I hope this hasn’t been done before—I did try searching and didn’t see any specific topics about it.
I want to hear about other people’s disability headcanons for any Who characters—canon or non-canon disabilities, but headcanons about what that’s like for the character.
My favorites are, unsurprisingly, largely Gallifrey-centric. It makes sense that the three mains are all autistic (I go back and forth about Brax on this as in most things), though I think Romana I was more clearly autistic than Romana II. A lot about her backstory and childhood feel relatable as an isolated book-smart autistic kid generally not accepted by peers. I think she hides in her office and bites her pens and hands, and twists her hands in her robes during meetings. She used to have a chew necklace with the Doctor but lost it and has too much pride to get a new one.
I also like the idea that she has chronic pain, poor psychic control, and needs some form of mobility aid after Etra Prime (though I can’t take credit for coming up with those personally).
Narvin is…the worst liar who has ever been a spy lol, and clearly functions better with strict routines and clear expectations. He also gets flustered/overwhelmed easily and has a strict code he follows that isn’t really based in how the Time Lords around him think even when his actions line up with theirs.
Leela might be my favorite though, because imagining her autistic fixes a lot, though not all, of the writing around her. She’s clearly smart and capable when the writer’s remember to write her as such, so I like to think that what other characters offensively attribute to her being “savage” is just autistic traits like processing information by relating it to stories (which doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand Gallifreyan stuff). She also feels like someone who would be far more openly stimmy than fairly repressed Time Lords are comfortable with, chewing on her hands or playing with her knife. She’s also violent in a way that has nothing to do with being autistic, but to be fair she’s not really any more violent than the Time Lords, just in a different way.
I ALSO like Sarah as autistic (I know, she’s not a Gallifrey character, but she’s next on my list of favorite companions). I also swear I do come up with non-autistic headcanons. But, I mean, the way she pulls her hat down over her eyes to get the Doctor’s attention. The way she repeatedly sits on the floor, legs sprawled, when she wants to be comfortable in a way that doesn’t feel very professional-young-journalist. The way she is very blunt and straightforward (in sja she rarely lasts undercover more than a couple minutes without demanding answers) and struggles to understand emotions.
And this one is a small thing, but Ryan is canonically dyspraxic, and as someone with a similar motor control issue it’s very important to me that he has terribly messy handwriting no matter what he does despite being an adult.
I will probably think of more and add them in comments later, but for now: what other disability headcanons do y’all have?
Outside of ones who are canon, I think Yvonne Hartman has an empathy deficit disorder. I don’t think it’s just “working for Torchwood” that made her a “sociopath”/“narcissist”, but rather it’s a genuine disorder she has and struggles with. Moments in the latest audio made it more apparent that it’s something she can’t control (with her being touch-averse), and seeing Tommy (her co-worker) being soo patient and supportive is so nice. Compared to just calling her “evil” or “uncaring”.
Still have to engage more with Whoniverse media for more headcanons for other characters, but I find Ianto’s autism being pretty much canon to be so representative to the point I don’t feel like I have enough evidence for more headcanons. Like I want to say Toshiko probably has autism too, but her character never really gets explored much in that way for me to have it as a definitive headcanon. Idk if I’m making sense 
, I hope I am though.
I’m not sure if we can at this point call the Doctor being autistic a headcanon or if it’s considered official by now, but that’s my biggest one. They were the first TV character I ever really related to in that respect so that’s always been really cool to me.
I agree with you regarding the Gallifrey cast as well. Romana I and Leela in particular lol. In general I think a lot of companions, both Classic and New, could be read as autistic pretty easily. Susan, Vicki, Clara etc. I think it’s really cool that this series has been so well loved by so many autistic people that some have gone on to contribute to the show itself and perhaps write characters in a way they can relate to.
Other than this I always just interpreted the way Bill Hartnell flubs lines in-universe as the First Doctor having aphasia. It’s more common in people the older you get but if I was writing something with him younger I’d still include it I think. (Because I’m self-obsessed and I have it in my 20s too! 
)
I also used to think that Five must’ve had asthma because he’s always breathing so hard. That regeneration was rough, poor guy.
Speaking of regenerations, I find Time Lord-specific disability an interesting thing to think about too. Stuff like Narvin’s loss of them or the Doctor’s inability to control their appearance or just… Everything to do with Andred lol
I can’t believe I forgot to include the Doctor! I love how, to me, they always seem some amount of audhd but the specific variances and presentation is very different between incarnations.
