Community
28 February, 2025
Making the hidden visible
RESIDENTS are being encouraged to learn more about an initative which has been spreading across Australia promoting inclusion and raising awareness.
All Abilities Advocacy project worker Juli-Anne Grauer is hoping to raise awareness about Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyards, which can help those with a hidden disability – a non-visible disability which can still impact on a person’s life – access support and get assistance with their needs.
Hidden disabilities can range from chronic conditions such as both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and asthma, to neurodevelopmental disabilities such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Ms Grauer said the initiative began in the United Kingdom in 2016 and was planned to launch in Australia in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic reduced exposure when travel was shut down.
“It’s so you can recognise a person has a hidden disability, which could be anything – it could be a heart problem, it could be an intellectual disability, cancer, it could be they don’t have a bowel – so you know they might need more time, or you need to be a bit more patient with them,” she said.
“They have the right to use a disabled toilet – my friend has no bowel, she has a bag, and needs more room in the toilets but when people see her going into a disabled toilet, they immediately get their back up.
“It’s recognising that people can have lots of disabilities that can mean maybe they can’t walk very far, and they need a bit more time to process things or to answer or to look for things.
“It’s all about recognising that it’s not just people with walking sticks, crutches and in wheelchairs who need extra assistance. In Australia, it started at airports – V/Line actually give out lanyards for free, which is really good.”
All Abilities Advocacy leadership team member Becky Biddle, who lives with hidden disabilities, said the lanyards would go a long way to reducing stigma around hidden disabilities.
“It’s very important to have it so people will know people like myself have a disability – a lot of people don’t realise I have a disability and they tend to judge me and say stuff about me,” she said.
“It’s about building an awareness around hidden disability because you can’t see it.
“The lanyards are a fantastic ideas.
“Having the lanyard says, ‘I’m not being rude – this is how I cope’.”
Ms Grauer said the lanyards were another way of supporting those with additional needs, similar to the quiet shopping hours in some supermarkets and the quiet carriages on trains.
“It’s becoming, hopefully, an Australia-wide thing – we just want to get the message out to people that this is what it means,” she said.
“The sunflower lanyards mean that person may need some extra help – be patient is the main message.
“If you see someone with a lanyard, just go up and ask if they need any assistance with anything.
“We’re trying to get the message out there so people know what it means.”
To learn more about the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyards, visit hdsunflower.com/au.
Read More: local