Voices Unheard: The Silence Surrounding Disability

"As someone with a physical, and mental disability, someone who experiences disability first hand, barriers around attitude, communication and discrimination are the fallout and not the disability. Society still gets disability wrong, because it simply chooses to focus on the cognitive challenges individuals face, rather than the extensive mental barriers that limit our potential. My writing may belie a different story, because in my head my thoughts are free flow, but in every day life, my cognitive struggles are very much evident – they walk into a room before I do.

But the real challenges around disability, come from perceptions and attitudes mostly. My disability has never been talked about, or discussed, brushed under the carpet, I've been on my own coping with the mental and emotional side of my disability for years. The mental and emotional side to disability is mostly excluded. As a result, there is little awareness from others of how our disabilities may affect us, how we're able to blend, interact – or what we’re mentally or emotionally even capable of. One size does not fit all. Rigid social norms add to our struggles. Patience and tolerance are in short supply around what we get to deal with; our cognitive challenges. Too often, many of us are still expected to keep up and are spoken at rather than listened to, making inclusion feel like a continual uphill battle.

But it’s not the disability that limits our potential, because in ourselves we know our worth. It's the failure of society to recognise our value and the fact that we deal with difference – a failure to adapt to our needs and to remember we are mentally and emotionally disabled – this is particularly true for those with a mild disability. But true progress has a chance to thrive, when society stops viewing us as personal deficits and starts addressing us as individuals that just happen to deal with a disability.

This attitude shift can change if enough people choose to change it. Disability shouldn't be seen as a limitation, but a call to action – to understand. In 2025, those with a disability are still playing catch up. All we're looking for is acceptance and to be accepted. With stigma, it is still lacking, but needs to happen if disabled people are to be included in the heart of society."

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