Hidden impairment interviews for UKDHM 2021

Interviews with Katy Farrell on epilepsy, Yasmin Omar on being a teacher with MS, visually impaired barrister Christina Warner and Emma Charters on dyslexia.

Katy Farrell

ReCognition is an organisation to build the stability of people with hidden disabilities and their lives, to raise awareness about them and to build confidence about how they are dealt with in society. Hiding away from any disability, invisible or not, only creates more discrimination which never helps our society to encourage all people to ask those awkward questions about all health issues, permanent or not. Where and how you define what an invisible disability or a visible disability is is a very complicated and difficult debate, especially with something like diabetes, especially Type 1, epilepsy or neurological conditions like MS, all with a wide range of symptoms, including collapses and seizures. Are you an invisible person with a disability until you are actually experiencing a hypo or a seizure and which type of seizure are you going through at that moment? Is a person with hearing or visual impairment an invisible person with a disability until others notice the care they need? We need to encourage people everywhere, most especially in schools, since education is fundamental to improvement,  and offices,  theatres, pubs and cafes to make a person with an impairment  feel welcome  so that they are able to have a relaxing, enjoyable life and not constantly to have to explain themselves openly about some of their most personal issues.

Yasmin Omar

Christina Warner

Emma Charters