I recently had the opportunity to travel overseas. While the vacation itself was amazing and very relaxing, the travel days were exhausting and daunting. However, I was very excited to find out that more airports and airlines are taking measures to support people with hidden disabilities.

When you have a hidden disability, self disclosure fatigue is a real problem. Repeatedly describing your needs and accommodations gets exhausting. Also, the fact that your disability is hidden can lead to a lot of misunderstandings and false assumptions. Especially in a high stakes situation like navigating an airport. That’s why the sunflower initiative is such an exciting idea.

I have written before about the challenge of hidden disabilities (https://luckybraintumor.com/2024/10/24/invisible-disability/) and about the difficulties of flying with hearing loss (https://luckybraintumor.com/2024/02/21/flying-with-single-sided-deafness/). I still really love my hard of hearing name tag for helping me with travel in the US, but I found it wasn’t the most useful when I was in a country where English isn’t the common language.

In all four airports I traveled through recently, including a small Caribbean island, the sunflower lanyard program is used. In fact, 2 of the airports were advertising they were participating members.

The sunflower lanyard is an opportunity for people with hidden disabilities or conditions to make their need for possible accommodations visible. It lets folks know you may need time, space, assistance, etc., in order to participate. https://hdsunflower.com/

Businesses choose to participate in the sunflower program. On the website, you can see a list of those businesses that are in the network. In North America, it seems to be primarily travel based businesses incorporating the sunflower at this time (especially airports and airlines). The lanyard is from the UK originally, and I feel that it has recently gained traction in the US. The UK has a wide variety of businesses involved.

Companies that use the sunflower lanyard receive training in what hidden disabilities are and what sorts of assistance people may need. Also, the sunflower organization provides resources for people with disabilities such as lists of what accommodations specific businesses offer.

Businesses that are members should have sunflower lanyards to hand out for free. I have heard that some airports will even mail you a sunflower lanyard for free. Otherwise, you can get a lanyard from the sunflower website https://hdsunflower.com/us/shop/lanyard-packs.html (and pay shipping from the UK), or you can order it at Amazon https://a.co/d/hkbWedm.

The lanyard comes with a card that you can fill out regarding what your needs are. If you order through the sunflower website, you can also choose to also order a custom card printed with your information on it.

I am excited that this program is in existence, and I look forward to seeing it grow and become more common. It’s nice to have a visible option to inform people that you have a hidden disability. As someone with hearing loss, the last thing I want to do in a place where it is hard to hear is try to explain why I cannot hear the other person. My hope is that the lanyard smooths the experience and gives me extra grace in those moments I need it.

Recently, Lego made a figure wearing a sunflower lanyard to help promote hidden disabilities. https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2024/november/hidden-disability-sunflower?locale=en-us

I can’t wait to see where the sunflower lanyards pop up next!