This year I was fortunate enough to take part in Disability Inclusion Week 2021. This year’s theme was Invisible Disabilities, which is an area of research that I’m very passionate about. Over the years, I’ve watched my mum’s experiences of navigating her invisible disabilities (rheumatoid arthritis and the after-effects of a subarachnoid hemorrhage). I’ve seen first-hand how people treat her as though she’s fine, no matter how many times she reminds them that she may need accommodations. I’ve even witnessed people tell her to stop complaining because she’s completely recovered. Unfortunately, among these people are friends, family and even some medical professionals. In other words, the people I thought would be the most understanding. What many of these people don’t see is her normal day-to-day life which is largely shaped by her invisible disabilities. For instance, how long she can stay standing up without being in large amounts of pain or how she strategically plans out her medication so the resulting fatigue doesn’t cause her to sleep throughout the entire day. I’ve learnt how invisible disabilities can have a very large (and often even visible) effect on a person’s life, yet how their invisibility can sometimes prevent these disabilities from being taken seriously.
My mum is fortunate that along her journey she has also found many supportive friends, family and medical professionals, however, invisible disabilities are surprisingly common. Personally, I know that many people I love and care about have an invisible disability (or multiple invisible disabilities) and have gone through similar negative experiences as my mum. Preventing invisible disability discrimination has been a large goal that I’ve been hoping to contribute to at least in some small way through my research and creative projects. So it was an honour to be invited to contribute to the discussions being had as part of the University of Sydney’s Disability Inclusion Week this year. While there are so many important takeaways that I’ve learnt about invisible disabilities across my PhD, I think what I most wanted to emphasise was the importance of being kind, empathetic and as flexible as possible to everyone we meet.
A big part of being more inclusive of people with an invisible disability involves trying to be kind, understanding and supportive of each other.
Across the many interviews and chats that I’ve had with people with invisible disabilities, I think the importance of empathy and flexibility has been one of the key takeaways. We all need to start from a place of believing each other’s experiences, and being open to accommodate one another.
If you’re interested in reading some of the content I contributed to, I’ve linked some of it below:
- I was invited to be the keynote speaker in the ‘How invisible is an invisible disability? Myths and misconceptions from a student perspective and available support‘ panel. You can view the talk and download the slides below.
- I was also interviewed for the University of Sydney’s Student News about how we can help be more inclusive of people with invisible disabilities. You can read the article titled Invisible Disabilities: They’re more common than you think here.
- I also collaborated to make some social media content. The posts are embedded below: