WB Montreal faced much criticism from their previous biography of Batgirl for the upcoming video game Gotham Knights after it inaccurately portrayed disabled people and their road to recovery. They had since changed the biography to adjust to said concerns.
According to Eurogamer, in a Q&A, the Gotham Knights devs were faced with criticism after they initially published a biography for Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, implying that she could recover from severe spinal injuries after training.
still not over the backstory they gave to barbara in gotham knights, just terrible pic.twitter.com/E5E3YQpt4D
— 𓆩♥︎𓆪 • #1 dc hawks expert (@HAWKGIRLS) May 10, 2022
The biography does not specifically say that Barbara had a spinal injury but rather that she had a “face-off” that put her in a wheelchair. In the comics though, she gets shot in the spine, and many people on Twitter pointed out the harmful trope here – that one can recover from being shot at the spine through pure unfiltered will, determination, and training.
how do you train your spine to walk again??????
— 𓆩♥︎𓆪 • #1 dc hawks expert (@HAWKGIRLS) May 10, 2022
https://twitter.com/Mav18820853/status/1524078416546471936?s=20&t=_HZrNX8sQQYsmHc_KuOeNw
barbara: pic.twitter.com/YYW7Q54OZx
— Jay (@JayyBluu) May 10, 2022
The Gotham Knights devs saw this and promptly took action. They worked with people at AbleGamers (an NGO that works to improve accessibility for disabled gamers) and learned about spinal injuries and how people recover from said injuries. They then changed the problematic line in Barbara Gordon’s biography: “With extensive training and rehabilitation, she recovered from her wounds, and returned to active duty as Batgirl.”
Creative director Patrick Redding also clarified that they are changing the details of her injury from the comics. Barbara would undergo surgeries, physical therapy, and pain management, and her rehabilitation process will be shown in the game itself. Her costume will also have a back brace integrated into it.
Eventually, the devs were able to right their wrongs for disabled gamers out there.
Gotham Knights is set for release on October 25, 2022, for PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC.
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