A decade of disability awareness: Invisible Disability Association marks anniversary
Global News
The Invisible Disability Association marked the third week in October as Invisible Disability Awareness week.
The Invisible Disability Association marked the third week in October as Invisible Disability Awareness week and this is the 10th anniversary.
This year Invisible Disability Awareness Week is Oct. 15th to 21st.
An invisible disability is a condition that affects your day-to-day life that isn’t outwardly obvious.
Some examples include diabetes, MS, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), epilepsy, depression, autism, etc.
Kyrie Herman and Candence Herman run the Invisible Illness Alberta social media accounts and share their stories of living with invisible illnesses such as EDS, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), etc.
“I share our journey, living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and multiple other like disorders for a few reasons,” said Kyrie. “First started as I would end up in the hospital a lot (and) it was easier for us to just post something instead of my husband having to have multiple text conversations.”
“(Then) we really started sharing it more for awareness because our illness is invisible for the most part. And when people see us out in the community, they see us as healthy people. But it’s not like that all the time,” said Kyrie. “And when we were first diagnosed, it felt like we were the only ones. And we had nobody, and we had no community. We just wanted to be heard. We wanted to be understood. We wanted to be believed.”
Candence, a Stollery Mighty Millions Lottery kid, says their social media presence has helped people find their correct diagnoses.
