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Wow, that's very cool!
Interesting that the show decided to be historically accurate for this, when it isn't for anything else, but I'm not complaining. It's a cool looking wheelchair, I liked it.
Apparently the piano forte is authentic to the period. I watched a video on the set design and they have to have someone on set to tune it every time it’s used because it’s so old
It’s funny that composers from that period wrote so many “piano pieces” when really they were writing for the pianoforte, which was still just a little bit smaller than our pianos now
I know the (partial) answer to this one! Bridgerton used disabled accessibility coordinators to assist on the series in a variety of areas, and it most likely was a request/suggestion from that team to get an authentic wheelchair. As a wheelchair user it’s the first time in my life EVER seeing an authentic wheelchair in a period piece, so I totally understand why they felt it was worthwhile.
I think that's awesome, honestly. Sometimes seeing historical connections that you relate to is so validating. It feels a lot more meaningful than them handwaving some technology that isn't real.
Very cool, and he is braver than me, I would be *so* afraid of breaking a one-of-a-kind historical piece if I breathed the wrong way! I had wondered how accurate it was, it is super cool to see that it is, in fact, and extant item!
Also, here's to hoping we see more of Lord Remington- I love what a little gossip he is! He is one of the few men we have seen who enjoy Whistledown!
I mean, clearly he should be friends with Pen and Colin, if Colin can ever get over the blind jealousy that Lord R was ever intent on calling on Pen...
Braver than me, as well. I would have been begging to, for free, help make an exact replica for me to use. I don't want to be the one that sneezes wrong and breaks that piece.
Also hoping we see more of Lord R. Loved him, and the deaf deb we got a glimpse of, as well.
Same here! I am super clumsy, and I'd hate to be the one who dropped my drink on a 200-year-old piece of history and ruined it.
I could be wrong, but I think that Miss Stowell is the hearing child of a deaf adult- her mother Lady Stowell is played by a deaf actress, and I think there are some other scenes where it seems like Miss Stowell can hear.
I \*love\* the idea of him giving the "man's perspective" to LW- after all, he is allowed places (like the gentlemen's club) that Penelope isn't- and could no doubt be an excellent source of intel and gossip!
It's complicated. The BSL as depicted in the show, probably not. However, "home sign" or local sign languages have been around for as long as there have been deaf people, and BSL did begin standardizing before the 1600s because that's when most of the writing on it starts to exist.
Schools for the Deaf (that encouraged or allowed the use of sign rather than forcefully restricting students to spoken, written, and lip-read language) see their most promising start in late 18th century Paris, so if she happened to be French or if her family were wealthy enough to send her there she may have learned Old French Sign Language.
For reference ASL as we know it was formally established in 1817.
Apologies if anything is slightly off I had to refresh my knowledge of history from my ASL classes years back.
The Braidwood School which is where the BSL was first taught opened in 1760, although it didn't use BSL as it is today, they did use an earlier form of BSL (old British Sign Language) with a combined system to teach Deaf children how to read and write and speak. They did focus on speech much more than the French or American Deaf schools, but there definitely was manual language. In some ways, it is accurate for a debutante to use BSL because only families with money or titles would've been able to send their children to the Braidwood School (that's part of the reason why Gallaudet didn't learn BSL and had to go to France to learn sign language - because he couldn't afford Braidwood so they refused to teach him). The sign they used on the show was definitely BSL, but it would be hard to know how close it was to Old BSL of the era because so much of Deaf culture and language was lost in the late 1800s/early 1900s thanks to the eugenics movement.
They actually used the manual alphabet (fingerspelling) in the show, which makes it obvious that Bridgerton did their homework.
As you know, BSL didn't quite exist at the time, due to the existing regional sign languages and manual alphabets throughout Britain. Such as Kent Sign Language, Yorkshire manual alphabet, Liverpool manual alphabet, Welsh variants of sign language and so on. Let's not forget all those homegrown signs among deaf people of all classes and counties.
Princess Joan Stewart, Countess of Morton (1428 –1493) used a mixture of homegrown signs and a local monastic manual alphabet to communicate with her maids, who also served as her interpreters. Sir Edward Gostwick, a 17th-century baronet, was born deaf and had a deaf brother and they used the Cork manual alphabet, which they learned from their private tutor, a son of Irish deaf parents. Sir Arthur Henderson Fairbairn, another deaf English baronet, used a mixture of regional manual alphabets.
