Disability pretenders

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One attracted to people with disabilities and behaving as if s/he is disabled.

Pretenders may be the "missing link" between devotees and wannabes, proving an assumed continuum between those merely attracted to people with disabilities and those actively wishing to become disabled.

Pretending takes a variety of forms. Some chatroom users on internet sites catering to devotees have complained that chat counterparts they assumed were female were revealed as male devotees. This form of pretending (where a devotee derives pleasure by pretending to be a disabled woman) may indicate a very broad predisposition to pretending among devotees.

Pretending includes dressing and acting in ways typical of disabled people, including making use of aids (crutches, wheelchairs, white canes, et c.) typically used by them. Pretending may also take the form of a devotee persuading his or her sexual partner to play the role of a disabled person. Pretending may be practiced in private, in intimacy, or in public, and may occupy surprisingly long periods. In the latter case, some pretenders hope that the disability may become permanent, e. g. through tissue necrosis caused by constricted blood supply, et c.

Sources

[link] online version of Bruno, R. L., PhD, "Devotees, pretenders and wannabes: Two cases of Factitious Disability Disorder," The Journal of Sexuality and Disability, 1997, 15, pp. 243-260

[link] this portal to the pretender web lists 12 pretender and three pretender/wannabe websites

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