OPINION
Isabel grew up in an institution for those with disabilities. The institution took care of her housing, feeding and education – though one would use the word ‘care’ advisedly.
She graduated from ‘special’ schooling to sheltered work, before emerging from institutional care.
At age 40, with mild intellectual disability, she set about learning to read and write. But she will not give her story to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, because she is among the many who succumbed to an early, and often unexplained, death.
Her quirky personality was interpreted as a part of intellectual impairment, and her early death never attributed to the fact that she had endured a lifetime of emotional abuse and often physical mistreatment.
It is only in the last six months that the evidence of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disabilities has started to be counted in a systematic and public way.
The Quality and Safeguards Commission has been set up to receive complaints about the mistreatment of participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). It has received notification of nearly 1500 serious incidents or allegations about the 118,000 NDIS participants in NSW and SA, and more incidents may be reported as the commission continues into other state and territories.
Dental work left undone. Broken bones left unset. Unexplained deaths left uninvestigated.
Four per cent of these reports relate to some form of sexual misconduct, 16 per cent to physical or sexual contact, 17 per cent are related to serious injury and 34 per cent pinpointed instances of abuse and neglect.
It is a long journey from a report of mistreatment to a prosecution, and reported statistics do not account for total amount of cases. For too long violence and abuse against people with disabilities has been discounted and minimised. The severity of the abuse has been trivialised and ignored. Those affected are battle-weary and resigned to the fact that nobody cares.
The royal commissioners will be dealing with people of exceptional strength, and resilience. People who were tormented on a daily basis in a sheltered workshop. This where they were physically abused, emotionally denigrated, robbed of autonomy, and assumed to have no capacity to think, act or do anything. Yet I know these people as adults. They are amazing.
We talk of expected lifespan for the rich and poor and mark the shameful lower years of life for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. But the early death of people with disability is somehow dismissed as being related to their ‘condition’. But we know there are significant health complications due to lack of care and neglect. Dental work left undone. Broken bones left unset. Unexplained deaths are left uninvestigated. All symptoms, not of the disability diagnosis, but of blatant neglect.
I wonder if those working on the Royal Commission will take into account that violence abuse, neglect and exploitation are gendered issues? Will they realise that the nature of the violence will be related to the sex of the victim.
Just as gender inequality is an issue in our wider society, it is an ever-present issue for women with disabilities. Sexual violence is related to gender inequality.
Women with disabilities may experience sexual violence, unwanted touching, and rough handling by more than one perpetrator.
The intersection of gender and disability discrimination manifest in high levels of sexual violence experienced by women with disabilities. Data is sparse but the indications from studies available, mostly of, or with, people with cognitive impairment, indicate that women with disabilities experience unprecedentedly high rates of sexual abuse, higher than men with disabilities, and higher than for non-disabled women.
The violence has an expanded and different nature from intimate partner violence or family violence, although both of these are also present. Women with disabilities may experience sexual violence, unwanted touching, and rough handling by more than one perpetrator, over prolonged periods of time, and with little control over the supports in their environment.
So long as people with disabilities are isolated from the community, in institutions or group homes, the power imbalance will be perpetuated, leaving people exposed to mistreatment.
The Royal Commission is our opportunity to expose the violence in the sector. It will create an opportunity to build respect for all citizens including those who are disabled. It will establish a baseline for decent treatment of citizens with disabilities, a position from which the only direction is upwards. We will hear from people with unprecedented courage and strength. Those not actively involved will be empowered with disability pride. We no longer need to apologise for taking up space. The outcome must be for a better future for people with disabilities, one in which we can live free from violence and free from the fear of violence.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, family or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
