History Main / NotDisabledInVR

* Roleplay/DCNation had a similar plotline to the ''Batman Inc'' example. Jericho's powers misfire, sending Barbara Gordon-Grayson into cyberspace. Babs then realizes two things; she doesn't need a wheelchair there, and that she can [[RealityWarper alter the world around her by thinking about the code needed to do what she wants]].
* PlayedWith in the Franchise/{{Tron}} fanfic [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/9436712/chapters/21352286 "The Contingency."]] Alan Bradley is dying of a brain tumor (though not incapacitated), and is brought to The Grid with the hopes he can be cured. [[spoiler: The cure works, but it involved a transfusion of Iso code, effectively making him a hybrid of User and Iso, both of which paints a big target on his back because of Clu's coup.]]

* In the Virtual World FillerArc of the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime, Seto Kaiba's adoptive father Gozaburo Kaiba originally had the virtual world created for his biological son Noah after Noah was hit by a car and left permanently disabled.
* In ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers'', it is suggested this trope is the reason why Rommel is so dead set in seeing [[spoiler: Sarah deleted]] (and thereby preserve GBN), as it is hinted that his second in command for his team, Kurt, is hospitalized in some way.
** In the sequel, ''Anime/GundamBuildDiversReRise'', the rest of [=BUILD DiVERS=] are surprised to see that Parviz’s real life identity is wheelchair-bound.[[spoiler:Also, like in ''Log Horizon'', it's discovered that they haven't always been in VR...]]

* In ''Film/SpyKids3DGameOver'', Grandpa Cortez - an elderly, retired spy using a wheelchair - joins Juni Cortez on the adventure in the virtual world, and they immediately come across a powerup that lets him stand on his feet for the first time in years. Unfortunately, he has to go back to using the wheelchair when their mission is over...
* In the ''{{Film/Apocalypse}}'' series, virtual reality technology is being developed, as demonstrated to the protagonist by Willie Spino, a computer whiz in a wheelchair. The Antichrist offers a form of the tech that makes the virtual real, letting the blind see in real life and letting Willie walk again if they turn to his side.
* In ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors'', Will, who is paraplegic, can walk when in the dream world. He also has magical powers, inspired by his D&D game. [[spoiler:Neither save him from Freddy]].
** Similarly, Joey is mute in the real world, but has MakeMeWannaShout powers in the dream. His disability seems to be psychological however, as he can speak normally in the sequel.

* ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'': Orlando. He's dying from progeria and spending most of his time in a VR game as Thargor the Barbarian.

%%* Creator/PoulAnderson's "Literature/CallMeJoe":
* In the short story collection ''Warriors of Blood and Dream'', ''Fearless'' by Dave Smeds is about a teen wheelchair user who competes in virtual martial arts tournaments and wins consistently.
* A variant in the ''Literature/GuardiansOfTheFlame'' books. James is severely disabled on Earth but when he's transported to the other world is transformed into the physically hale dwarf warrior Ahira. As a result, he's one of the few members of the group who isn't in a great hurry to get back to the real world.
* ''Literature/SnowCrash'' has Ng, who was disfigured and rendered quadriplegic by a Southeast Asian war. He travels in meatspace in an enormous armored truck he calls the ultimate motorized wheelchair, and conducts most of his life in TheMetaverse, where he walks through his mansion and drinks tea with visitors.
* In ''Literature/{{Idoru}}'', Zona Rose, the supposed leader of a ''Chilanga'' girl gang, [[spoiler:is ultimately revealed to be the severely disabled daughter of a lawyer.]]

* Creator/PoulAnderson's "Literature/CallMeJoe": "Joe" is the character played by Edward Anglesey, on {{UsefulNotes/Jupiter}}. Joe is a [[ArtificialHuman pseudojovian manufactured]] to live on the surface of Jupiter. Since Anglesey was paralyzed as a young man, he operates an [[PsychicLink esprojector that conveys his thoughts]] along a [[{{Technobabble}} psibeam]] to fully immerse himself in the pseudojovian's mind. He eventually leaves his human body and lives entirely in his pseudojovian body.
* In ''Literature/TheOverstory'', Neelay Mehta and his father share a poignant moment of exploring together in the unreleased beta of the video game Neelay designed, Mastery 8, like they used to do when Neelay was young, despite how in real life Neelay is paralyzed and his father is sick and dying.

