12/04/2025
More than one billion people around the world live with a meaningful disability today. Every story is different. Every experience is real. And every person deserves to be seen, heard, and respected.
Disabilities take many forms. Some are visible. Some are non visible. Many people experience both.
You may see a wheelchair, a cane, or a walker and instantly recognize a visible disability.
But you may also meet someone whose disability cannot be seen at all.
Their pain, their limitations, their overwhelm, their exhaustion are carried quietly inside.
Non visible disabilities can shape a person’s life just as much as visible ones.
Some people need mobility aids every day.
Some need them only on certain days depending on symptoms.
Some live with what is known as a dynamic disability, where their needs and abilities change from day to day, or even hour to hour.
“Just because my disability and needs vary from day to day, or even on the same day, it does not invalidate my disabled experience.”
~ Brianne Benness, who introduced the term dynamically disabled.
Some disabilities are easy to see.
A wheelchair. A cane. A medical device.
A limb difference. A walker.
And some disabilities live beneath the surface.
Autism. ADHD. Sensory processing struggles.
Chronic illness. Trauma. Mental health challenges.
Kids and adults who “look fine” on the outside but are fighting quiet battles every single day.
But whether a disability is visible or unseen, one truth remains constant.
Every person deserves access.
Every person deserves patience.
Every person deserves understanding.
Every person deserves respect.
You do not need to fully understand someone’s challenges to treat them with kindness.
In fact, that is often when kindness matters the most.
No one understands the needs of persons with disabilities better than they do themselves.
A truly inclusive world is built by listening to them, learning from them, and making sure they have a seat at every table where decisions are made.
On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we honor strength in all its forms.
We honor the seen and the unseen.
We honor every person who continues to move through a world that isn’t always built for them, and yet they move forward anyway.
May we choose compassion.
May we choose awareness.
May we choose accessibility.
And may we choose a world where everyone feels welcome.