The Invisible World

I was lying in the hospital ward holding my precious son. For a number of days Lloyd and I had been trying to come to terms with the fact that our son had a “syndrome” and he may become “disabled” or “delayed”. As I lay there that Friday evening, trying to watch television so that I could feel like my life was not that abnormal, I realised something. All the adverts, all the people portrayed in the media are what we would term “able-bodied”. I contemplated the impact it would have if a nappy ad included a child with Down Syndrome, or if a beer ad featured a man with one leg. What if a banking ad had someone who was blind with a guide dog or a chocolate ad starred a person with cerebral palsy. There are so many people who are affected by disabilities in our world, yet they are part of the invisible world. These invisible people are ignored by media and much of society. And looking down at my beautiful boy I marvelled at the richness and depth of his life, but to so many he will be invisible.