* In Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Donnerjack'', Virginia Tallant is severely disabled by a neurological disease in the real world, and as a result elects to spend her entire life working as a surveyor in [[{{Cyberspace}} Virtù]].
* ''Literature/AccelWorld'': Played with.
** Kurasaki Fuuko (alias Sky Raker) is legless in real life, but able to live normally with prosthetics. Her Accel World form on the other hand looks a lot like a person in a wheelchair, and while she used to have legs, she lost them [[spoiler:when Kuroyukihime, on her request, destroyed them because Sky Raker hoped that without the extra weight, she'd be able to fly]].
** Utai Shinomiya, also known as Ardor Maiden, is unable to speak in real life without using her Neurolinker to type messages (she can say the "Burst Link" command, but it takes a great deal of effort), but can speak in Brain Burst.
* In ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'':
** The [[spoiler:Sleeping Knights]] is a Guild entirely composed of terminally ill players. {{Exaggerat|edTrope}}ing it even further, their leader is [[spoiler:Konno Yuuki]], who is dying of AIDS and has been voluntarily living in a virtual environment 24 hours a day for three years - a whole year longer than the victims of the SAO incident were trapped in the game.
** An inversion: it's possible for otherwise non-disabled people to suffer a "Full-Dive Nonconformity" of varying levels of severity that can leave them at a crippling disadvantage during gameplay. In ''Progressive'', Nezha suffers from this and is essentially legally blind in-game. His group worked long and hard to find a way for him to fight well alongside them, but ultimately decided to put him to use scamming players for money to buy better gear.
* Both downplayed and exaggerated in ''Literature/LogHorizon'': "Elder Tale" is ''not'' a VR MMORPG, but when its players are dumped into the RPGMechanicsVerse of the game world in the bodies of their characters, this includes the paraplegic Touya. This is displayed best in a flashback to when he and his twin sister first realize what's happened -- His sister Minori is despairing at being taken from their home, while in the background Touya is too elated making use of his new, working legs for it to sink in.
* ''Literature/InTheLandOfLeadale'': Keina Kagami was rendered vegetative due to an accident at 17 and put on life support. She was attached to the VR MMORPG ''Leadale'', where she is completely able-bodied.

* In ''Series/RobocopTheSeries'', Diana is physically just a brain in a jar thanks to the scheme to use her as a living computer. She can interact via an intangible hologram, but can only actually touch someone if their brain is also plugged into the virtual computing system.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', Doned is a sickly boy who uses a wheelchair because of his unspecified illness. In the dream Ivalice, he's perfectly healthy and able to walk, and very much does ''not'' want to return to the real world. When his older brother Marche (the protagonist) starts working to dismantle Ivalice, Doned sabotages him in various ways.

* {{Downplayed}} in ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh''. In the analog world, both Alan Bradley and his son Jet need glasses to see. TheGlassesComeOff once they're digitized.
* Discussed by Soap Beatty in ''VideoGame/{{Ripper}}'', played by Jimmy Walker. He's a tech shop owner bound to a wheelchair, and secretly a hacker on the side. Soap mentions that he's able to walk, run and even ''dance'' when decked into cyberspace.

* ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'': Davan introduces his family to role-playing games (specifically a superheroic one). His sister, who's a wheelchair user, spends the session describing her character dancing around.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS3E17BrianWallowsAndPetersSwallows Brian Wallows and Peter’s Swallows]]" Brian falls in love with an old woman who was a movie star in the 1930s. He convinces her to step outside of her house for the first time in years, and she gets hit by a car. As she is dying in the hospital Brian uses a pair of VR goggles (which had been set up earlier in the episode) to show her a virtual version of them getting married, having kids, etc. so her last moments would be happy.