Also I agree, the idea of Time Lord-specific disabilities is soo much fun to play around with!
I think both Two and Twelve are dyspraxic! “Run like a penguin with it’s arse on fire” was one of the most Real lines to me. And their posture- this is also an autistic thing, but they both have a sort of posture that really reminds me of being dyspraxic- especially when Two does the Right-Angled Elbow stuff, that’s really how I am when feeling off-balance or, say, trying to walk faster/more uphill than I am used to.
As awesome as it is for Doctor Who to have given us the first Ever explicitly dyspraxic character in the history of (at least anglophonic) TV- and qualms about Ryan’s writing aside- I would have loved if we could have the Doctor nod and go oh yeah. I feel you.
I’ll try and remember if I have anything else…
Scoliosis! Sam! Jones!
I have nothing textual that makes me think this, I just enjoy protecting scoliosis onto characters and Sam is who I ended up getting attached to.
I’ve given the Fifth Doctor a case of The Deficiencies (as I joke they’re called), what with his fatigue in Castrovalva and chest pain in the Five Doctors. He also strikes me as a character who has chronic migraines, again, projecting.
Finally, in agreement with several people here, autism! So many of these characters are autistic and especially the Doctor.
Something interesting about my disability headcanons is that I prefer to give characters symptoms instead of a full diagnosis. I always worry that I’ll be misrepresenting something or that it’s not my place to make those headcanons sometimes. Especially with autism headcanons, because I don’t actually know if I’m autistic, I did a lot of research when I was sixteen and for the most part it would fit, but I’m not actually sure either way. So what I do instead is to just mix together a lot of different traits and symptoms, drawing on personal experience where I can.
Anyways I love to give Romana issues! She’s already got so much trauma, but let’s increase that. A lot of things have already been mentioned, but some things I headcanon her to have are chronic pain and fatigue, depression (and not just trauma-induced, but all her life), some sort of breathing issues, injured joints (which precisely varies but a bad knee is a favorite), bad balance and blood pressure issues that make her lightheaded and faint. Another good one is hallucinations, especially auditory ones. There’s a few scenes in Gallifrey that you can interpret this way even outside of the whole plot reasons.
With Leela, I want to explore (spoilers for Gallifrey S3+4)blindness and the lasting impact of that a lot more. I just don’t think becoming a hound will cure her completely, I think she still gets visual disturbances, auras from her nerves being messed with, maybe she has a light sensitivity or reacts badly to flickering lights. I’ve also been playing with the idea of her having heterophoria, that is the eyes being not aligned at rest, and her having to retrain the focus of her eyes after regaining her sight.
And I love to give all characters, but Leela and Romana especially dermatillomania/a skin picking disorder, because those are issues I’ve had my entire life
The first two doctors were colourblind!
It’s not really a headcanon, but afaik only from a throwaway line in the Day of The Doctor novelisation, which I love and wish were explored more.
I (of course) agree with everything here, but I also specifically think quite a few Doctor Who characters have PTSD - I mean, *gestures at Romana, Leela and Narvin* they’ve all been through so much, it really would not surprise. Romana in particular comes off as seriously traumatised by Etra Prime et al. (Oh, and the chronic pain…)
I also tend to think the Doctor is not only autistic but also ADHD - which has been implicitly confirmed by a Twelfth Doctor minisode, I think. Some of it’s the general way of life of an itinerant traveller, other bits are specific characterisation - fallible memory, short attention span, occasionally delays things for centuries. Oh, and I think the Doctor sometimes struggles with depressive episodes.
Linked to ADHD and PTSD - Sarah. Certainly in her audios she comes off as paranoid to the point that it’s incredibly unhealthy, struggles to trust, sleeps poorly, etc. And she’s so much like the Doctor, with the same sort of quick-thinking rarely-stopping mind, that it feels fitting for her to have ADHD as well.
I may be projecting.
I’ve mentioned in a different thread that I see The Meddling Monk as autistic.
I also see Rufus Hound Monk specifically as having brain damage after the events of body and soulless. It is mentioned as a possibility but I specifically headcannon he has chronic migraines because of what happened (and memory loss but The Monk canonically has memory loss already for time travel reasons).
