I had an idea for this a long while back, but never followed up on it.

Textbooks wouldn't just be in Braille, but thanks to Portrait technology they would also automatically become audio books if the student said the proper activation charm.

Spells maybe for at least their first year blind students have to be taught hand-over-hand technique with their wands. or maybe since the wand chooses the wizard a special body and core could be fixed for the blind wizard which responds more to the mental intention than to the absolute correct movements, thus giving them an edge in magic.

With potions I always assumed that students would have lab partners, so the blind student could assist and write the notes.

Speaking of writing notes, the blind person writes in magic Braille that can be automatically translated using a combination of spells, since Hogwarts is so backward and does not have computers.

Quidditch maybe a blind person's best position would be beater, since they can at first work with a partner, and since you just have to be conscious of the other players around you while flying, I see myself more as defence than offence. Or maybe there's goal ball quidditch with whistling and ringing balls, and each type of ball has a different sound to it.

>How would potions become accessible?

Tactile labels would be good for the ones you keep yourself or school supply. I could see an identify spell to say what ingredient/s you have.

>No a spell had worked? As it's normally a flash of light.

The feel of magic in the air. Maybe there is a smell to some magic as well. Trying to levitate that feather? Could hold your hand above and feel as the feather floats up. Just be careful not to explode your feather.

>Read the huge textbooks?

I imagine there's a spell that would read books for you. Using the idea of the quill that writes with dictation, maybe audio parchment? Dictates what's on it. Would be great using together for note-taking.


There's already spells for mundane things that'd be good to incorporate too. Like laundry. I remember Molly using some for housecleaning, which would be useful in a dorm.

Weird ask but are you low vision yourself or have a close friend who is? Writing for a blind character is hard when you don’t know the day-to-day work required. For example: would they use white canes or have a talking squirrel who provided audible directions? (I’m assuming white canes because as much as HP tried to stay in the magic world, all magicians needed to be able to blend in the muggle world regardless of how much time they actually spent in said world.)

We've seen they have magic quills that write what people dictate (the reporter had one). I assume they can make a magical item that would be able to read text, whether it be some sort of eyeball scanner (such as Mad Eye Moody) or a wand that could be waved over the page.

Assuming no tactile writing system (such as Braille), potions can be distinguished with markers attached to the bottle itself (feathers, a jewel, etc) or from the shape of the bottle itself (I recall the bottle of liquid luck having a distinctive shape. I would assume something like a love potion would be sold in a heart-shapes bottle).

I have finally made a start on my HP blind character fic! Here's the link.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13930714/1/Accessify

There is an amazing fanfic called basilisk eyes.

Harry is blind in the fanfic but the author doesn’t just give him magic eyes or something, he actually has to struggle and learn. It’s really cool!

For spells: the field energy in the air would help with that. For potions, I’m not really sure if braille would work as we don’t know how big a potions vile is. As for writing things down, a quick quote quilt wouldn’t really help if you can’t see would it? So how would you get around that?

Please please make a post here when you start it or if you can understandable if you can’t private message it to me a hi I really want to read this

I love KillerLag's idea of an eyeball scanner for reading; it could have an additional property of being able to read all languages or some property that comes into play later; Harry Potter's magic system seems to be whatever is needed for the plot.

The HP universe has talking pictures - labeling items shouldn't be a problem. For that matter, talking books read by the author themselves shouldn't be a problem.

We have seen only a few of the species in the HP universe - big showy things like dragons and centaurs and giant spiders. Surely there is some creature (like the talking squirrel) that another poster mentioned that could be a witch/wizard familiar while being comic relief or some other conversation trope while also being the seeing-eye dog (or squirrel, or toad).

JK Rowling wrote a short piece where she talks about colors in the wizarding world; that the four houses are based on the four elements: Gryffindor (red and gold) is connected to fire; Slytherin (green and silver) to water; Hufflepuff (yellow and black, representing wheat and soil) to earth; and Ravenclaw (blue and bronze; sky and eagle feathers) to air. Even without the color descriptions, this adds another *element* to HP magic. For example, the elemental bending styles in the Avatar:Last Airbender / Korra shows are a form of specialized elemental "magic"; and the character of Toph is blind and senses vibration with her feet and uses this to bend the elements.

I've seen spells being described as having an ozone-type odor, like after lightning strikes or something. You could have different spells have different odors.

As for potions, how do you cook if you're blind? I'd imagine potion-making is the same way, whether it's having someone else prepare ingredients, buy them pre-prepared from specialty apothecaries, or what have you.

I dont know maybe temarature cluld be one indiciation of spells. We see magic as visual but some spells migth have diffrent tempratures. Maybe lumos has a sligthly warmer pressence than some other spells. Others migth not notice the temperature changes because they are to focused on the visual representation of the spells.

Hmm... most of the magic descriptions we have are visual. But that doesn't mean magic itself is entirely visual. Plenty of forces - fiction or not - work on an unseen level.

Maybe they're more attuned to cues that sighted wizards take for granted - for example, they can tell how effective "lumos" is from the amount of heat the spell generates, or the way the wand feels in their hand. Wood changes based on temperature and moisture in the air, so maybe enchanted wood behaves similarly. Maybe certain spells make an almost imperceptible sound, so casting a spell is the equivalent of hitting a particular note. This would actually be a very interesting perspective on magic, I think!

You could draw inspiration from your own experience, since you mentioned that you are blind. Are there things you notice/use to navigate the world that sighted people take for granted? Just a thought. :D

I think you have a really wonderful idea, so I wish you the best of luck in your writing endeavors.

Maybe potions could have a different scent when you open them to know the difference between them.

I really like the idea of using magical creatures to guide the character. For example, having a small creature on the character's wand that guides or moves the wand in the right direction when casting spells. Maybe something like the Bowtruckle from fantastic beasts. If the character has wizard parents, they should be well accustomed to their blindness and able to navigate it using magic so they wouldn't need something like a bonding phase with the creatures. Another thing I'm thinking about is a tiny creature in their ear that orients the character when walking. But they could also use an extension of their wand to guide them around kinda like an overpowered cane. I'm just spitting out ideas, but I love this. Great idea!

it's been done before, of course.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3278149/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Guild-of-the-Night
Although here, magic replaces vision if I remember correctly