Not all disabilities are visible

Sunflower lanyards are discrete way to indicate you may need more support, understanding or time.

What is the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower?

The Sunflower is a globally recognised symbol for non-visible disabilities (also known as hidden disabilities or invisible disabilities). It has one simple purpose – choose to wear a Sunflower lanyard, badge or wristband, when it suits you, to let people around you know that you, or someone with you, has a non-visible disability and may need a helping hand, understanding, or just more time.

Just because you can’t see them, doesn’t mean they’re not there.

Not all disabilities are visible – some are not immediately obvious. They include autism, chronic pain, and learning difficulties as well as mental health conditions, mobility, speech impairments, and sensory loss such as speech, sight loss, hearing loss, or deafness. They also include respiratory conditions as well as chronic conditions such as diabetes, chronic pain, and sleep disorders. Although you may not be able to see these invisible impairments and conditions, they’re still there.

People living with these disabilities often face barriers in their daily lives including a lack of understanding and negative attitudes. So some individuals choose to wear the Sunflower to discreetly identify that they may have access needs in shops, at work, on transport, or in public spaces.

Making the invisible visible.

The Sunflower is for People Of Determination

The Sunflower lanyard

The Sunflower is here every day of the year to support People Of Determination in their communities by raising awareness, training businesses and organisations and sharing stories to help create a more inclusive, understanding society for people with non-visible disabilities.

Since its launch in 2016, the Sunflower has become a globally-recognised symbol for hidden disabilities and helps organisations expand their equality, diversity and inclusion objectives to include non-visible disabilities for both colleagues and customers. Organisations from every sector have been joining the global Sunflower network – ranging from retail, travel and tourism, universities, schools and colleges, healthcare, central and local government agencies to premiership football teams, theatres and financial institutions.

a person in black t-shirt showing sunflower lanyard with the card

Invisible disabilities

A non-visible disability is a disability that may not be immediately obvious.

Globally 1 in 7 of us live with a disability. And of those, 80% are invisible. That is 1 billion people who are living with a non-visible disability.

While some of us experience a disability that is visible, many of us have a non-visible impairment or condition. These non-visible disabilities (also known as invisible or hidden disabilities) are not immediately obvious. They can be physical, mental or neurological and include, but are not limited to, autism and ADHD, cognitive impairments such as learning difficulties and dementia, as well as mental health conditions and speech, visual impairments or hearing loss. They also include respiratory and chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, chronic pain and sleep disorders.

And often, many people experience a combination of both visible and non-visible impairments and conditions.

Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean that it is not there.

We believe that the more we all understand about non-visible disabilities, the more we can help to improve the lives of people experiencing them. So to raise awareness of the wide range of non-visible disabilities that our Sunflower wearers experience, we are building an index of disabilities that have few or no outwards visible signs. Alongside the Sunflower training we provide, you can now explore how you can support Sunflower wearers and consider workplace accommodations for your colleagues and customers based on their specific invisible disability.

Hidden Disabilities Sunflower was launched in the UAE on 15th of November 2022.

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