Legal Protection
Those with invisible disabilities are protected by national and local disability laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 has been amended several times such that the definition of “handicapped” includes the statement, “any person who... (C) is regarded as having such an impairment” .
This particular defining point of “handicapped” puts the assessment of impairment in the hands of observers who may or may not regard others as having an impairment. For people with disabilities, invisible or not, this creates a space for discriminatory practices which stem from the observer’s perception of who is disabled and who is not.
Read more about this topic: Invisible Disability
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