To look at Sherri Connell, one would never guess she lives with a host of debilitating health issues: Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, Late-Stage Chronic Lyme Disease and a fragrance intolerance that precipitates migraines, fatigue and allergic reactions.

The former actress and model doesn’t look sick – which is exactly why, months after their 1996 marriage, her husband, Wayne Connell, established the Invisible Disabilities Association.

Almost immediately, the IDA became worldwide in scope as Wayne devoted countless hours to making her life and the lives of others similarly affected free from discrimination or humiliation.

And it was in their honor that Wayne spent the past three years fighting for the passage of House Bill 21-1014, the Disability Symbol Identification Bill.

Signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis on July 1 at Craig Hospital in Englewood, the bill paves the way for those electing to do so to have an identifying symbol, like the heart on a driver’s license that indicates the holder is an organ donor, imprinted on a state identification card or driver’s license.

Each participant’s disability can be recorded in a database accessible to law enforcement officers and other first responders. This, Wayne Connell said, will “Make a drastic difference in helping save lives and raise awareness for people living with disabilities, both invisible and apparent, and/or a neurodiversity.”

What’s important, Connell said, is the emphasis on the word “choose.”

“No one is required to register,” he said. “Everything is strictly voluntary. If someone doesn’t want it, they don’t have to have it. It’s as simple as that.”

Having a symbol on a government-issued identification, Connell added, “Provides visibility to the invisible. It gives law enforcement a simple, extra tool that can help diffuse situations from escalating.

“For example, when an officer pulls someone over and runs the (license) plates, the database would let the officer know that the slurred speech is because the person in the car is a stroke survivor, not someone who is intoxicated. Or that a person with autism isn’t being disrespectful when eye contact isn’t made.”

Some 40 agencies, ranging from the Anti-Defamation League to arc Thrift and Natural Grocers, supported the IDA’s efforts to get the bill passed. Mainly, Connell feels, “Because it’s just as much a civil rights issue as it is anything else. Eighty percent of those with invisible disabilities don’t use an assistive device, so how is someone to know that this guy over here in the long pants has a prosthetic leg or that guy over there is deaf? We pre-judge what we can’t see.”

Connell estimated that it will cost “just under” $90,000 to produce the symbol and descriptive literature, and to develop the program that will enable the Department of Motor Vehicles to imprint it on driver’s licenses. There is no charge to those wishing to participate, and participation can be terminated any time a person wishes.

Connell expects that the start date in Colorado will be in July 2022.

Alaska was the first state to pass and adopt this type of  legislation. Similar bills have passed in Ohio, Georgia and Wisconsin, with New York, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Utah considering it. One day, Connell hopes, every state will have the program.

Connell, senior manager of the telecom infrastructure team at Dish Network and Sling TV, said that it was his wife who coined the phrase “invisible disabilities” after numerous experiences where people would yell or curse at her, causing her to be humiliated in public because her limitations weren’t apparent.

“We would park in accessible parking with a registered placard, and since Sherri had regained the use of her legs, even though she felt bone-crushing pain, she no longer needed a wheelchair,” Connell said. “People would yell at her for parking in an accessible spot or wrongfully using a placard. One time after shopping in Douglas County, she returned to her car and started to back out of her parking spot when she noticed flashing lights in her rear-view mirror.

“Because of the flashing lights and commotion, a crowd gathered, excited to see someone finally getting ticketed for parking in a spot reserved for the handicapped. The officer eventually moved on, but Sherri was overwhelmed, embarrassed – and a bit angry.

“People were yelling at her because she wasn’t in a wheelchair. They were taking away her dignity when a symbol on her license would have hopefully changed the conversation. Our hope, with the passage of HB21-1014, is that people living with disabilities will not have to be disregarded, discriminated against or called liars and fakers, such as the way my wife was treated over two decades ago.”

Connell credits 17-year-old Rebecca Zickerman, an intern at the IDA, with bringing the dream to the state legislature. “Rebecca has a mild form of cerebral palsy, so this was a personal issue for her. She can fall easily, and if she’s under stress and you asked her to walk a straight line, she couldn’t,” Connell said.

Zickerman, daughter of author Nancy Sharp and Steve Saunders, chief communications officer for the Westminster Public Schools and son of former newspaper columnist Dusty Saunders, reached out to state Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, asking her to consider sponsoring what became HB21-1014. She did, and after months of committee hearings and testimony, the Disability Symbol Identification Bill was passed.

When Connell founded the Parker-based Invisible Disabilities Association in 1996, positive response was immediate. “We had a website, so people from across the country and around the world found us.”

He ran the association with the exclusive help of volunteers until the recent hire of Jess Stainbrook as executive director. Stainbrook came to the IDA with a strong background in television, having won eight Emmy Awards for producing and directing major sports programming at events like the Olympics, World Cup Skiing and the National Football League. In late 2019 he launched the IDA podcast, The Invisible No More Show.

The IDA’s educational efforts include a virtual Brain Ideas Symposium where experts deliver science-based talks on topics relating to subjects like Alzheimer’s disease, autism, PTSD and therapeutic humor; the Cleaner Indoor Air Campaign, which offers information about lessening the amount of scents that can trigger allergic or neurological reactions; and But You LOOK Good, a book that gives those living with chronic illness and pain a voice about how they feel, what they need and how others can be an encouragement to them.

Its online “community,” established in 1999, connects 750,000 patients, families, friends and caregivers with support and inspiration.

Or, as Connell put it: “Our little organization is all about how we can change the world for millions of people.”