National Disability Awareness Week
Tomorrow marks the start of National Disability Awareness Week (November 29 – December 5, 2020). The National Resource Center for Inclusive Education (NaRCIE) led the initiative and chose the theme, Not All Disabilities Are Visible. Many organizations have worked together to organize virtual events to help educate and build awareness for all disabilities.
Not All Disabilities Are Visible
The theme is especially important for Autism Belize. Autism is complicated. Ha! That’s an understatement. It’s extremely complicated. So unless you are working with people on the spectrum or you are living it, it is really hard to understand. It’s hard to diagnose. It’s hard to explain. It’s hard to figure out what are the right ways to help. And if you don’t know too much about autism, then you probably wouldn’t be able to identify someone on the spectrum by sight.
But beyond the fact that autism isn’t ‘visible’ like some other disabilities, I feel for so many reasons, autistics and their families are invisible in Belize too. Since launching Autism Belize in April of this year, I’ve listened to so many stories of special needs families, stories, that frankly bring me to tears.
Feeling Invisible / Being Invisible
I’ve heard from parents who keep their young adult sons and daughters at home every day (even before COVID) because they have nowhere to take them. I’ve heard from autism parents who haven’t shared their child’s diagnosis with their extended family for fear of the stigma. Many, many families feel so isolated.
These families are struggling. They are trying to understand their child/young adult, but lack information and support. They’ve learned not to reach out because others might judge them. They’ve all gotten looks from strangers – you know that look. The look that says, “What’s wrong with him?” Many of these families’ lives were work and home, again even before COVID. There were no parties for these families. There were no after school activities and sporting events. There were no ‘hanging’ with friends or play dates. Honestly, they’ve been living their own version of a COVID world long before we had ever heard about Corona/COVID-19.
I saw a meme this week on social media that said, “It takes a village to raise a child. Well, where is my village?” And OMG that stuck with me. As a country, we do try to help each other. Just look at the past couple weeks with the flood victims. We have all been donating and cleaning out our closets to help our fellow Belizeans. I’ve seen some heart warming pictures on Facebook of volunteers helping families, people paddling others out to dry areas , wonderful little acts of kindness that show our love for country and our people.
Please try to see us
For National Disability Awareness Week, all I’m asking everyone is to continue showing that love and support for people who might have been invisible to you before, to those who have been struggling and ignored. Please, try to make time this week to participate in some of these virtual activities. Honestly, we are opening up our world to you and inviting you to come and ‘see’ us, learn more about us…
