Disability Awareness Days

(Local View from 4'2, Lake County Press, October 31, 2025)

Happy National Disability Employment Awareness Month! Happy Halloween! Happy belated Invisible Disability Awareness Week! Happy belated Disabled Women’s Equal Pay Day! I am sure I missed a few.

It is sad that in the year 2025 we still have to have awareness days, weeks, and months. Don’t get me wrong, I learn a lot when these special times roll around thanks to the tireless work of many people to create promotion campaigns to educate us all. I know in our human condition we cannot know all things at all times but I also know we can be open to hearing and learning about lived experiences that are similar and different than our own. In 2025, we have more access to information, education, and lived stories than any other generation.

But I digress, let’s jump into these two new to me awareness weeks and days. First, Invisible Disability Awareness Week is October 18-24, 2025. Invisible disabilities have a host of different labels such as hidden disabilities and non-visible disabilities. These include medical conditions that can not typically be “seen” in everyday life of people such as asthma, diabetes, chronic pain, autism, neurological disabilities and more. The goal of this week is to increase awareness and education while reducing stigma around these disabilities and conditions. The Invisible Disability Association has many resources on their website which includes information about wearing a sunflower lanyard to help others know you may need support in public spaces. The color blue is also used in their awareness campaign.

Next is Disabled Women’s Equal Pay Day on October 23rd. This day is celebrated on the date that symbolizes how far into the next year that a disabled woman must work to earn what a non-disabled man earned the previous year. Some statistics from 2023 say that disabled women earn fifty cents to the dollar when compared to non-disabled men and seventy-two cents to the dollar when compared to disabled men. Disabled women of color typically earn even less than this. Allaina Humphreys shared that this is still commonplace in our society because the hiring practices, pay scales, and workplace inclusion are still created in discrimination, ableism, and sexism. This system struggles to see disabled professionals as equals because they need accommodations to thrive.

Allaina also shared some action steps that employers, advocates, and policymakers can and should make. Audit your pay structures. Make accommodations the norm, not the exception. Value disabled women’s labor the way you value anyone else's.

Last week, I had the privilege of traveling the region for some advocacy work. I was excited to see a new building with a cornerstone of 2024. It is a beautiful new building with nice accessible and van friendly parking spaces. It also has a nice cement ramp that leads to the main door. However, when I got to the top of the ramp I saw a sticker on the door that tells everyone that there is a power button…somewhere. I was very careful to turn around a few times as the ramp ended at the top of the stairs. On my second circle tour, I found the power door button. It was perched on the side of the wall that held the railing to the stairs, hidden from ramp users, and in my opinion unusable by people using scooters, power wheelchairs, or needing full access around the button. Once I depressed the button the door started to open right at me which I quickly scooted around before it pushed me back down the ramp or worse, down the stairs.

Once inside, I could wheel to the restrooms as they only had stall doors. The family restroom was nice but the tension on the door made it very heavy and hard to use. The doors leading to the places of business, offices, and the conference room had no power door buttons. It is very sad and infuriating that in 2024 and 2025 we have new buildings built that just get disabled people in the door but no forethought of how we can successfully and safely function in these new spaces. All I can say today about this is: “Nothing for us, without us.” and “You should have had a V8!”