13 October 2021Transcript Day 1 - Public Hearing 17, Virtual 14 October 2021Transcript Day 2 - Public Hearing 17, Virtual
Videos
Media coverage
Women and girls with disabilities are far more likely to suffer physical and sexual abuse but are frequently disbelieved when they ask for help to stop it; the disability royal commission has been told.
"In one submission, a woman with disability told you she was assaulted by a fellow resident but left with no choice but to continue living with the perpetrator when the managers of the group home did not believe her, and refused to take any action."
The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability heard that there were few domestic violence services accessible to these women on Wednesday, and the current one-size-fits-all model of support did not work for many.
"For decades, we’ve been hearing stories from women telling us how the perpetrator of the violence – whether it’s a partner, a parent or a disability support worker – is seen as having so much more credibility than they themselves are, they are easily dismissed as being crazy, attention-seeking,”
Jen Hargrave, Senior Policy Officer with Women with Disabilities Victoria.
The long-running inquiry has resumed public hearings and is delving into the confronting issue of the abuse of women and girls with all forms of disability in all settings, including foster and respite care, special schools, and group homes.
"You should almost assume that somebody with a disability has been sexually assaulted, which is just appalling to think about,"
Kathryn Fordyce, CEO of Laurel House
She spoke of the unique set of barriers people with disabilities can face to understand they have been abused.
Ms Fordyce said educational aids were sometimes censored, denying people the ability to describe what might be happening to them.
A Tasmanian witness has told a Royal Commission that courts have justified the forced sterilization of young girls and women with disabilities because the girls are "attractive" and the risk of abuse "cannot be discounted". Women with Disabilities Australia executive-director Carolyn Frohmader gave evidence at the Royal Commission's inquiry into the violence and exploitation of people with disabilities, specifically speaking about sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls with disabilities.
"We know of women with disability, particularly intellectual disability, who have been used by service providers to provide sex to men with disability in other group homes as a way of addressing challenging behaviours."
Women with Disabilities Australia Executive-Director Carolyn Frohmader
Research from the Australian Institute of Criminology has revealed in the first three months of the pandemic, 8.6 per cent of women with disabilities had experienced choking or strangulation by their partners.
Disability support workers, service providers, and the general community are completely unaware of the high rates of sexual assault occurring against people with disabilities.
Key points
- The disability royal commission (DRC) will re-commence in Hobart on Monday, with a focus on sexual, domestic and family abuse
- Akii Ngo, 28, has become a gender equity and disability advocate for girls, women, feminine-identifying and non-binary people with disability
- They said platforms such as the DRC were "vitally important" to understand the magnitude of issues like these forms of abuse
VIDEO: Almost half of women with disability have experienced physical violence
A Queensland woman who lives with cerebral palsy thought she was "going to die" after she says she was raped, beaten and "treated like a dog" by a paid personal assistant.
When Catherine Dunn went to tell a university wellbeing officer she had been sexually assaulted, a lack of appropriate services left her feeling like she was “talking to a wall”.
Dunn, who is deaf, was assaulted as a teenager at a party and at a university, where she was a resident.
A "very, very young" woman from Pakistan who experienced "horrendous" family violence is one of up to 100 Tasmanian migrant women accessing a new specialist service.
Her story was discussed in the evidence of Tasmanian Refugee Legal Service senior lawyer Taya Ketelaar-Jones at the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.
