As someone who has multiple non-apparent disabilities, living and working in Residence Halls and on a college campus has many challenges. The students and staff that we work with often may have a non-apparent disability (or disabilities) that affects them every day that we don’t know about. Here is some of my advice as someone who lives with a non-apparent disability to combat perpetuating ableism towards people with non-apparent disabilities.
Be mindful of your language choice
You may have heard the term visible vs invisible disabilities rather than apparent vs non-apparent disabilities. I myself used to say “invisible disabilities” instead of non-apparent disabilities, but as we know, language does matter and can have unforeseen impacts. If you describe someone’s disability as invisible, the impact you could have is making it feel like that person is intentionally trying to hide their disability from others. Additionally, calling a disability invisible can belittle the actual impact of the disability as if just because it is “invisible” it is less than a visible disability and therefore not as important of an identity.
Another language choice to be mindful of is person-first language vs identity-first language. Some people in the disability community actually prefer to say that they are a disabled person rather than a person with a disability because being disabled is something so salient to them that they can’t separate it from their personhood.
Call out problematic behavior in other people
The number of times I hear in a Residence Hall, “you can’t take the elevator unless you live on the 4th floor and above,” is quite frankly despicable. There are often unspoken – and spoken – rules that are ableist, like shaming people who use an elevator rather than stairs. This is a great time to call someone out for their behavior and explain to them why everyone has a right to use an elevator – despite the floor they live on.
Make meetings more inclusive
An easy way to make your in-person meetings more inclusive for people with non-apparent disabilities is to always use a microphone at meetings and use closed captions when possible. There are tools that can actively close caption your meeting as people are actively speaking so people who are not able to hear as well can still read along. When possible, transition meetings to be virtual when possible so anyone who has a non-apparent disability, like chronic illnesses or autoimmune diseases, feel more comfortable engaging.
Make food at events more accessible
One of my absolute least favorite things is when the gluten free option at an event is literally nothing at all like the other food at the event (aka a granola bar for gluten free folks, but the event is a pizza party). If you are having an event centered around food, then your option for anyone with a dietary restriction should be the same food. Otherwise, it is incredibly alienating as someone with a dietary restriction to not be able to eat something at an event whose main focus is food. This also goes for bringing food to a staff meeting, don’t bring a granola bar to a donut bar (can you tell I am slightly over eating granola bars? The other random food I get sick of is gluten free oreos, I love them the first time but please I cannot have them every staff meeting). Bonus points if you keep the dietary restriction options separate from the other food to eliminate cross contamination and keep the food safe from allergens!
Another thing to do to make food more accessible at events is to leave food labels on the food items or create your own food labels if they don’t come with one. This helps to make it really clear what people can or cannot eat if they do want to participate! It also can alleviate stress for someone with an allergy to see the exact ingredients in the food so they can determine if they are comfortable eating something or not (for example, some people with nut allergies are comfortable eating something that says “maybe contain nuts” while others are not!).
Finally, if you are hosting an event with a buffet, please, PLEASE, let people with dietary restrictions get food first. As someone with celiac, it is incredibly unsafe for me to go through a buffet line after 100 other people (even 1 can be too many!) because of the risk for cross contamination. I hate to see a buffet coming, and even worse if a buffet that has no food labels after a kajillion people went through it (if anyone reading this is in charge of conference buffets, I am begging you to label the food and please let those with dietary restrictions go through the line before you start dismissing tables at random).
Host events for students at different times of the day
Some students may have non-apparent disabilities that flare up by the end of the day because of everything else they have done the rest of the day. Maybe they are neurodivergent and are out of “spoons” (google spoon theory for more info!) or maybe they have chronic pain and being active all day means they need to rest at night. Whatever the reason, it may be a good idea to have events at different times throughout the day to include students or staff who have a hard time coming to events at night.
Mind your business and give grace as much as you can
Giving grace and minding your business is free. This is one of the easiest things you can do to support people with non-apparent disabilities (unless you are actively calling out ableist behavior). Please do not make fun of people for doing what they need to do to survive. One example for me personally? If it isn’t announced that people with dietary restrictions should get food at a buffet first – then I just will get my food first. It’s for my own safety and wellbeing!
Ask for feedback and actually listen to the feedback!
Please please please, I beg you, if students or staff take the time to give you feedback about how to make an event more inclusive, listen to them. They likely have been living with their non-apparent disability for a while and know what they need, so if they take the time and energy to provide you with the information, please use it to make a better experience for students! For example, I had a student come up to me and ask if it would be possible to designate one of the washers to be fragrance free because one of her friends was allergic to fragrances and was paying to run an empty machine before paying to wash their clothes in it. Immediately, I put signage up on one machine to designate the machine to be fragrance free to support this one resident and potentially more residents as well! This was an easy thing for me to do, but I may never have known to do so if students did not take the time to provide feedback.
While this is a good starter list for supporting students and staff with non-apparent disabilities, it is not completely comprehensive and there are likely MANY other things you can do to make your Hall and team more inclusive. You may be doing these things already too! I want to encourage you to continue to grow, research, and learn how to best support those with non-apparent disabilities.
Positionality Statement: I am diagnosed with celiac disease and have undiagnosed ADHD – two non-apparent disabilities. While I have experience with non-apparent disabilities, I cannot speak on behalf of the entire disability community because my experiences are my own.
