From The Guardian in the UK: Urgent action is needed if a "hidden catastrophe" of violence and hostility towards disabled people is to be tackled, says a damning report today from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.
The report paints a bleak picture of disabled people's experience of physical and verbal abuse and reinforces persistent warnings from disability campaigners that the problem has not been taken seriously enough.
Researchers looked at official records of abuse, including conviction rates for crimes against disabled people. They also interviewed disabled people to document individual cases and garner broader perceptions of their treatment by wider society.
The report, Promoting Safety and Security of Disabled People, concludes that not only are conviction rates for crimes against disabled people low but that recorded
incidents do not reflect the true scale of the problem because individuals are often fearful of reporting abuse or attacks.
Many are concerned that health and criminal justice professionals will not respond, it concludes.Disabled people are four times more likely to be a victim of crime, the report says, with people with a learning disability or a mental illness at greatest risk of becoming a victim. Harassment can be serious enough to force people to move home.
"Violence and hostility can be a daily experience – in the street, on public transport, at work, at home, on the web – so much so that many disabled people begin to accept it as a part of everyday life," the report says. "Disabled people – including those who have not experienced such behaviours directly – are all too often forced to go to extraordinary lengths to avoid it, thereby limiting their own lives.
"If we needed a clear and visible example of the denial of the human rights to freedom in a modern society, this paints an all too vivid picture."
Announcing a three point plan aimed at addressing the safety and security of disabled people, including the establishment of a ringfenced £10.5m grant to aid access to justice, the chair of the commission, Trevor Phillips, said immediate action was called for. Dealing with what he called a "silent, bullying, menace" of physical and verbal abuse of disabled people should be a policy priority.
"We all want disabled people to be able to go out and play a full part in their community but too often a trip to the pub, the shops, the swimming pool or work is such an ordeal that it seems easier to narrow their horizons, to stay indoors," Phillips said. "This is a hidden catastrophe that we need to address."
He added: "When we interviewed people for this report they told us the same thing: 'We need to do something'. This is not an issue we can prioritise in rhetoric and ignore in practice."There can be neither disabled and non-disabled, neither hounded and free. There cannot be two tiers of safety and security, for we are all individuals of equal standing and worth."
Ruth Scott, director of policy and campaigns at the disability charity Scope, welcomed the report, saying it backed up the charity's own research on hate crimes against disabled people.
"One of the things today's report picks up on is the fact that low level harassment often escalates into much more serious crimes, including murder," Scott said. "The issue of awareness of this is really important. There is a lack of data on hate crime against disabled people yet it is very serious."
The tendency by agencies, including the police "to see disabled people as a victim already" can affect how they are dealt with, she added. "Disabled people should not have to put up with this."
Scott said a number of aspects of today's report were to be welcomed including a commitment by the commission to examine the effectiveness of the equality duty enshrined in the Disability Discrimination Act. The inclusion of the duty was widely seen as a key plank for protecting disabled people from discrimination but there is as
yet little data on whether it has had a demonstrable impact on people's lives.