The First Steps to Reaching Out

The First Steps to Reaching Out: Ways to Overcome Barriers When

Advocating for Individuals with Disabilities

Goals for Participants

• To gain an understanding of the individual barriers a survivor with a disability may face.

• To challenge the assumptions advocates may have about a survivor with a disability.

• To strengthen and increase safety planning strategies to survivors with a disability.

Barriers to Seeking Help

• There are few accessible resources

Ramps, bathrooms, communication devices, interpretation devices, Braille literature, transitional houses and safehouses, etc.

• Societal stigma and stereotypes towards survivors with disabilities such as some equating the disability with lack of intelligence and ability.

Adapted from Charting New Waters: Responding to Violence Against Women

with Disabilities, 1996

Barriers to Seeking Help

• Fear of loss of independence

• Financial dependence on abuser

• 70% of people with disabilities are unemployed*

• If the survivor has a hidden disability, helpers may not believe she/he needs help

• Often seen and spoken of in terms of their symptoms or diagnosis, thus objectifying them

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010

Barriers to Seeking Help

• Survivor may be heavily dependent on the abusive primary caretaker and runs the risk of losing their caretaker if they report abuse

• Attitudinal barriers such as policies of the safehouse

• Are service animals allowed?

• Housing a personal aide

• If you have a mental illness, you must be in a program.

Systematic Barriers

• are on-going

• are built into the daily, working life of the organization, community or society

• are not obvious to able-bodied people

• appear rational and necessary

Adapted from Cathy Hoog, Safety Planning Protocol for Domestic Violence

Victims with Disabilities, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2010

Systematic Barriers to Consider

• Advocates may show embarrassment, pity or uncertainty about how to offer assistance

• Advocates may assume that survivors are not parents or do not have parenting skills

• Advocates may assume survivors cannot be independent

Systematic Barriers

• Advocates may have difficulty making eye contact or may speak louder or slowly if the person is Deaf, blind, developmentally disabled or mentally ill

• Advocates should ask one question at a time

• If there is a slow response, do not ask another question or switch words around. This becomes confusing

Systematic Barriers

• Advocates may speak to personal aide or family member instead of speaking directly to the survivor

• Advocates may feel awkward when using expressions such as “Do you see what I mean?”

• Advocates may show frustration, anger, or irritation when a survivor with a disability is being interviewed and does not understand questions

Systematic Barriers

• Advocates don’t always have the proper training to distinguish between disabilities or to advocate properly

• Only 35% of safehouses surveyed offered disability awareness training to their staff*

• Advocates need to be sensitive to how the survivor may communicate

• May not remember every detail

• State facts in order

• May appear confused

Source: Nosek, Ph.D, Margaret A, “Violence Against Women with Disabilities,“ 2002

Identifying Barriers to Autonomy and Safety

• The advocate should ask the survivor about the physical and attitudinal barriers affecting her safety

• The advocate should ask about possible disability issues that may impact safety planning strategies.

Adapted from Cathy Hoog, Safety Planning Protocol for Domestic Violence

Victims with Disabilities, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2010

Creating Safety Planning Strategies

• The advocate should ask about and incorporate the practical ways a person with a disability successfully navigates barriers

• The advocate should consider including support services the survivor wants to use in the safety planning process

• Friend

• Personal assistant

• Disability advocate

Adapted from Cathy Hoog, Safety Planning Protocol for Domestic Violence

Victims with Disabilities, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2010

Organizational Support for Safety Planning• Advocates should provide sufficient time to

support individualized safety planning for survivors with disabilities

• Safety planning materials should be presented in a clear, concise language, and materials should be available in alternate formats

• Safety plans should be reviewed and updated periodically, as the survivor’s situation changes

Safety Planning Process

• Advocates should be aware of their own and others’ assumptions about a survivors’ abilities and strengths

• Advocates, whenever possible, should develop safety plans in person, allowing for time to understand complicated choices, while respecting the pace of communication and needs of the survivor

Adapted from Cathy Hoog, Safety Planning Protocol for Domestic Violence

Victims with Disabilities, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2010

Steps to Helping

• Advocates need to understand that they may not be accepted by the survivor

• The survivor may be accustomed to everyone else thinking they know what is best for them

• The survivor knows their disability better than anyone else

• Advocates must look beyond disability

• Equal treatment does not mean similar treatment

Steps to Helping

• Be respectful

• Be patient

• Remember agencies are in place to help survivors of domestic violence regardless of age, race, gender, religion, cultural background, economic status, level of education or ability

Resources

Women Aware, Inc

24hr. Hotline #, 732-249-4504

For state-wide agency listings, please visit www.njcbw.org