Invisible Disabilities and Ableism: Recognizing Hidden Barriers in Society

Very often, when the AccessiWay team conducts training sessions for client companies, the topic of defining disability arises. This need comes from the fact that disability is a human condition, which makes it inherently complex—because people are all different, the environments they live in and navigate are different, and even more so, the people they interact with are different.

For this reason, it is not possible to define a "standard person with a disability." However, the culture around us and the media mainly portray the wheelchair as a symbol of disability. Yet, wheelchairs are used by only a portion of people with disabilities. This means that a significant percentage of individuals with disabilities are not represented in these images. If you were to meet them on the street, in a café, on a train, or at a pub, you would probably never guess they have a disability—because it is invisible.

What Is an Invisible Disability?

An invisible disability is a condition in which a person experiences physical, intellectual, or sensory impairments while interacting with an environment that presents different types of barriers. This is particularly relevant when their condition goes largely unnoticed.

Regular readers of our blog may recognize that this definition closely follows that of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). The key difference, however, is that sometimes a person’s physical or intellectual impairment may not be immediately visible to those who do not know them personally. This lack of recognition creates stigma, problems, and barriers—barriers that, in some cases, are very different from those faced by individuals with visibly identifiable disabilities, while in other cases, they add to the existing difficulties, significantly affecting the quality of life of people with invisible disabilities.

In reality, the paradox is that the majority of people with disabilities have invisible disabilities. This includes people with chronic illnesses, and highly common conditions such as multiple sclerosis, people with incontinence, intellectual disabilities, sensory disabilities, and many others. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of people with disabilities have an invisible disability—and this number is likely underestimated. One of the consequences of social stigma is that not everyone discloses their condition.

What Are the Stigmas Associated with Invisible Disabilities?

Below, we list some of the main challenges faced by people with invisible disabilities. However, we want to emphasize that this article does not aim to downplay the difficulties faced by those with visible disabilities, but rather to raise awareness about an issue that is still not widely understood.

The Downsides of Having an Invisible Disability

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🔹 Having to disclose personal details to access rights

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People with disabilities often have access to certain benefits, particularly those related to physical effort, such as skipping a queue or receiving discounts. However, individuals with invisible disabilities often hear:
“But you’re not disabled! You can’t use this benefit.”
To address this issue, the European Union is currently testing the Disability Card, but it is still in an experimental phase.

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🔹 Feelings of guilt and inadequacy

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Not being recognized as a person with a disability can lead to feelings of guilt and inadequacy, which may push individuals to hide their condition rather than embrace it as part of their identity.

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🔹 Prejudice

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All stereotypes and biases that affect people with disabilities also apply to those with invisible disabilities, but in a more subtle way. For example, there is the belief that people with disabilities perform poorly in the workplace.

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🔹 Additional stress

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Like those with visible disabilities, individuals with invisible disabilities face additional stress in many everyday situations. This includes physical and digital inaccessibility, insufficient information, and social stigma—all of which add mental and emotional strain to reaching even simple goals in daily life.

At the Core of the Problem: Ableism

If you’ve read through the challenges above, you may have noticed that many of these issues stem from how society treats people with invisible disabilities. We are not blaming individuals, but we highlight this because the root cause of stigma, guilt, additional stress, and similar issues comes from ableist attitudes.

Ableism is discrimination—whether direct or indirect—against people with disabilities based on their condition. It can manifest in two ways:

• Internalized ableism, where a person with a disability develops thoughts and behaviors that sabotage their well-being, feeling shame or guilt about their condition.
• External ableism, where people with disabilities are treated differently than others, often in a dismissive or exclusionary way.

We will explore this concept in more detail in future discussions, but we want to conclude this reflection on invisible disabilities with an important takeaway:

👉 Raising awareness and fostering understanding of ableism is crucial to ensuring that all people with disabilities—whether visible or invisible—can live a life free from discrimination, and ultimately, a better life.

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