In our society when we hear the word disabled, most people envision an individual who is unable to walk or has limited cognitive functioning. But why do we limit the term disability to such visible or tangible characteristics? If someone was to park in a handicap spot, and was seen getting out of their car walking without some sort of device or aliment, most people may assume that the specific individual parked in the handicap spot may not require the accommodations given with that specific parking spot but what about all the other types of injuries, ailments and disorders that may cause an individual to be declared as being disabled?

For me, this isn’t just a topic that I am just opinionated about, but rather something I have experienced very often on a first hand basis. Growing up my dad was declared a one-hundred percent disabled veteran. You may be asking yourself what that "title" means. It meant that he was legally determined disabled by a military physician due to suffering multiple strokes, which led to a diagnoses of vascular dementia before the age of forty-five, as well as having often epileptic episodes, and suffering from systemic lupus erythematous as well as numerous other medical conditions and disorders such as PTSD due to his time in the service. After reviewing the laundry list of issues my dad faced, I am sure you can imagine how his various medical conditions interfered with his ability to work and fully function through life. However when individuals in our small town learned that my dad was declared disabled and collected disability from to the government to survive on, they would become angry and say that there was nothing wrong with him and that he just “lazy” and that he just didn’t want to work, among many other hurtful remarks such as calling him “retarded” due to the fact that it took him longer to process things and was hard for him to make simple decision such as what to order for lunch.

With all that being said, just because my father didn’t suffer from a “visible” disability, did that make him any less qualified to be declared disabled than an individual who did? We need to break this stigma that portrays the misunderstanding that everyone who is disabled suffers from a visible disorder or ailment, when that truly isn’t the case. Many things can cause an individual to be declared as being disabled, such as chronic pain, cognitive impairment due to incidences such as strokes, or medical issues that may require aggressive treatment such as dialysis and chemotherapy. These traits and characteristics are all something that may cause someone to be declared disabled because it affects their ability to work and thrive in daily life, but the common theme between all these traits is that most of them are not visible issues.

Just because someone’s disability isn’t visible doesn’t mean it isn’t there.