New campaign by Singapore charity TomoWork spotlights people with invisible disabilities

SINGAPORE – In secondary school, Mr Thaddaeus John Tham Yong Yi struggled with spelling and grammar. He was barely passing his English composition essays. 

Mr Tham has dyslexia, an invisible disability that affects his reading and writing skills. 

Unaware of his condition, his classmates wondered 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 disability inclusion at companies.

Mr Tham, 20, has now stepped up to help raise awareness of people with invisible disabilities like himself.

The 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 the Tomo Day 2025 event at Republic Polytechnic on June 12, calls for greater support for people with invisible disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, 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 on

https://infinity-within.com

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as well as talks at TomoWork’s corporate partners such as insurer Singlife to raise public awareness. 

TomoWork has also produced an “imVISIBLE pin”. The pin, in the shape of an infinity symbol, is half-purple and half-transparent.

The pin is for individuals to identify themselves with an invisible disability, for allies to show support for inclusion and to foster conversations about such disabilities.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development Eric Chua said at the event: “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 Tham, who helped design the pin, hopes that it will remind those with disabilities that they are not alone.

“I hope it becomes a powerful, lasting symbol that shows people with invisible disabilities do exist, and that they deserve to be seen, heard and respected,” he said.

Mr Tham found a stronger sense of belonging when he met peers with similar experiences after joining TomoWork’s Talent Accelerator Programme in 2025.

The 12-week programme aims to bridge the gap between education and employment for graduating polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education students with disabilities, by preparing them for work and helping them to learn soft skills. 

During the programme, groups of students are attached to an organisation 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 to people who donate $60 and above to TomoWork.

Now in its fifth edition, the Talent Accelerator Programme has benefited 118 students with special educational needs 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 programme participant 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 people with disabilities and that the public will be more inclusive towards them.

“We’re not disabled people. We are persons with disabilities,” she said.

“We are all still people and we are all still human.”