Visualizing the Invisible

We understand how we exist in the world relative to the people around us... but what happens when we can't see what's around us at all?

Throughout history, disabled individuals in visual media were (and still are) viewed as subjects of pity, delight, inspiration, awe, and fascination. In becoming visually conspicuous, the viewer registers the disabled individual as different and therefore harboring "otherness" or posing as a disruption within a social order. Disability, however, extends beyond visual assumption to what we now know as "invisible disability" or "ID." ID is categorized as "one that is hidden so as not to be immediately noticed by an observer except under unusual circumstances or by disclosure." Such disabilities include, but are not limited to, depression, anxiety, ADHD, chronic pain, sleep disorders, and dyslexia and are commonly referred to as "mental disabilities."

While symptoms of these disabilities do take visual, physical form in the way of outward behaviors, stigma surrounding mental health continue to affect not only treatment, but public and personal understanding as well. According to the University of Washington Invisible Disabilities Commission (also known as DO-IT or Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) dedicated to addressing accommodation issues in postsecondary education, "Many students on postsecondary campuses have disabilities that are not easily noticed...Sometimes, students with invisible disabilities are perceived as lacking in intelligence, or as not paying attention."

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Sources:

Invisible Disabilities and Postsecondary Education | DO-IT. (2012). DO-IT. https://www.washington.edu/doit/invisible-disabilities-and-postsecondary-education

Mirzoeff, N. (2016). How to See the World: An Introduction to Images, from Self-Portraits to Selfies, Maps to Movies, and More (Illustrated ed.). Basic Books.

Sturken, M. (2022). Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture by Marita Sturken Lisa Cartwright 2 edition (Textbook ONLY, Paperback ). Oxford University Press.