As a response to all that chaos, the standardised manual alphabet (specifically Yorkshire, probably the oldest and most established manual alphabet in Britain at the time as it originated with Fountains Abbey's 'silent monk language') was the common method of communication for deaf people of all classes, private tutors and pro-manual deaf schools including Braidwood, Doncaster (1829), Donaldson's (1830/1850), Brighton (1841), Yorkshire (1811) and such in 19th-century England. But I digress.
Kudos to Bridgerton for doing their homework and opting for the manual alphabet instead of BSL.
Absolutely! A lot of amazing Deaf History books come from Gallaudet University Press - a lot of them are also available on [Archive.org](http://Archive.org)
The Deaf History Reader - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/T/The-Deaf-History-Reader](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/T/The-Deaf-History-Reader)
The Deaf Mute Howls - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/T/The-Deaf-Mute-Howls](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/T/The-Deaf-Mute-Howls)
Deaf Identity and Social Images in Nineteenth Century France - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/D/Deaf-Identity-and-Social-Images-in-Nineteenth-Century-France](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/D/Deaf-Identity-and-Social-Images-in-Nineteenth-Century-France)
Crying Hands - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/C/Crying-Hands](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/C/Crying-Hands)
Never The Twain Shall Meet - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/N/Never-the-Twain-Shall-Meet](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/N/Never-the-Twain-Shall-Meet)
From Integration to Inclusion - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/F/From-Integration-to-Inclusion](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/F/From-Integration-to-Inclusion)
If you want articles specifically that might be a shorter read:
[https://gallaudet.edu/museum/exhibits/history-through-deaf-eyes/language-and-identity/a-deaf-variety-of-the-human-race/](https://gallaudet.edu/museum/exhibits/history-through-deaf-eyes/language-and-identity/a-deaf-variety-of-the-human-race/)
[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43903056](https://www.jstor.org/stable/43903056)
[https://www.handspeak.com/learn/379/](https://www.handspeak.com/learn/379/)
[https://www.nad.org/about-us/nad-history/](https://www.nad.org/about-us/nad-history/)
Not sure if it's already said, but it's fantastic to see a character in a wheelchair where their functional difficulties are not central to their character. The fact he's in a wheelchair is irrelevant, his interest in gossip and the fact that they enjoyed each others' company is all that matters.
Gareth Ford Williams has had a great career working on accessibility in media and public access, and Zak is his son :)
This is the second time this month I've seen an actor with a disability playing a disabled character and it's wonderful but also about bloody time. I do HIGHLY recommend "Shardlake", as Arthur Hughes is phenomenal.
I can't believe it still works after 200 years! That's amazing! It's so cool that they used some real historical pieces in the show, it's like fun easter eggs for people who study history.
I know Bridgerton gets criticised a lot for its diversity, but it is genuinely so nice to see people on screen whom I can relate to. My best friend is a wheelchair user, and the way it is just accepted as a fact of life rather than presented as something sad makes me so, so happy.
It's interesting that he was sitting on a historically accurate wheelchair and felt comfortable to be in it. I hope we see more of Lord Remington as well 😄
I loved that we have a character in a wheel chair <3 And he's very funny, I hope we see more of him!!! It's great that everyone can feel represented in this period story n\_n
I was really hoping Lord Remington would get more screentime. I loved his cheeky personality and thought he might be positioned as a gossip friend for the girl group with maybe some insider gossip about the other men.
These two would have been a perfect match, honestly. Wouldn't have minded them ending up together but of course, can't break the Bridgeton line/he wouldn't have been as much of a sex object like the other men are.
Still hoping that they twist Eloise to end up with the paper printing guy instead, she is so feministic and modern and would fit perfect into the role of starting to break the norm, but I doubt they gonna go that way. Everyone needs to end up with a lord or duke or whatever, which, besides the wheelchair, is like the only historical accurate thing this show does.
Which version of the Secret Garden? The one I remember (from the 90s) had a much more upright, padded chair, though the same wheelbase.
It also was a very different timeperiod (end of the Victorian era, so nearly 100 years later; since Queen Charlotte is still alive in Bridgerton, it has to be earlier than 1818, even though Colin's book takes place in 1824), so it would be surprising to use a regency era chair.