* Addressed in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' during the "Tranquility Lane" mission: [[MadScientist Stanislaus Braun]] was a decrepit old man prior to becoming the Overseer of Vault 112, and though life support systems in his Tranquility Lounger have kept him alive for over two hundred years, he's now terminally dependent on it. It's for this reason that Braun prefers to remain in the virtual reality scenario linking each of the Loungers together, where he can be as young and as powerful as possible - and torture as many people as he likes.

* Both downplayed and exaggerated in ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'': "Elder Tale" is ''not'' a VR MMORPG, but when its players are dumped into the RPGMechanicsVerse of the game world in the bodies of their characters, this includes the paraplegic Touya. This is displayed best in a flashback to when he and his twin sister first realize what's happened -- His sister Minori is despairing at being taken from their home, while in the background Touya is too elated making use of his new, working legs for it to sink in.

[[folder:Film]]

* In a somewhat ''Film/{{Tron}}''-inspired issue of ''[[ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman Inc]]'', Barbara Gordon gets to be Batgirl again...in cyberspace.

* {{Invoked|Trope}} in [[Creator/JamesCameron James Cameron's]] ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': Jake Sully is paraplegic. Using remotely controlled, artificial Na'vi body, he has full use of his legs again. As he becomes increasingly athletic and in tune with nature in Na'vi form, his human form feels like more and more of a shell. [[spoiler:At the end of the film, he undergoes a ritual that transfers his mind into that of his avatar permanently]].

* The main character of [[Creator/PiersAnthony Piers Anthony's]] novel ''Killobyte'' is Walter Toland, a newly paraphlegic former cop who suffers from depression because of his new disability until he discovers Killobyte, a deep-immersion virtual reality game.

* Both downplayed and exaggerated in ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'': "Elder Tale" is ''not'' a VR MMORPG, but when it's players are dumped into the RPGMechanicsVerse of the game world in the bodies of their characters, this includes the paraplegic Touya. This is displayed best in a flashback to when he and his twin sister first realize what's happened -- His sister Minori is despairing at being taken from their home, while in the background Touya is too elated making use of his new, working legs for it to sink in.

* ''LightNovel/AccelWorld'': Played with.
** Kurasaki Fuuko (alias Sky Raker) is legless in real life, but able to live normally with prosthetics. Her Accel World form on the other hand looks a lot like a person in a wheelchair, and while she used to have legs, she lost them [[spoiler:when Kuroyukihime, on her request, destroyed them because Sky Raker hoped that without the extra weight, she'd be able to fly]].
** Utai Shinomiya, also known as Ardor Maiden, is unable to speak in real life without using her Neurolinker to type messages (she can say the "Burst Link" command, but it takes a great deal of effort), but can speak in Brain Burst.

* In ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'':
** The [[spoiler:Sleeping Knights]] is a Guild entirely composed of terminally ill players. {{Exaggerat|edTrope}}ing it even further, their leader is [[spoiler:Konno Yuuki]], who is dying of AIDS and has been voluntarily living in a virtual environment 24 hours a day for three years - a whole year longer than the victims of the SAO incident were trapped in the game.
** An inversion: it's possible for otherwise non-disabled people to suffer a "Full-Dive Nonconformity" of varying levels of severity that can leave them at a crippling disadvantage during gameplay. In ''Progressive'', Nezha suffers from this and is essentially legally blind in-game. His group worked long and hard to find a way for him to fight well alongside them, but ultimately decided to put him to use scamming players for money to buy better gear.

* Main/InvokedTrope in [[Creator/JamesCameron James Cameron's]] ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': Jake Sully is paraplegic. Using remotely controlled, artificial Na'vi body, he has full use of his legs again. As he becomes increasingly athletic and in tune with nature in Na'vi form, his human form feels like more and more of a shell. [[spoiler:At the end of the film, he undergoes a ritual that transfers his mind into that of his avatar permanently]].
* Also an InvokedTrope in ''Film/StrangeDays'' where illegal technology exists that allows people to record their own experiences and for other people to play them back. One of the sleazy dealers of these recordings has a special one made for his legless friend of someone running along a beach, seeing a pretty woman and [[DistractedByTheSexy falling over in the surf]]. The friend is overjoyed to watch it but starts crying when the recording stops.

