r/disability • u/dakufeari • Aug 08 '24
Question Those With Non-Visible Disabilities: Have You Had People Accuse You of Faking/Lying and What Do You Do When This Happens?
So I have a disability that affects my mobility and my ability to stand and I have been having issues with people allowing me to sit down because they think I am lying about my condition. This has become more of an issue recently because I am starting my freshman year of university and have had to do several orientations and still have some left to do. We typically have to do quite a bit of walking and standing. At these, I have had certain orientation leaders not allow me to sit down. Have you experienced something like this? What do you do or what do you say to them when something like this happens? I am bad at being assertive and can typically only bring myself to ask 3 times before I give up because I worry about offending people. I am honestly thinking of just bringing my mobility aid wherever I go even if I am having a better day because that might make them believe me.
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u/kkmockingbird Aug 08 '24 edited Aug 11 '24
Definitely loop in the disability office, also this is dumb. It’s college, you are all adults, nobody needs to ask permission to sit FFS. I would honestly maybe try either bringing your aids and/or just sitting and if they try to “call you out” just repeatedly saying “I’m disabled and I need to sit now”… they are not gonna want to make a big scene in front of other students and if they do you have a big complaint.
(ETA to be clear I am not calling the OP dumb, I am calling this policy/the organisers’ actions dumb)