Considerations for Supporting and Accommodating Invisible Disabilities
By Jill Feder
Published February 1, 2021
Invisible disabilities are just that: disabilities that people may not easily perceive by looking at or interacting with a person. However, many common disabilities fall under this category. Invisible (or hidden) disabilities can range from the physical to the neurological to the cognitive. Many common (and not-so-common) disabilities don’t manifest in ways that are immediately obvious to others.
No matter what kind of invisible disability someone has, one thing is certain: all people with invisible disabilities deserve support just as much as those with visible ones. The impact or validity of a disability isn’t dependent on others’ perception of it.
Understanding invisible disabilities
“Not everything is what it seems. Just because you cannot see a person’s disability does not mean it does not significantly affect their day-to-day functioning,” Access Living writer Ashley Eisenmenger, a blind woman, explained. In other words, appearances do not necessarily tell us everything about what someone is experiencing on the inside. As she wrote, people with [...]