* In ''Series/RobocopTheSeries}}'', Diana is physically just a brain in a jar thanks to the scheme to use her as a living computer. She can interact via an intangible hologram, but can only actually touch someone if their brain is also plugged into the virtual computing system.

* In the ''Series/{{Robocop}}'' tv-show, Diana is physically just a brain in a jar thanks to the scheme to use her as a living computer. She can interact via an intangible hologram, but can only actually touch someone if their brain is also plugged into the virtual computing system.

* A subtle one in ''Series/RedDwarf'' with Rimmer, who is [[IntangibleMan intangible]] due to being dead, being able to have physical form and interact physically while in the VR game "[[LotusEatermachine Better Than Life]]" in the
[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIBetterThanLife titular episode]].

* A subtle one in ''Series/RedDwarf'' with Rimmer, who is [[IntangibleMan intangible]] due to being dead, being able to have physical form and interact physically while in the VR game "[[LotusEatermachine Better Than Life]]".

* Both downplayed and exaggerated in ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'': "Elder Tale" is ''not'' a VR MMORPG, but when it's players are dumped into the RPGMechanicsVerse of the game world in the bodies of their characters, this includes the paraplegic Touya. This is displayed best in a flashback to when he and his twin sister first realize what's happened -- His sister Minori is despairing at being taken from their home, while in the background Touya is too elated making use of his new, working legs to notice.

* In ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers'', it is suggested this trope is the reason why Rommel is so dead set in seeing [[spoiler: Sarah deleted]] as it is hinted that his second in command for his team, Kurt, is hospitalized in some way.
** In the sequel, ''Anime/GundamBuildDiversReRise'', the rest of [=BUILD DiVERS=] are surprises to see that Parviz’s real life identity is wheelchair-bound.

* ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'': Touya is paraplegic in real life. In the world of Elder Tale, he's trying extra hard to fight for and protect what he considers precious.

* ''VideoGame/TheCatLady'' has this with the final villain of the piece, a person who [[spoiler: uses internet chat rooms to gaslight numerous people to death, including eventually his father]] despite only being able to move his eye.

[[folder:Video Game]]

[[folder:Visual Novel]]
* In ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2'', we find out in the final chapter that [[spoiler:every one of the students besides Nanami were once members of [[BigBad Enoshima]]'s despair group, and in multiple cases were covered in self-inflicted mutilations from their desire to feel despair (with some severing their own body parts to be replaced with limbs from Enoshima's corpse). The survivors from [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc the first game]] placed them all inside the Neo World Program with the intent of reforming them by erasing sections of their memories from before they all entered high school and got involved with Enoshima in the first place, which restores them to their youth to keep the illusion real and gave them bodies to reflect this]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Radio]]
* There was an ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' two parter "A Touch of Healing" where Jason Whittaker modifies the Imagination Station (a virtual reality exhibit) so that blind users can see and lame users can walk. However, when he tests it on a girl born blind, it does not make her see, but when he uses it on a boy who became lame through an accident, he can walk. Jason thinks it is because the boy knows what it is like to walk, but the girl does not because she was born blind.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Video Game]]

[[folder: Visual Novel]]

[[folder: Webcomic]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[/folder]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Brian in Love" Brian falls in love with an old woman who was a movie star in the 1930s. He convinces her to step outside of her house for the first time in years, and she gets hit by a car. As she is dying in the hospital Brian uses a pair of VR goggles (which had been set up earlier in the episode) to show her a virtual version of them getting married, having kids, etc. so her last moments would be happy.

* In ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2'', we find out in the final chapter that [[spoiler:every one of the students besides Nanami were once members of [[BigBad Enoshima]]'s despair group, and in multiple cases were covered in self-inflicted mutilations from their desire to feel despair (with some severing their own body parts to be replaced with limbs from Enoshima's corpse). The survivors from [[VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}} the first game]] placed them all inside the Neo World Program with the intent of reforming them by erasing sections of their memories from before they all entered high school and got involved with Enoshima in the first place, which restores them to their youth to keep the illusion real and gave them bodies to reflect this]].