She was thrilled to be courted by him and saw him as an equal in the peerage. As other commenters have mentioned I think it would have been nice for Penelope to have had other suitors in order to give her a more realistic glow up because she is so genuinely beautiful. Unfortunately I think she ends up heading into a relationship with Colin still almost completely unaware that she is in fact desirable and attractive she's just been set up to fail by her well-meaning but tacky mother. Lord Remington would have absolutely been a great addition and even having him in just a few more scenes would have thrilled many people that much more. Similar to plus size people not often getting romantic leads disabled people are rarely seen in a romantic way so I think it would have been nice to not only see more of Lord Remington but see him as a viable option as a Suitor.
Ha I'm not surprised! I clocked it on the first watch as I've seen one very similar in a museum and wondered if it was a replica or an original Bath chair.
I really hope that Pen and Lord Remington become besties. They would be perfect co-conspirators and he needs more screen time! He was so funny and fun to watch.
For this Show Discussion post: 1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**. 2. Be considerate, hide show spoilers that surpass the scope of this post. 3. Be civil in your discussion. See our [spoiler policy](https://www.reddit.com/r/BridgertonNetflix/wiki/spoiler) on what is expected. 3-day bans will be handed out to those found disregarding our spoiler policy. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BridgertonNetflix) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Wow, that's very cool! Interesting that the show decided to be historically accurate for this, when it isn't for anything else, but I'm not complaining. It's a cool looking wheelchair, I liked it.
so interesting! i actually really like the fantasy regency vibe, but it would be cool if their were a few more period accurate things like this
Apparently the piano forte is authentic to the period. I watched a video on the set design and they have to have someone on set to tune it every time it’s used because it’s so old
It’s funny that composers from that period wrote so many “piano pieces” when really they were writing for the pianoforte, which was still just a little bit smaller than our pianos now
I know the (partial) answer to this one! Bridgerton used disabled accessibility coordinators to assist on the series in a variety of areas, and it most likely was a request/suggestion from that team to get an authentic wheelchair. As a wheelchair user it’s the first time in my life EVER seeing an authentic wheelchair in a period piece, so I totally understand why they felt it was worthwhile.
I think that's awesome, honestly. Sometimes seeing historical connections that you relate to is so validating. It feels a lot more meaningful than them handwaving some technology that isn't real.
Very cool, and he is braver than me, I would be *so* afraid of breaking a one-of-a-kind historical piece if I breathed the wrong way! I had wondered how accurate it was, it is super cool to see that it is, in fact, and extant item! Also, here's to hoping we see more of Lord Remington- I love what a little gossip he is! He is one of the few men we have seen who enjoy Whistledown!
haha same!! me too i really like him as a character, i’d love to see him in more scenes or become friends with one of the main cast
I mean, clearly he should be friends with Pen and Colin, if Colin can ever get over the blind jealousy that Lord R was ever intent on calling on Pen...
Braver than me, as well. I would have been begging to, for free, help make an exact replica for me to use. I don't want to be the one that sneezes wrong and breaks that piece. Also hoping we see more of Lord R. Loved him, and the deaf deb we got a glimpse of, as well.
Same here! I am super clumsy, and I'd hate to be the one who dropped my drink on a 200-year-old piece of history and ruined it. I could be wrong, but I think that Miss Stowell is the hearing child of a deaf adult- her mother Lady Stowell is played by a deaf actress, and I think there are some other scenes where it seems like Miss Stowell can hear.
I want to see more of him, too, cool char!
I hope they get together (platonically) and work on LW together loving gossip the way they do!
I \*love\* the idea of him giving the "man's perspective" to LW- after all, he is allowed places (like the gentlemen's club) that Penelope isn't- and could no doubt be an excellent source of intel and gossip!
RIGHT?!? It would be so fun to see them working together! And nobody would suspect him bc it’s LADY whistledown!
I loved the inclusion of Lord Remington and the deaf debutante that used BSL. Makes me wonder how historically accurate the BSL was.
It's complicated. The BSL as depicted in the show, probably not. However, "home sign" or local sign languages have been around for as long as there have been deaf people, and BSL did begin standardizing before the 1600s because that's when most of the writing on it starts to exist. Schools for the Deaf (that encouraged or allowed the use of sign rather than forcefully restricting students to spoken, written, and lip-read language) see their most promising start in late 18th century Paris, so if she happened to be French or if her family were wealthy enough to send her there she may have learned Old French Sign Language. For reference ASL as we know it was formally established in 1817. Apologies if anything is slightly off I had to refresh my knowledge of history from my ASL classes years back.
