Invisible Disability and its Impact on Students and Workers in the Workplace

Douha Shahin

Co-Presenters: Individual Presentation

College: College of Liberal Arts

Major: BA.SOCIOLOGY

Faculty Research Mentor: Lydia Kaplan

Abstract:

Invisible disabilities are a hidden medical condition that is not known for a lot of people until it is diagnosed. Many people who suffer from hidden disabilities tend to hide their conditions from others because of the fear of the stigma that might follow them, as well as the fear of being excluded if they ever revealed their conditions. To seek the knowledge about how healthy people look at people with invisible disabilities I conducted two different studies. Each one of them compared how people treated an individual with invisible disabilities. One of the studies looked at visible and not visible disability while the other one is completely hidden. Study 1 was about a social experiment that was done with a person who suffers from Cerebral Palsy as he was trying to see if people would help him find the public restroom or if they would ignore him. The same experiment was done in a different country with different hidden disabilities, but the result was different because everyone was willing to help him. For Study 2 a survey was sent to people seeking their knowledge about invisible disabilities. The survey contained qualitative and quantitative questions. The result of the study was that people have some knowledge about invisible disabilities. Also, these two studies showed how society reacts with people with visible and invisible disabilities differently.