Impactful Inclusion Toolkit

ACTIVITY 18Look Beyond Appearances

“We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion.”

—Max De Pree

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Appearances can be deceiving as we tend to make decisions and judgments based on very limited information. Visual observations provide only surface details, often by design. Men may wear caps to cover baldness; women may wear high heels to appear taller. When we notice someone pulling into an accessible parking space, hopping out, and running into the store, seemingly obvious that they are not disabled, we judge them for it. We conclude that they are lazy or inconsiderate, and we may even become angry that they have robbed the spot from someone who actually needs it. Our reaction may be to just shake our heads in disbelief and continue about our business, or our sense of morals may compel us to throw them a disapproving look or even say something to let them know that they have been caught. We want them to know that they are not “pulling the wool over our eyes!”

Not all disabilities are visible. According to Accessibility.com, about 25 percent of adults in the United States have a disability, and most invisible disability metrics in the United States say that the number could be as high as 20 percent or more for Americans with an invisible disability. That said, there is a high likelihood ...