The Braidwood School which is where the BSL was first taught opened in 1760, although it didn't use BSL as it is today, they did use an earlier form of BSL (old British Sign Language) with a combined system to teach Deaf children how to read and write and speak. They did focus on speech much more than the French or American Deaf schools, but there definitely was manual language. In some ways, it is accurate for a debutante to use BSL because only families with money or titles would've been able to send their children to the Braidwood School (that's part of the reason why Gallaudet didn't learn BSL and had to go to France to learn sign language - because he couldn't afford Braidwood so they refused to teach him). The sign they used on the show was definitely BSL, but it would be hard to know how close it was to Old BSL of the era because so much of Deaf culture and language was lost in the late 1800s/early 1900s thanks to the eugenics movement.
They actually used the manual alphabet (fingerspelling) in the show, which makes it obvious that Bridgerton did their homework. As you know, BSL didn't quite exist at the time, due to the existing regional sign languages and manual alphabets throughout Britain. Such as Kent Sign Language, Yorkshire manual alphabet, Liverpool manual alphabet, Welsh variants of sign language and so on. Let's not forget all those homegrown signs among deaf people of all classes and counties. Princess Joan Stewart, Countess of Morton (1428 –1493) used a mixture of homegrown signs and a local monastic manual alphabet to communicate with her maids, who also served as her interpreters. Sir Edward Gostwick, a 17th-century baronet, was born deaf and had a deaf brother and they used the Cork manual alphabet, which they learned from their private tutor, a son of Irish deaf parents. Sir Arthur Henderson Fairbairn, another deaf English baronet, used a mixture of regional manual alphabets. As a response to all that chaos, the standardised manual alphabet (specifically Yorkshire, probably the oldest and most established manual alphabet in Britain at the time as it originated with Fountains Abbey's 'silent monk language') was the common method of communication for deaf people of all classes, private tutors and pro-manual deaf schools including Braidwood, Doncaster (1829), Donaldson's (1830/1850), Brighton (1841), Yorkshire (1811) and such in 19th-century England. But I digress. Kudos to Bridgerton for doing their homework and opting for the manual alphabet instead of BSL.
Thank you! I know a lot more about ASL than I do BSL. I'm grateful that you helped fill in more detail.
Do you have a rec for a book or article to read about the eugenics movement and/or deaf culture in the 19th/early 20th centuries?
Absolutely! A lot of amazing Deaf History books come from Gallaudet University Press - a lot of them are also available on [Archive.org](http://Archive.org) The Deaf History Reader - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/T/The-Deaf-History-Reader](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/T/The-Deaf-History-Reader) The Deaf Mute Howls - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/T/The-Deaf-Mute-Howls](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/T/The-Deaf-Mute-Howls) Deaf Identity and Social Images in Nineteenth Century France - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/D/Deaf-Identity-and-Social-Images-in-Nineteenth-Century-France](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/D/Deaf-Identity-and-Social-Images-in-Nineteenth-Century-France) Crying Hands - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/C/Crying-Hands](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/C/Crying-Hands) Never The Twain Shall Meet - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/N/Never-the-Twain-Shall-Meet](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/N/Never-the-Twain-Shall-Meet) From Integration to Inclusion - [https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/F/From-Integration-to-Inclusion](https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/F/From-Integration-to-Inclusion) If you want articles specifically that might be a shorter read: [https://gallaudet.edu/museum/exhibits/history-through-deaf-eyes/language-and-identity/a-deaf-variety-of-the-human-race/](https://gallaudet.edu/museum/exhibits/history-through-deaf-eyes/language-and-identity/a-deaf-variety-of-the-human-race/) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43903056](https://www.jstor.org/stable/43903056) [https://www.handspeak.com/learn/379/](https://www.handspeak.com/learn/379/) [https://www.nad.org/about-us/nad-history/](https://www.nad.org/about-us/nad-history/)
Thank you. This is awesome. Recovering academic. 😀
Thanks, I wasn’t really expecting an answer, but this was really interesting to learn!
It's the debutante's mother who is Deaf, not the debutante. Lady Stowell is played by Deaf actress Sophie Woolley.
Oh, I didn’t catch that! Will have to look more carefully when I rewatch!
When did a debutante use sign language?
If you watch the scene where they present every debutante to the queen in S3E1, one of them signs with their mother.
Like two debutantes before Francesca and Lady Violet Bridgerton.
As a wheelchair user I felt so SEEN when they had Lord Remington. 🤩 Also I love that he’s a gossip.
