Connect-Ability

The Invisible Disability

As you walk down a city street, or even down a school hallway, you might think that it is as easy as looking at a person to determine whether they have a disability or not.

“You can tell by looking at a person, can’t you?”

This is the question that I, a high school student, hear over and over again from peers about people with disabilities. However, much of the time, disabilities are invisible.

 

The student who just can’t make out the words on his paper, the man who has difficulty seeing red and green, the woman who needs hearing assistance at the theater. These are disabilities not easily seen.  We should not judge who “is” and who “is not” based on the way that they look or the things that they carry. Many disabilities are invisible.

 

I believe that the only truly hurtful disability in this world is pessimism. Life is not an event that is defined by the inconveniences or setbacks that occur, but rather life is defined by how a person embraces what they have and uses it to become truly unique.

And that is something everybody can see.

Jeffrey Twitty, editor, Connect-Ability