Precious Burden, 2018

Living with an invisible disability can be challenging in itself, and navigating daily life without sufficient understanding, support, and compassion from the people around us can make these challenges even more difficult. When a disability is not immediately visible, communicating personal experiences and having them understood by others can become an additional challenge.
As an autistic designer, I created Precious Burden as a way to share aspects of my own sensory experience that are often difficult to communicate through words alone. Through a set of wearable objects, I explore three sensory experiences associated with my autism: sound, touch, and eye contact.
These objects function as a translation device, allowing someone else to temporarily encounter a sensory experience that is usually inaccessible to them.

Photos and video by Anne Lakeman