we weren’t. We were largely illiterate, then we read so much we created demand for the printing press. We didn’t have smartphones and international access to each other via the internet, and now…
“Hey, is that Lego?” my brother asks, a spark of interest in his eyes. He leans over to get a better view of my laptop. He’s 17, but in that moment, I see the 7-year-old boy who loved Lego so much, he’d want to immediately begin work on every set…
After I was hired as a columnist for SMA News Today, a stack of onboarding documents was sent to my email. I spent an entire day reading them and signing my name systematically. But among the documents, one titled “Writing Advice” drew my deeper attention. I’m not usually one who…
Every year, at the end of the annual parade on Singapore’s National Day on Aug. 9, Singaporeans across the world place our fists over our hearts in unison. We then recite our nation’s pledge, promising ourselves and our fellow citizens that we’ll “build a democratic society based on justice…
Imagine there’s a Singaporean girl with SMA. She’s exhausted by chronic neuropathy, medication, and feeling like she’s worth less than her able-bodied peers. So exhausted, in fact, she struggles with writing about her disability for SMA Awareness Month. “Google is free. Why should I have to make myself uncomfortable and…
I never planned on writing about video games for my column. But after three columns about four games by two different studios and counting, I thought it’d be fun to tell the origin story of how gaming became a big part of my life and disability advocacy. So, hit pause…
Second in a two-part series. Read part one here. “[The] universe demands diversity.” The quote above is from alien scientist Mordin Solus, who’s a character from Mass Effect, a sci-fi video game series by developer BioWare. It’s a simple yet…
First in a two-part series. I have never seen sci-fi media portray disabilities as casually as in the original trilogy of Mass Effect, a sci-fi video game series by game developer BioWare. For older fans of BioWare, the release of its remastered compilation on May 14 was a commemoration…
When I was diagnosed with SMA, my parents were confronted with a pivotal choice: stay in Singapore or move the three of us to the U.S., where they’d heard there might be an experimental gene therapy that could treat me. It’s a decision that would have altered the course of…
I am giddy with excitement. Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” plays on my iPhone as I begin writing a column about that album and its effect on my life. I know exactly what I want to say, how its structure will…
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