Michelle BirkbyNov 30, 2022
Well, I’ve written my invisible disability article. Let’s see how long it is before the ‘you can’t be that tired’ or ‘you don’t look disabled’ or my favourite ‘you’re not disabled, it’s just a state of mind, it’s not like you’re in a wheelchair’ (all said with faux cheerfulness) start coming back.
Unfortunately they are not dealing with meek and shy twenty year old me, but post disability me, who has learned to stand up for myself and will snap back with ‘you don’t get to decide how disabled I am!’ And various swear words.
Show threadSueNov 30, 2022

@michellebirkby
Well said Michelle. I have a progressive disability that fluctuates from day to day, hour to hour. People who know me understand that some days I can walk a few steps and other days I must use my powered wheelchair.
People who don’t know me sometimes look at me with a sceptical look. Do I care not anymore!

Like people disability comes in all shapes and sizes. We should respect the diversity

LaylaNov 30, 2022
Show threadMichelle Birkby
@SueASmith oh yes! It’s a point I made in my article. Yes, some days I can run a 5k - but some days I can’t even get out of bed. They don’t understand that there is not one setting - we can be so different on different days. When I say ‘I can’t do that, I’m too tired’ and they say ‘but you were bouncing with energy yesterday’ ….
Nov 30, 2022 at 11:29amWeb