Addressing Violence and Abuse against people with disabilities

The NDA provided funding to the Rape Crisis Network Ireland to conduct a study examining data collection and barriers to disclosure relating to sexual violence against people with disabilities The study, published in 2011, examined data on the 197 people with disabilities who presented to Rape Crisis Centres between 2008 and 2010 and also examined data from an online survey. More than nine in ten of these were survivors of sexual violence.

In 2009, the NDA commissioned research to identify methodologies which could be used to study the experiences of people with disabilities of the systems of abuse prevention, protection and redress.

This report presents a synthesis of the literature review and consultations with experts conducted by UCD and its partners, on methodologies employed nationally and internationally.

In 2020, the NDA submitted a comprehensive paper to the Law Reform Commission's consultation on its Issues Paper entitled 'A Regulatory Framework for Adult Safeguarding'. This Issues Paper was drafted in order to gather views on the possible content and structure of a regulatory framework.

In its submission, the NDA made a number of suggestions regarding legislation and policies, language, reporting obligations, and multi-agency collaboration and more.

This report examines if students with disabilities were more likely to have experienced sexual harassment, sexual violence and particular sexual violence tactics compared to students without disabilities based on the hypothesis that people with disabilities are more at risk of harassment and violence. This report is secondary analysis of data collected by the Higher Education Authority examining the experiences of staff and students from Higher Education Institutions (HEI).

The analysis finds that from the entire sample of respondents to this survey, 10% (n=780) of these students had a disability and had experienced sexual violence and 15% (n=1,185) had a disability and had experienced sexual harassment.

Although this sample is not representative of the general population this report adds to national evidence on the experiences of sexual violence and sexual harassment amongst people with disabilities. It is important to note that some of the material covered within this report may make it distressing to read.