Funny Pages: Comic Strip Helps Others See the Person in the Wheelchair

When Sandy Gilbreath’s son, who lives with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), started school in the 1990s, she noticed how his classmates reacted.

“Some of the kids didn’t see him; they saw the wheelchair,” she says.

Sandy had always enjoyed drawing, and she started sketching cartoons about a character in a wheelchair interacting confidently with other children. But during a move, Sandy packed those drawings in a box and forgot about them. About a year ago, she rediscovered them.

That’s how “Hope & Dope” was born. “I was showing my son the drawings from when he was little, and he said, ‘You’ve got to do something with these.’”

Sandy updated her ideas and partnered with an artist friend, Kitten Pickle, to bring her vision into full-color reality.

Each comic strip features two characters: Hope, a girl in a wheelchair who “has a great mindset and is taking life by everything she has,” and Dope, a boy with full mobility who thinks she can’t do anything. “No matter what the situation, she always proves him wrong,” Sandy says.

“Hope & Dope” delivers a serious lesson with humor and fun. “I want kids and adults alike to see the person in the wheelchair,” Sandy says. “They’re capable and want to enjoy life just like everybody else.”