Blog #215: Why I Will Start Wearing a Sunflower Lanyard
- Jeffrey Snyder
- Apr 4, 2022
- 2 min read
Following what I had described in Blog #213 last week involving my friend/colleague, Rachel Barcellona of the Ability Beyond Disabilities, I had to do a lot of thinking when it comes to showing people that I have autism and may behave differently than others around me, so I could avoid a similar situation to what she went through last week in Tampa. Sure, there are a few people that know who I am, but what about the others who don’t know me or see me differently than from what I am?
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Last year, I learned about the “sunflower lanyard” that people with hidden disabilities wear to signal others that they have a hidden disability. The lanyard had been very popular in the United Kingdom and when I was travelling to and from Unicorn Children’s Foundation’s Gala last weekend, I was seeing advertisements about the hidden disabilities program.
It got me thinking that the sunflower lanyard is a way to send a message to people of my autism that they may not see otherwise. This is especially true when I travel for speaking engagements and other services as part of “Going the Distance.”
What if I display behaviors that may seem different or harmful to others at the airports or other forms of public transportation? For one thing, I like to take pictures of gate monitors displaying flights so I can guess where passengers on my previous flights are heading to or to have my followers see my travels from my point of view.
What if someone saw that and thought that what I was doing was a security threat and not out of pure interest? What if I end up, God Forbid, having a meltdown or sensory overload? Those are the questions that had been running around in my mind as of late not just because of that, but also because there is a lack of autism awareness training at major airports and airlines along with forms of public transportation?
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For me, wearing a sunflower lanyard is going to be no different than wearing a face mask nowadays.
As a frequent traveler, I know for a fact that there is going to be at least a few people that may not understand who I am and may treat me for somebody else. That is the fear that I sometimes get as a neurodiverse/disabled traveler.
I have had past incidents on my travels that should have warranted a sunflower lanyard to begin with, but I didn’t know about it at the time. Now, with what happened to one of my colleagues last week, I am certainly not going to be taking any chances going forward.
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Catch you all later!!
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