The Disabled World's Invisible Disability

26 million Americans have a disability. Yet we are still not accepting or aware of this large portion of our own people. The disabled should be accepted because they have had to face so many hardships like living with the knowledge of their past treatment, breaking the barriers of our society, and experiencing troubles that we may never truly know of.

Throughout history the treatment of the handicapped community has been inhumane, discriminatory and torturous, and has only changed recently. In the 1800’s, disabled people were hidden, feared and thought of as a waste of life. According to www.adl.org, “In the 1800’s, people with disabilities were considered meager, tragic, pitiful individuals unfit and unable to contribute to society...”

An invisible disability can be defined as a disability that people cannot see immediately or clearly. According to The Disabled World’s Invisible Disability article, “Invisible disability, or hidden disability, is defined as disabilities that are not immediately apparent.” This suggests that disabilities that are not immediately apparent or distinguishable, but are still classified as handicaps are called invisible disabilities. In certain ways, invisible disabilities can come with a set of new problems, like prejudice and the overall non acceptance of society. For example, the website www.disabled-world.com states, “People with some kinds of invisible disabilities, such as chronic pain or some kind of sleep disorder, are often accused of faking or imagining their disabilities.” Though in many cases invisible disabilities cause more pain and difficulty, people are still questionable of the validity of them. Just as the invisibly disabled have to face challenges with how people perceive them, the visibly disabled face them as well. In support of this this statement, a quote from Wayne Connell talking about a visibly disabled man says, “Due to the surgeries Matt has had on his face, he has endured stares, dirty looks and has even has been asked to leave retail stores because he was “scaring” someone’s child.” The visibly disabled must face hardships

First of all, the disabled have barriers that create separation due to their companies, workplaces and their peers. Some of the barriers listed by the CDC are, “a physical environment that is not accessible...negative attitudes of people towards disability… policies that are either nonexistent or that hinder the involvement of all people with a health condition in all areas of life.” This shows that many barriers placed on the disabled are from their environment, lack of communication, negative attitudes and nonexistent policies to help them. In addition, multiple barriers are often common and only make the overall separation of disabled worse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states, “Often there are multiple barriers that can make it extremely difficult or even impossible for people with disabilities to function.” This idea suggests that not only are we placing even more hardships on the disabled, but we are causing them to not even be able to participate in society. Also, because of how we have made non acceptance of disabled so normal, even children are carrying these views with them. This is shown in an article by Cindy Long about a disabled boy, ”What scalded him the most, however, was being asked, “What’s wrong with you?” He knew most children were just curious, but the phrasing implied that he was somehow not right, but wrong.” The overall barriers hat we place on the