1. The First Steps to Reaching Out:
Ways to Overcome Barriers When
Advocating for Individuals with
Disabilities

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Resources
Women Aware, Inc
24hr. Hotline #, 732-249-4504
For state-wide agency listings, please visit
www.njcbw.org