Question
What is an invisible disability?
Answer
Invisible disabilities are disabilities that are hidden, and oftentimes not subject to implicit bias until after discovery. Examples of invisible disabilities include someone who has autism, someone who has a diagnosis of dyslexia, a patient with chronic pain, or patients who have psychiatric disabilities. These examples are not all inclusive. In fact, we can probably all speak of instances where we have encountered a patient or a client who has an invisible disability, or a disability that does present itself visibly.
For the most part these are conditions where a patient’s disability is not very apparent or automatically seen, but through interactions with that particular patient, you uncover that they have a disability.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Health Care: It's Not Just Black and White - Disabilities, presented by Susan Holmes-Walker, PhD, RN
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