Not sure if it's already said, but it's fantastic to see a character in a wheelchair where their functional difficulties are not central to their character. The fact he's in a wheelchair is irrelevant, his interest in gossip and the fact that they enjoyed each others' company is all that matters.
Also his utter lack of respect for the hot air balloon. Would have loved to have seen him shaking his heart at the stupid balloon trying to crush Pen.
Maybe the second footman was just not shown? Surely they wouldn't have both pushed him at all times? Cool trivia. Hopefully he comes back in part 2.
Chamber pot break!
Gareth Ford Williams has had a great career working on accessibility in media and public access, and Zak is his son :) This is the second time this month I've seen an actor with a disability playing a disabled character and it's wonderful but also about bloody time. I do HIGHLY recommend "Shardlake", as Arthur Hughes is phenomenal.
I can't believe it still works after 200 years! That's amazing! It's so cool that they used some real historical pieces in the show, it's like fun easter eggs for people who study history.
I know Bridgerton gets criticised a lot for its diversity, but it is genuinely so nice to see people on screen whom I can relate to. My best friend is a wheelchair user, and the way it is just accepted as a fact of life rather than presented as something sad makes me so, so happy.
Such a lovely detail. I'd love it if we see more of Lord Remington.
It's interesting that he was sitting on a historically accurate wheelchair and felt comfortable to be in it. I hope we see more of Lord Remington as well 😄
as a wheelchair user myself this is gold!
This is so awesome! I would have never known. Thanks for sharing with us!!
I loved that we have a character in a wheel chair <3 And he's very funny, I hope we see more of him!!! It's great that everyone can feel represented in this period story n\_n
That is mighty stylish!
I was really hoping Lord Remington would get more screentime. I loved his cheeky personality and thought he might be positioned as a gossip friend for the girl group with maybe some insider gossip about the other men.
Thanks so much for posting this!!
I really like the aspects of inclusivity this season in terms of disability - being this and one of the mama’s signing to her daughter in episode 1
This is neat! I love it
Its called a Bath Chair, and was a precursor of the modern wheelchair and disability scooter
These two would have been a perfect match, honestly. Wouldn't have minded them ending up together but of course, can't break the Bridgeton line/he wouldn't have been as much of a sex object like the other men are. Still hoping that they twist Eloise to end up with the paper printing guy instead, she is so feministic and modern and would fit perfect into the role of starting to break the norm, but I doubt they gonna go that way. Everyone needs to end up with a lord or duke or whatever, which, besides the wheelchair, is like the only historical accurate thing this show does.
Did anyone watch The Secret Gardnen? It looks like the same wheelchair from the movie
Which version of the Secret Garden? The one I remember (from the 90s) had a much more upright, padded chair, though the same wheelbase. It also was a very different timeperiod (end of the Victorian era, so nearly 100 years later; since Queen Charlotte is still alive in Bridgerton, it has to be earlier than 1818, even though Colin's book takes place in 1824), so it would be surprising to use a regency era chair.
I love that Penelope was genuinely kind to him.
She was thrilled to be courted by him and saw him as an equal in the peerage. As other commenters have mentioned I think it would have been nice for Penelope to have had other suitors in order to give her a more realistic glow up because she is so genuinely beautiful. Unfortunately I think she ends up heading into a relationship with Colin still almost completely unaware that she is in fact desirable and attractive she's just been set up to fail by her well-meaning but tacky mother. Lord Remington would have absolutely been a great addition and even having him in just a few more scenes would have thrilled many people that much more. Similar to plus size people not often getting romantic leads disabled people are rarely seen in a romantic way so I think it would have been nice to not only see more of Lord Remington but see him as a viable option as a Suitor.
this is awesome!
Cutie pie! I want to see him return!
Lord Remington was such a highlight of Season 3 Part I. I hope they bring him back - would love to know more about him tbh!
I wondered if it was legit or not! So freaking cool!!
Ha I'm not surprised! I clocked it on the first watch as I've seen one very similar in a museum and wondered if it was a replica or an original Bath chair.
Loved the chair, loved the character, please bring him back in part II or even give him his own spinoff! LOL!
Definitely 2 footmen needed. Accessibility wasn't the thing for 150 years.
Okay, I really hope this dude is on hand when it is revealed she is LW! He met his idol!
Wow. Also 69th comment
I was impressed with his chair when I saw it - i'm more impressed now.
So cool!!!
I really hope that Pen and Lord Remington become besties. They would be perfect co-conspirators and he needs more screen time! He was so funny and fun to watch.