I know, I just did a hashtags post. This is special. Just read them, OK? Pay particular attention to the posts by folks with “Invisible Disabilities.” See if you can tell which ones those are.
#heardwhilstdisabled These comments have been made over number of years, but sadly they stay with you, chipping away at your self-esteem : (
— Enabled by Design (@enabledby) January 28, 2013
“If we accommodate you, we will have to do it for everyone” #heardwhilstdisabled
— msanthropics (@Saulssister) January 28, 2013
“Oh, well, we don’t get many people ‘like you’, so we didn’t think we’d need to bother with any disabled access” #heardwhilstdisabled
— J (@Vincible_Knave) January 28, 2013
In a shop to a friend who needs a straw to drink “you can’t have one, only children are allowed them” #heardwhilstdisabled
— LemonBella (@LemonBella) January 28, 2013
“But you won’t be affected by the welfare reforms will you. You will? Oh, surely not dear” #heardwhilstdisabled from multiple Tory MP’s
— BendyGirl (@BendyGirl) January 28, 2013
#heardwhilstdisabled If your husband loses his job or leaves you, ring back & you’ll qualify for income … m.tmi.me/IthWJ
— Elaine Rush(@chubachups) January 28, 2013
you must love staying at home and living on benefits – said to me by a paramedic whilst in ambulance #heardwhilstdisabled
— Rachel Morris (@kidmorris) January 28, 2013
“If you call yourself disabled you’ll start to act like it.” #heardwhilstdisabled #whatdoesthisevenMEAN
— Elizabeth-Anne (@arcadiaego) January 28, 2013
#heardwhilstdisabled “It’s hard to make plans with you because your health is too unpredictable.”I do it on purpose to inconvenience you.
— Sonja (@sonjathegreat) January 28, 2013
“You need to bring proof of disability.” “Is my wheelchair not enough?” “No. You get people doing a Little Britain.” #heardwhilstdisabled
— Lisa Egan (@lisybabe) January 28, 2013
“If you don’t have an official diagnosis then there’s nothing wrong with you” #heardwhilstdisabled
— ShiraSandlerBeckett (@redshira) January 28, 2013
@pseudodeviant” Is your son really autistic, as he seems just fine to me” #heardwhilstdisabled
— Bernadette Horton (@PinkWaferBelle) January 28, 2013
“Oh, you are just what we want – come for an interview” “do you gave wheelchair access” “ohh.. your disabled…” #heardwhilstdisabled
— Kirsty Carmell (@star_princess) January 28, 2013
“IBS isn’t a disability! It just means you go to the loo a lot!” Oh if only, ignorant person, if only. #heardwhilstdisabled
— ShiraSandlerBeckett (@redshira) January 28, 2013
“What have you got to be depressed about? There are worse off people than you.” #MentalHealth #HeardWhilstDisabled
— Stephie (@MonocledCat) January 28, 2013
“You only feel like this because you’ve got no real problems to worry about.” #heardwhilstdisabled
— Elizabeth-Anne (@arcadiaego) January 28, 2013
“Just open the door and walk out, silly! It wouldn’t be such a big deal if you didn’t make it into one.” #heardwhilstdisabled #agoraphobia
— Rachel K. Zall (@spacegirlkate) January 28, 2013
“If your.. (gestures to legs).. are there what are you doing in one of those (gestures to wheelchair)?” #heardwhilstdisabled
— Emma (@pseudodeviant) January 28, 2013
“You’re so bright & articulate. You shouldn’t be disabled.” #heardwhilstdisabled
— Emma (@pseudodeviant) January 28, 2013
#HeardWhilstDisabled “Run upstairs for me will you, your legs are younger than mine” They also have unstable, worn out joints.
