Invisible disabilities are conditions that affect a person’s everyday function and can make performing simple daily tasks difficult, just like visible disabilities. Unfortunately, those who suffer from the invisible variety of conditions can face a large amount of unwarranted criticism, just because they don’t “look” disabled.
Many war veterans have disabilities of all kinds, and one such man is this one from Texas. After using the handicapped parking lot in his apartment, he came back to his car to find that a neighbor had stuck an angry note onto its window.
The letter called him a jerk and said he shouldn’t park there because he doesn’t have a handicapped sticker on his car, and that he doesn’t look disabled. The neighbor even said that he took a picture of his license plate and sent it to the police.
The veteran took the time to type out a letter in response, and he photocopied the angry note, tacked his letter onto it, and reposted it for the angry neighbor to see. In his response, the veteran said that his license plate clearly stated that he was a disabled army veteran and that in Texas, he is not required to have a handicap sticker on top of that – something the neighbor could have easily looked up before posting the letter!
He also wrote explaining that not all disabilities are visible and he experiences pain in his lower body when walking while questioning what exactly the neighbor thought a disabled person looks like since there’s no one appearance they all share.
This calm response to the horrible passive-aggressive note is just plain awesome! It sucks that the veteran even had to defend himself, but his response is just pure gold.