Speaking of PTSD- I sometimes see people write Victoria as Anxietous and while I can sort of see where It’s coming from, I think what she has going on is a lot more adjacent to C-PTSD. C for complex because it’s not even the death of her father or the dalek hostage thing or any one other incident but just the constant presence of a threatening atmosphere or of Stress and trying to preform Bravery and Alrightness… she literally becomes hypervigilant, convinced a threat is gonna pop at them any moment because it always does- it’s a repeated prolonged trauma based expectation.
I have a headcanon about the whole Bad Wolf thing making Rose physically disabled. There’s a lot of fanon about it giving her immortality/time powers/whatever else and I like to think about what the less positive side effects might be. Like, she probably gets awful headaches, for example. I usually say the TARDIS had to rearrange a bunch of stuff in her body so she wouldn’t die and as a side effect her joints are less stable/hurt more, too, but really you could say the effects are just about anything, it’s just an excuse to explore whatever story you’re writing or watching/reading/listening to through a different lens.
Love this topic! I agree with a lot of the headcanons already said, and as someone with multiple disabilities who loves projection, I have more than I know what to do with.
Romana, to me, is definitely chronically ill post-Etra Prime. Chronic pain for sure, some sort of psychic atrophy, and whatever cocktail of symptoms I feel she should have at the moment. In my mind she uses forearm crutches and, for at least a few decades afterwards, is an on and off ambulatory wheelchair user. She’s embarrassed about needing both, and uses them much less than she should. She’s absolutely the sort of person to steamroll over her limits and end up bedbound for a week every once in a while. She’s certainly autistic as well. Literally as a kid didn’t realize her friend was only pretending to be her friend and was making fun of her behind her back [1]. Everyone I know who was an autistic teenage girl has had some variation of that same experience.
Aaaand focusing on Romana made me forget the other ones I was going to talk about. I don’t know Narvin can have sleep apnea.
I do think Sartia was lying about that, to some degree, though ↩︎
I’m hitting the Doctor with my AuDHD-ification beam. In the 10DA “Technophobia,” Donna implies that she thinks he has ADHD. Additionally, I’m hitting Donna, Amy, Sarah Jane, and Luke[1] with my autism-ification beam.
Him struggling with social cues makes perfect sense due to the whole “being created by the Bane and coming into existence as a 14 year old with a ton of academic knowledge but none of social cues” thing, but that doesn’t stop me from projecting my autism on to him ↩︎
I headcanon Six as being autistic and having CPTSD and dysthymia (a chronic form of depression that is typically easier to hide and cope with in some level, as opposed to Major Depressive Disorder that is primarily episodic and more “dysfunctional” in appearance).
I love how he’ll canonically be the first to act like he has his life together, but at the same time he struggles. Depending on who he’s with, he isn’t afraid to show when he’s hurting. I feel like he would be one of those people whose cries for help always go unnoticed or get brushed aside.
Remembered a few other ones:
A while back I saw a tumblr post abt the Fifth Doctor still having issues from his regeneration post Castrovalva and being an ambulatory wheelchair user, and I like that. I feel like he has POTS.
Various other autistic headcanons include but are not limited to: Leela, Ace, Sarah Jane, Amy, The Doctor, Susan, Bill, Narvin, Mel & Braxiatel.
And it would be fun if Seven had a question mark cane. L to him though cause ones with curved handles are really uncomfortable to hold for long periods. [1]
I’m not quite sure where I got the idea from but I feel like Mel has OCD.
trust me, mine is one. its the only one I could get for free ↩︎
ohhh i love this thread…
my big headcanon is that Seven is OCD (or at least a similar anxiety-based disorder). there are a few tidbits in the VNAs that really solidify this for me, like in The Also People where Benny theorizes that part of why he acts so secretive even when it isn’t really necessary is that he believes that if he says what he wants to happen outloud it’ll go wrong (a good example of the kind of irrational thinking you get with these kinds of disorders). he’s obsessed with making the choice that benefits the most people possible to the point of self-sabotage and constant guilt. his fixation on making Everything be Good Forever has him making choices that he knows will make him and others miserable, and running himself ragged with plots and schemes, even though he says at multiple points he would rather settle down and live a quiet life entertaining people, all of which feels verrrrry much like moral-fixated OCD. it takes him a huge amount of effort to not try to do things to control a bad situation. honestly reading through the series it feels almost canon, and probably intentionally for at least some of the writers.
I’m out of likes but you make a very great point 
Narvin is the autism character of all time
What’s really funny to me is I never even thought about it or considered it till his story in Time War 4, and at that moment everything clicked and even scenes from before that set made me think “oh. He’s autistic”
Love him