Not all disabilities are Visible.

In 2009 after a whole childhood of struggling with my sight I was diagnosed with nystagmus. For many years I believed that I was not has gifted or clever as my classmates. I could not understand why I struggled to do the simple things in life. I would ask to sit at the front of the classroom but I would still struggle to see the board. What I realised a few years later is that it was because of my eye condition which is an involuntary movement of the eye, concentrating on the board especially when it is cluttered with a lot of things was always going to be difficult for me. This created a lot of difficult for which was translated by some teachers as been slow. My handwritings is one of the worst handwritings that you will ever see, I was told by a doctor that the movement of the eyes makes my hands to be unstable hence the terrible hand writing. It takes me a long time to read anything and every time I got to read anything in class there was always people in hysterics because of how slow I was.

What’s the point of me posting this? I believe that as a society we have come a long way when it comes to dealing with disabilities in the work place and in schools. I however believe that the people with disabilities that are not visible are being left behind and are not getting the same support as people with visible disabilities. I was made to feel like was not as good as the other students. I feel that schools do not really look like into every student individually to see what is really wrong. My boss ordered a very big computer monitor, I have always said I am very bad at IT but what i did not realises is that I was not as bad as  I thought, the problem was that I could not see the screen very well. This told me that my school life could have been a lot easier if people did not just assume that I was not as good as my fellow students.

I have a very bad feeling that this happens to a lot of other people with varying invisible disabilities. I believe that employers and schools should look in ways that thy can tackle these hidden disabilities. I have achieved so much success in my working life once I realised that I could work round my disability. I am currently enjoying working for the National Health Service. It has not cost the organisation a lot of money to have me on. All it took was a little adjustments and I was able to do the job to the required standard. My Disability has not gone away but I am enjoying life because I have discovered the way round my disability. A few months ago my disability was hindering me but now it is not because every day I am looking at finding solutions to all the difficulties I face.  12400572_1010732775650412_6462806525602093407_n

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