Invisible disability: Encyclopedia II - Invisible disability - Discrimination

Invisible disability - Discrimination

Whereas with a visible disability, people may be too willing to "help" or interfere, those with invisible disabilities must seek out any help or risk going without assistance. However, those with invisible disabilities are often still covered by disability law.

Persons with these kinds of disabilities are often accused of faking or imagining their disabilities. People can also misunderstand and sometimes mistake illness or impairment as something else. For instance, one might feel animosity towards a person who takes a lift/elevator up one floor, by assuming they are lazy, without realising that the person has an unobvious disability which makes it difficult for them to climb stairs (such as a knee problem or lack of depth perception).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Discrimination", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki