Aroni, G., Chapdelaine-Feliciati, C., 2026.

The Representation of Burn Survivors in Video Games Under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Burn survivors are usually depicted as villains and othered as "marginalized" scarred bodies in several popular contemporary video games. As the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD 2006) was adopted to tackle the situation of individuals with disabilities, including scarred persons, this article investigates whether the provisions of the CRPD could be employed to guide the production of video games in integrating "marginalized" individuals. Through an exploration of Peirce's Triad of the Immediate, Dynamical and Final Interpretants, it examines the significance of the formulation of provisions in the CRPD for the content of the ever-growing medium that is video games. For this purpose, it analyzes provisions of the CRPD and general principles such as respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity. Finally, it considers whether burn survivors could be made more visible in the provisions of the CRPD.