A series that takes disabled (physically and mentally) characters and people semi well is The Guardians of the Flame by Joel Rosenberg (Not for kids). It also creates an interesting world, which as a GM I’ve taken, and learned a lot from.

I haven’t yet listened to the episode – I’m looking forward to it – but the first thing that came to mind is the visual novel “Katawa Shoujo.” Play through it and I think you’ll have a pretty good handle on treating disabilities respectfully and somewhat realistically.

In one of the earliest D&D games I played, my GM played what I now think was a cruel trick, which boiled down to slowly disabling my cleric. Every time we leveled up, he had me roll a d20, and gave me some change. At level 2, my character shrunk down to like 2 and a half feet tall, at level 5 I lost the ability to speak. Some were helpful: at some point my ears moved upwards on my head, and i gained a bonus to perception rolls with hearing, but a lot of them were unexpected and not good. Finally, (I almost quit the game) at one point, my character lost his thumbs as his hands turned into paws.

The ones that were actual disabilities actually became focuses my character’s personal story. At the height of a gnome, he had to learn to get attention from shopkeepers. When he lost his ability to speak (meaning he couldn’t speak his God’s name), he had to learn to communicate differently. it was… it was interesting.

//Now, in the long run, the GM had determined that I lost the genetic lottery, and was slowly turning into a bugbear. But until then, these were just disadvantages for no gain, as my character got to roleplay learning to climb his horse without thumbs (for example). It was certainly interesting, and I’ve never really played a game like it.