New campaign by Singapore charity TomoWork spotlights persons with invisible disabilities
New campaign by Singapore charity TomoWork spotlights persons with invisible disabilities
SINGAPORE – In secondary school, Mr Thaddaeus John Tham Yong Yi struggled in spelling and grammar. While his classmates were were doing well , he was barely passing his English composition essays.
Unknown to them, Mr Tham has dyslexia, an invisible disability that affects his reading and writing skills.
Unaware of his condition, his peers were confused as to why he was poor in the English language.
When he later entered Ngee Ann Polytechnic to study biomedical engineering, the feeling of isolation deepened.
This changed when he found help from TomoWork, a Singapore charity which advocates for disability inclusion in companies.
Mr Tham, 20, has now taken a further step by helping to raise awareness of people with invisible disabilities like himself.
The recent polytechnic graduate is part of a group of youth who worked with TomoWork to help shape a new campaign called Infinity Within.
The year-long campaign, announced at Republic Polytechnic at the Tomo Day 2025 event on June 12, calls for greater support for people with invisible disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, and partial hearing or vision loss in Singapore.
The campaign will feature a mix of online and offline initiatives, such as videos and articles available at https://infinity-within.com/, and talks at TomoWork's corporate partners such as insurer Singlife to raise public awareness.
As part of the campaign, TomoWork has produced an 'imVISIBLE pin'. In the shape of an infinity symbol, the pin is half-purple and half-transparent.
The purple on the imVISIBLE pin represents allyship with persons with disabilities, while the transparent portion represents the unseen challenges of invisible disabilities. The infinity symbol is used as it has been a long-standing symbol associated with neurodiversity.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
The pin is meant for individuals to identify themselves with an invisible disability, for allies to show support for inclusion and to foster conversations about such disabilities.
Speaking at the event, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development Eric Chua said: 'The pin represents not just disability, but also our collective commitment to build a more empathetic, caring and inclusive Singapore where everyone can truly contribute and thrive.'
Mr Eric Chua, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Social and Family Development & Ministry of Law, speaks at the launch of the Infinity Within Campaign.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
Mr Tham, who helped design the pin, hopes that it will remind persons with disabilities that they are not alone.
He said: 'I hope that the pin becomes a powerful, lasting symbol that shows people with invisible disabilities do exist, and that they deserve to be seen, heard and respected.'
Mr Tham found a stronger sense of belonging after meeting peers with similar experiences, after joining TomoWork's Talent Accelerator Programme in 2025.
The stint is a 12-week programme that aims to bridge the gap between education and employment for graduating polytechnic and ITE students with disabilities, by preparing them for work and helping them learn soft skills.
During the programme, groups of students are attached to an organsation to come up with a solution to a problem.
The programme's participants helped to produce all online content for the Infinity Within campaign.
The pin will be given to all 33 participants of the 2025 programme, which ends on June 13, as well as donors who donate S$60 and above to TomoWork.
Now in its fifth edition, 118 students with special educational needs have benefitted from the Talent Accelerator Programme since 2021. And nearly 80 per cent of them have found jobs within six months of completing the programme.
Ms Lai Su Ying, 21, a participant of the programme in 2024, helped create videos for the campaign, sharing her experiences and challenges with her disability.
Ms Lai, who is hard of hearing, hopes that the campaign will bring more attention to persons with disabilities and that general public will be more inclusive towards them.
She said: 'We're not just disabled people. We are persons with disabilities. We are not disability focused first, we are still people first. We are all still people, and we are all still human.'
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