Invisible disability, unacknowledged diversity

In this chapter we use an embodied lens to examine the physical and emotional stress that is placed upon an academic’s body when it is subject to an invisible disability or chronic illness, and how the presence of such a condition brings our bodies into visibility. We consider this particularly in the context of disability, and the consequence and impact of invisible and fluctuating disability in a society that often understands only visible, physical, stable conditions. We use fictionalised extracts that draw from real-life experiences in order to examine and highlight the emotional reality of being an academic and living with an invisible disability or fluctuating illness before discussing the impact of a body that will not ever be absent or dys-appear.