Raising Awareness on Invisible Disabilities
On the 70th episode of Speedify Live we are joined by art and games livestreamer, and disability advocate, InsomniaDoodles, a.k.a. Sunny, to talk about her experiences in the live streaming and virtual space.
We chat about disability awareness and how Sunny is working to draw attention to it, how she built her audience on Twitch, and we learn a lot about how VR can be helpful to people living with disabilities!
Here are our 5 takeaways from our chat with InsomniaDoodles:
- Sunny started her Disability Advocacy journey with her website/blog where she initially shared her thoughts and experiences of living with an Invisible Disability, but then turned this website into a place of sharing information, educating people, and building a community.
- We learn that Invisible Disabilities or Invisible Illnesses are conditions that impact one’s health or ability to function, but aren’t outwardly visible to the naked eye, which is unfortunately why they often get overlooked. Sunny does her best to draw awareness to Invisible Disabilities and educate others on the topic.
- Sunny has worked with the National Organization for Rare Disorders, as a volunteer in their Rare Action Network program, where she was a state ambassador for Indiana. Her task was to connect the rare disease community with those with information and resources that can help advocate for legislation that directly impacts the rare disease community.
- As the name might suggest, InsomniaDoodles also doodles! She has done the artwork for CuteAvalanche’s Twitch Emotes, a channel we’ve interviewed in a past Speedify Live episode. She also does art with a message about living with a disability, does art for her DnD campaigns, as well as draws for viewers, which they can redeem with Twitch channel points!
- Sunny mentions a few Social VR platforms she’s aware of, and has found helpful in socializing, building a community and even a disability support group! She generally uses AltSpace, but also mentions VR Chat, Bigscreen VR, and vTime, where anyone can join, meet new people, play games or even watch movies!