"No Mask, No Apology: My Life with MS and Disability Pride”

What does disability pride mean to me? It means I no longer hide the parts of me that make others uncomfortable—it means I stand fully in my truth, even when that truth is invisible.

Living with multiple sclerosis is living with a shifting mask. Some days, my limp is obvious, my fatigue unmissable. Other days, I may appear “fine” while my body quietly wages a private war—nerves misfiring, muscles rebelling, exhaustion dragging me under. This is the silent reality of an invisible illness: you are constantly asked to prove your struggle, to justify your need for rest, support, or accommodations, even to those closest to you.

Disability Pride Month is a reminder that I don’t owe anyone that proof. Rooted in the fight for civil rights, it calls on us to honour every disabled body and mind—visible or not. It invites us to reject shame and see our conditions not as weaknesses, but as parts of our human wholeness.

But pride isn’t always easy. The world often wants us to choose: either “pass” as non-disabled and swallow the pain in silence, or “perform” our disability to be believed and accepted. MS makes this tightrope walk daily reality. We mask symptoms to keep jobs, to be heard, to be loved—yet we long to drop the mask and simply be.

To me, disability pride means refusing to abandon myself to fit in. It means asking for the seat on the bus when my legs ache, taking the nap my body demands, cancelling plans without guilt. It’s telling my story so someone else with MS feels less alone in their unseen battles.

I carry my pride quietly, yet fiercely. I am not half-disabled or half-okay. I am whole, I am real, I am here—and I am enough.