What happens when you don’t “look” disabled? CTV Your Morning interview

“Whether you have the same diagnosis or not, so many people go through the same experience that you can then bond over.” 🤍

Such a joy to chat with Teddy Wilson last week on Jul 22 on CTV Your Morning, about the fear of sharing invisible disabilities and the community I found when I started talking about my own.

27% of Canadians identify as having a disability. This Disability Pride Month, may we all see more of the representation we need to realize that we’re not alone in our experiences after all. 🫶🏽✨💃🏽

Thanks to my publicist Dan Shaikh and the amazing CTV Your Morning team for bringing more awareness to this story! You can watch the interview here🙏🏽

Later that evening on the day of my interview, I was at an event and someone mentioned to me that they don’t think they have a story themselves, compared to someone like me who has an “adversity.”

And I told them that until I started talking about my muscle disability (because I saw other Speaker Slam speakers talking about their disabilities), I didn’t think I had a story either. That my mom spent 30+ years telling me I should “share my story,” and I was like “what are you talking about, I don’t have a story, this is just my regular life, nobody is going to care.”

I didn’t realize there were people like me who would care, because they can relate to my journey. I didn’t think about the impact it would have made on me to see myself reflected in someone else’s experience while they talk about it openly.

I never thought I’d one day be part of the representation I didn’t realize I needed, but I’m so, so glad to have that chance. And I hope other people who see my story realize that by sharing whatever they’re living through, that they can be someone’s representation too 🙏🏽💞✨

Catch me on CTV Your Morning on Tues Jul 22!

Have you ever said “you don’t look disabled” or “I don’t even think of you as having a disability”? Phrases like that can be well-intentioned, but they aren’t actually the compliments some people think they are.

Excited to be on CTV Your Morning on Tues Jul 22 to talk about Disability Pride Month from the perspective of someone living with an invisible disability!

Disability Pride Month is a time to normalize discussions around disability and listen to how people feel about and live with their own, so I love seeing more recognition of it in July. 💃🏽💞✨

Building Inclusion Through Empathy - Canadian SME Small Business Magazine

A 2017 “Disabilities & Inclusion” study by Coqual showed that of the 30% of the professional workforce with a disability, only 39% had disclosed to their manager, 34% to their teams, and 31% to HR. 

That same study also found that employees who disclosed their disabilities to most people they interacted with, were over TWICE as likely to feel regularly happy or content at work, compared to those who disclosed to no one.

After hiding my muscle disability at my nonprofit arts/events job from everyone but my director and one other colleague for 10+ years, I can definitely speak to how freeing it felt to be my whole self, once I started speaking about my lived experience with an invisible physical disability!

So happy to share my thoughts with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine on Building Inclusion Through Empathy, to create workplaces where people feel safe to disclose the barriers they’re facing.

You can read the full article linked here 🫶🏽💃🏽✨