The content of this resource manual will be covered in more detail later. First though, I did want to mention something of my own sense of how the women's refuge movement developed over the years.
I first grew aware of the work done by women's refuges in the mid seventies. This was a time when second wave feminism created changes in the way women and women's issues were perceived and when newly created women's organisations lobbied for and received government funding. As someone who was actively involved in the women's movement for many years, initially through the Sydney Rape Crisis Centre, I have observed some of the shifts that seemed to occur in the domestic violence field over the years.
Probably the first shift in focus was around sexuality. Many of the women who identified as heterosexual when they first became involved in women's refuges moved slowly but surely towards lesbianism. For some this change in sexual identity was temporary, for others more long lasting. The acceptance of this in organisations like rape crisis centres and women's refuges seemed fairly painless.
Class was a more difficult struggle. The women who ran the refuges led the women's movement in recognising that for the most part it was pretty middle class and that this affected not just how the movement was represented but what issues became significant. During the mid eighties, women who were ex-residents of the refuges joined the collectives or management committees. As the management process changed to accommodate the new members, the refuges had to start querying some assumptions they held. This was a painful but necessary process. Discussions of internal power structures in relation to Aboriginal and migrant women followed on. The 1988 anti-bicentennial movement really proved a focus for this kind of discussion.
So, issues of sexuality, class and race were thoroughly addressed by the women's refuge movement in terms of how they provided services to women in violent situations, but what happened to disability? There's no denying it's a complex issue with different requirements according to the type of impairment. Buildings need to be physically accessible for wheelchair users, communication needs to be possible for women who are deaf or whose capacity for speech is impaired. Information about services needs to be available in alternative formats. The definition of 'domestic' in the phrase domestic violence needs to be developed to take into account that women with disabilities have a range of different types of domestic arrangements including group homes, institutions and nursing homes. The people who share these domestic spaces may be paid carers, fellow residents or others and this broadens out the range of situations that can result in violence.
Our concern at WWDA is that the woman living with a disability becomes invisible behind her disability, that the issue of resources, or the lack of them, becomes paramount for crisis services. Women who live with disability and want to escape violent living situations must have the same access to a safe place as other women.
At a conference organised by WESNET in the late nineties there was a fierce discussion about whether the refuge movement could or should start to address the issues involved in making domestic violence services truly available to all women. A resolution to improve awareness of disability issues came out of that conference but there was also strong resistance from some women in the refuge movement. Since that time some domestic violence workers have showed signs of passion and commitment but this still has to translate to real outcomes for women who are in violent situations and who also happen to have disabilities. We believe that if the sector takes on disability as a significant factor in service provision, real changes can be made.
Watching the fall from my window
Waiting for someone to notice my Autumn arm,
Sooth me with cool and gentle hands.
I am anxious for someone to notice my Autumn arm,
Red, Brown and Bruised,
I have not fallen,
My Autumn arm didn't just appear
There is no sign for abuse on my communication board.
Please don't tuck me in,
Please don't touch me hard and furious,
Please don't give me another Autumn arm.
From: a life like mine! narratives from women with disabilities who experience violence, WWDA 2007.
From: it's not ok it's violence information about domestic violence and women with disabilities WWDA 2007.
From: more than just a ramp a guide for women's refuges to develop disability discrimination action plans. WWDA 2007.
In addition to the commonly identified forms of sexual violence, women with disabilities have reported incidents where care or support workers have denied them services until they have sex with them or have been coerced into sex for a range of reasons to do with their location and their disability. The issue of withholding of sex education, denial of access to contraception and reproductive rights including forced sterilization is also seen by WWDA as a form of sexual violence.
Emotional or psychological violence includes actions that make a person feel intimidated. Women with disabilities report threats of being institutionalized if they "don't do what they are told". Withholding information or making decisions without recognized legal authority or consent is also included in this category. Women with disabilities who are dependent on others to facilitate their access to friends, family and community are often vulnerable to control by others. Denying, restricting or forcing access in contradiction to the woman's wishes is considered a form of social violence. Taking control of money against a women's will or excluding her from decision making about her finances without legal authority is identified as financial violence.
These myths can be damaging and can contribute to the cycle of violence as experienced by women with disabilities. It is often due to these myths that women are denied access to education, important information and resources and support to confront forms of violence. As a result a woman may not know about domestic violence, nor that many forms of domestic violence are a crime. She may not know that she does not have to live with domestic violence and that there are services which can help. Lack of education can also limit women with disabilities' access to employment and an independent lifestyle. In addition many women with disabilities live in poverty making them socially isolated and financially dependent - often on perpetrators.
Credibility can be an issue for women with disabilities, who are often not believed when they disclose domestic violence to their families, friends, supporters, doctors or to the Police. A perpetrator may target a women with disabilities because it is seen that it is not easy for her to get help making her more vulnerable and less able to do anything about it. Life experiences particular to women with disabilities can also make them vulnerable to experiencing domestic violence. These include living in an institutional setting withdrawn from public scrutiny, with limited privacy and restricted access to outside services. Additionally dependence on carers increases vulnerability as does lack of communication skills.
The WWDA office takes calls on a regular basis which highlight the difficulty and frustration that many women experience. Following are two recent examples.
A housing service tried to get a woman with a disability into (any) women's refuge in a particular area. They were told that nowhere could take her as she used an oxygen cylinder and they were concerned that she may therefore require 24 hr assistance. The Service also reported that they had experienced similar responses from the refuges when trying to place/refer women with autistic children. The reason given by refuges was "the behavioural issues these children presented and the impact they had on the other women in the shelter".
A Domestic Violence worker rang a Rape Crisis Centre to seek information on accessible refuges for women with disabilities. She was bluntly told that there aren't any and they can't help her. She then contacted WWDA. We gave her the number for the Domestic Violence Crisis Line in her state (she didn't know there was one), as well as some other contact points. The Crisis Line told her they "thought there might be an accessible refuge in an eastern suburb and maybe a far western suburb" but the only information they had regarding accessibility was that the bathroom and rooms were on the same level. The Crisis Line informed her that if accessible refuge accommodation wasn't available they would "refer" the woman seeking refuge to the Department of Housing's Emergency Temporary Accommodation.
It is important for services to be prepared to meet the needs of women with disabilities. Women may need information which services currently don't have so an information gathering exercise is an excellent fist step. This will need to establish things such as which refuges are accessible, whether assistance with transport is available and whether there are accessible vehicles, the availability of personal care support, options for crisis funding, the range of housing alternatives, the existence of support groups, the availability of disability support services and whether gaps exist in services.
In looking within services it is important to ensure that they are accessible. This will include physically accessibility, accessibility of information or the availability of alternative formats, having staff who are trained to be aware of and sensitive to the issues facing women with disabilities, having policies and procedures that are inclusive of diversity and ensuring that all women can afford to use the service if they want to. It is important that services respond to women with disabilities in the same way they would any other service user and be prepared to use the law to protect women with disabilities from domestic violence.
From: a life like mine! narratives from women with disabilities who experience violence, WWDA 2007.
Order Forms and information about the Manual are available on the WWDA website: www.wwda.org.au/vrm2007.htm
This site was developed by Carolyn Frohmader for Women With Disabilities Australia.