— Cesca(@_BingCherry) January 28, 2013
“I thought you said it was accessible” “There are only 2 steps, are you going to be difficult?” #heardwhilstdisabled #powerchairsdon‘tjump
— Spoonydoc (@Spoonydoc) January 28, 2013
Email sent to all staff. “Sorry for inconvenience of changing meeting room. It is for the wheelchair user AGAIN.” #heardwhilstdisabled
— Spoonydoc (@Spoonydoc) January 28, 2013
#heardwhilstdisabled whn arr at aircraft door waiting 4 aisle w/chair, steward says “u can walk 2 ur seat now” Ireply “are u Jesus then?”
— Angela Cavill-Burch (@onmybiketoo) January 28, 2013
“Couldn’t you get your chair into a normal fitting room? We use the accessible one for storage.” #heardwhilstdisabled
— Emma (@pseudodeviant) January 28, 2013
*Why don’t you just try hard to walk better?*#heardwhilstdisabledJings! Yer a genius! No one ever thought about trying! Thank you! Pht
— Rattlecans (@rattlecans) January 28, 2013
#heardwhilstdisabled – I was going to contribute stuff ppl have said to me but my ‘disability’ is deafness. So I wouldn’t have heard. Lol.
— Pawzilla The First (@pawzilla) January 28, 2013
“Your name will be announced over the tannoy” “I won’t hear the tannoy” “The tannoy’s REALLY loud” #heardwhilstdisabled #deaf
— Natalya Dell (@natalyadell) January 28, 2013
“We’re not allowed to help.” —postal worker when I asked him to fill a form out since I can’t write. #HeardWhilstDisabled
— Jaden Walker (@theeternal) January 28, 2013
Here’s mine. To my mum whilst out shopping with my brother “You should keep him at home, people don’t want to see that” #HeardWhilstDisabled
— Christina Martin (@christinamartin) January 28, 2013
#heardwhilstdisabled “You just don’t understand how uncomfortable your pain/disability makes other people”. From an ex boss of mine.
— Sarah Blohm (@bloomer71) January 28, 2013
#HeardWhilstDisabled – in Swindon 26 Jan 2013what she doing in a disabled seat? Nothing wrong with her #parkinsons #InvisibleIllness #ukmh
— Dawn Willis (@Quinonostante) January 28, 2013
#heardwhilstdisabled “you don’t look sick”
— msanthropics (@Saulssister) January 28, 2013
“I like you. You talk to me. All the other doctors talk to my carer.” #heardwhilstdisabled
— John Grumble (@DrGrumble) January 28, 2013
“If I were you, I’d kill myself” (perfect stranger, me happily waiting to cross road in powerchair on way to work) #heardwhilstdisabled
— Spoonydoc (@Spoonydoc) January 28, 2013
I lost 30% of my retina to a rare disease a few years ago…I had just turned 35. Over the years my brain has learned to compensate but the first couple of years were hard as my brain started to figure out how to fill the holes. Being on the receiving end of some of the resulting comments while I struggled was pretty hard and as much as I didn’t show it on the outside it was hard to swallow. Some of what’s written above is truly upsetting and my hard, angry side would want to respond “I may be disabled but at least I’m intelligent ***hole.” But that’s not what I’d say of course….
If I overheard some of the comments above directed at someone else I’d find it a little harder to hold my tongue….
There are so many more, and the comments and replies to these tweets were also enlightening. I hope that this collection inspires second thoughts and compassion in others.
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You can’t come into town, in that wheelchair, to do your shopping on a Saturday, you get in the way and you have all week to shop. from a group of ladies in Leicester.
Some of the things in this list are ones I have trouble imagining anyone ever actually saying. Yours would be one of those. Wow.
It took me a while to read it properly because here I’ve always had the problem that I literally CAN’T go shopping on Saturday. You see, the buses go to the grocery on Sundays, and come back on Saturdays, but don’t go both directions on the same day except for weekdays. Unfortunately, they don’t go to the grocery in the evenings, so I would have to take time off work to go grocery shopping. Luckily, I have friends who will give me a ride, and lucky me, I’m not in a wheelchair and haven’t encountered mind-blind ladies like the ones you met.