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When Amanda* sat down for her interview, the first thing she asked was if her name could remain anonymous. She had not told her co-workers or the other graduate students in her department that she has an invisible disability. Amanda wanted to tell a faculty member whom she worked with closely that she was extremely tired from a combination of her medication’s side effects and poor sleep, but she worried that it might interfere with their work relationship. In fact, Amanda has severe joint pain and suffers from mental illness, which is why she is unable to do repetitive tasks for long hours.

“I was concerned that my disabilities might color [my] relationship [with my colleague] in a bad way — that they might influence our work together or that she might refuse to work with me at all,” Amanda said.

“Invisible” disabilities are those that are not immediately apparent, such as mental disabilities, chronic pain, chemical sensitivity, dietary needs and even ailments as common as asthma and diabetes. To an outsider, it may not be clear why a friend prefers to take the elevator instead of the stairs, why he has extra test time, or why she prefers to take afternoon classes.

“Out of our approximately 850 students with disabilities registered with our office, approximately 80 percent of those students have an invisible disability to include invisible health conditions, psychological

conditions, learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD),” said Dyane Haynes, director of Disability Resources for Students.

For the most part, many students with invisible disabilities don’t have recognizable symptoms. The decision to disclose their condition is a personal one. But in order to receive accommodations, students such as Laura Pattison, a senior studying psychology and diversity, must first present the

university with a doctor’s note.

Pattison has a history of anxiety and panic attacks, which make it difficult for her to wake up early. Her panic attacks also make it difficult for her to take a test in a room with others.

“I felt trapped like I didn’t have the ability to leave the room to calm down; I wasn’t able to focus. I had studied and worked really hard, but it was like nothing on the page was making sense to me,” Pattison said. “I haven’t tried getting accommodations because I don’t see a psychologist or a psychiatrist. My fatigue disorder is undiagnosed so I don’t know how I would ask a doctor for it, or if

they would even believe it.”

As a result of not getting accommodations prior to the exam, Pattison is unable to retake or appeal her bad test grades. But for her it was a matter of privacy.

“[My conditions] might be bad for a couple months and then go away for awhile. It comes and goes. But if you have the accommodations then you still have to tell the professor, and even if nothing happens, they still know about it,” Pattinson said. “I think also [by telling them] they would be more wary of you.”

Joanne Woiak, a lecturer for the Disability Studies program said that “many of those students will disclose it to us, and it may not be because they need an accommodation but because they are

thinking of their own identity.”

The social stigma makes it harder to speak up, Woiak said, but while people with invisible disabilities are hesitant to share this information, others see it as a part of their identity.

“I haven’t told most of my fellow grad students for a variety of reasons — [partly because of a] fear of stigmatization, particularly for the mental disability. … [It’s about] maintaining good professional relationships,”

Amanda said. “For the faculty and staff in my department, it’s just not something that I feel needs to come up in a professional context — I don’t want anyone judging my competence as a result of my disabilities.”

It can be easy for people to mistake someone’s impairment for something else. For instance, Amanda recalls being judged

as lazy for taking the elevator. People might also assume that students are in a “bad mood” when they are in fact depressed or have anxiety, Pattinson said.

“Especially in the case of mental illness, you hear a lot of comments, people making a joke like ‘our professor is schizophrenic; he says one thing and means another.’ [But] if you are schizophrenic, that really hurts,” Amanda said.

Ann Luetzow has worked closely with autistic children and wants to be a disability-rights activist after graduating with a major in disability studies.

“Disabilities isn’t something that people talk about because it’s something that people fear. There’s still a lot of stigma attached,” Luetzow said. “That word is so loaded.”

But impairments are different from disabilities. An impairment means having some functional limitation or bodily difference, like a missing arm or the inability to walk long distances. A disability is defined as the interaction between the body, person and environment.

“You might have an impairment that you can’t walk up stairs, but the disability is that there is no ramp,” Woaik said. “Society has an assumption that having an impairment is a bad thing, but the disability-rights community would say that impairment is not the problem. Social attitudes, barriers and the lack of rights are the real problem.”

Adapting these social attitudes means developing an accommodating campus by using Universal Design (UD). UD is when buildings, classrooms and learning materials are made for the widest range of people, explained Woaik.

Having an elevator close to the door means that someone carrying bags of groceries can use it as

well as a person who has difficulty climbing stairs. The idea is that when UD is applied, students

with disabilities won’t have to request specific accommodations — the classroom and the materials will be set from the start.

The Disability Resources for Students (DRS) office helps monitor these accommodations. It assesses and determines each case individually. DRS most commonly works with disability students to transcribe

printed materials into an alternative format such as videos with captions, in addition to posting class notes on course websites. This way someone with dyslexia or reduced vision has other ways to access the material. Room locations, furniture changes and sign-language interpreters also fall under their

responsibility.

“Awareness is the first part,” Amanda said. “I think if people are aware of the issue and aware that these are people with real disabilities then social change is possible.”

* Indicates that name has been changed.

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