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kestrellHere's the link, but blind readers note I share some invisible disability experiences after the link
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/style/invisible-disabilities.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR29dfq2Ib0T-H9EvGzJlVmksLegSNV3bA_hPPVihrpHpJ-6MGmchjaXuBg
Kes: When I was growing up, I had juuuuust enough functional vision in one eye to be able to walk around, and to read with the book literally touching my nose. I didn't use a white cane or think of myself as blind because my family and ophthalmologist didn't want me to "act disabled," so they didn't even tell me how bad my vision was. I just fell down stairs a lot and spent way too much time on the wrong bus (let me tell you, spending time on the bus to Schenectady is time spent in Purgatory) , because I was so insecure, I wouldn't even ask the bus driver which bus it was. As many times as I tried to explain that sitting in the front row of class didn't mean I could see the blackboard any better, adults would just tell me to stop being lazy and try harder (confirming once again my opinion that adults would always choose to believe whatever they wanted to believe, rather than anything that upset their tiny mental apple carts).
So, yes, for the first twenty-something years of my life, my being blind as a bat was pretty much invisible to everyone around me and, to some degree, even to myself. Once I became actually blind *and* stopped worrying about people who didn't want me to "look blind," I had all this energy I used to put into passing and could do so many other things, like go to MIT. Though, when I was doing my undergrad degree at UMass Boston, I still often had the "you don't *look* blind, because you're looking at me" argument quite frequently.
So, goal for the next thirty years: Can we get rid of the "you don't look disabled" prejudice? As the article points out, we are going to have more people who have acquired invisible disabilities as a result of Covid-19, and these are going to include disabilities associated with anxiety, trauma, respiration, the immune system, the heart, and many other physical problems which we aren't even aware of yet.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/style/invisible-disabilities.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR29dfq2Ib0T-H9EvGzJlVmksLegSNV3bA_hPPVihrpHpJ-6MGmchjaXuBg
Kes: When I was growing up, I had juuuuust enough functional vision in one eye to be able to walk around, and to read with the book literally touching my nose. I didn't use a white cane or think of myself as blind because my family and ophthalmologist didn't want me to "act disabled," so they didn't even tell me how bad my vision was. I just fell down stairs a lot and spent way too much time on the wrong bus (let me tell you, spending time on the bus to Schenectady is time spent in Purgatory) , because I was so insecure, I wouldn't even ask the bus driver which bus it was. As many times as I tried to explain that sitting in the front row of class didn't mean I could see the blackboard any better, adults would just tell me to stop being lazy and try harder (confirming once again my opinion that adults would always choose to believe whatever they wanted to believe, rather than anything that upset their tiny mental apple carts).
So, yes, for the first twenty-something years of my life, my being blind as a bat was pretty much invisible to everyone around me and, to some degree, even to myself. Once I became actually blind *and* stopped worrying about people who didn't want me to "look blind," I had all this energy I used to put into passing and could do so many other things, like go to MIT. Though, when I was doing my undergrad degree at UMass Boston, I still often had the "you don't *look* blind, because you're looking at me" argument quite frequently.
So, goal for the next thirty years: Can we get rid of the "you don't look disabled" prejudice? As the article points out, we are going to have more people who have acquired invisible disabilities as a result of Covid-19, and these are going to include disabilities associated with anxiety, trauma, respiration, the immune system, the heart, and many other physical problems which we aren't even aware of yet.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-22 11:01 am (UTC)I realize that discussing what happens *after* the medical diagnosis and beginning the process of getting the patient that bureaucratic piece of paper which confirms that the person is disabled is time-consuming in a day where doctors only have fifteen minutes to see a single patient, but the doctors are the gatekeepers in this process and, as I often say, you're not officially disabled until the piece of paper says so.