New research for the eSafety Commission has revealed an increased risk of technology-facilitated abuse experienced by women living with intellectual or cognitive disability.
The Report, ‘For my safety’: Experiences of technology-facilitated abuse among women with intellectual disability or cognitive disability (August 2021) , has prompted the eSafety Commissioner to create a range of resources to help disability support workers identify and address such abuse.
eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant commissioned the Queensland University of Technology to produce the Report n 2020.
“The research makes a valuable contribution to the nature and context of technology-facilitated abuse and its impact on women with intellectual or cognitive disability,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“The research was informed by interviews and focus groups with women living with intellectual disability or cognitive disability who had experienced technology-facilitated abuse, as well as interviews with frontline workers and women’s specialist advocacy services.”
She said that while the tactics used to enact technology-facilitated abuse towards women were similar across the board, the pool of perpetrators who targeted women with intellectual or cognitive disability was wider.
“Women with intellectual disability or cognitive disability experienced harassment, monitoring, threats and image-based abuse from a partner or ex-partner, but their perpetrators could also include family members, carers or strangers,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“The situational context may pose additional risk as others may have physical access to devices or knowledge of a woman’s passwords, potentially allowing access to online accounts including their bank accounts, dating profiles and social media accounts.”
She said the research also highlighted the vulnerability of women living with disability, with some perpetrators targeting them in especially troubling ways such as placing GPS tracking devices on wheelchairs, tampering with hearing aids and making threats to disclose health information.
“Participants involved in this study spoke of being discouraged from using technology by family members and the police, after having negative experiences with it,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“The Report identified a range of barriers preventing women from reporting abuse,” she said.
“These were complex and included not knowing who to report to or not being believed.”
Ms Inman Grant said the eSafety Commission’s new resources included case study videos, downloadable conversation starters, posters and a wallet card.
The 57-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link and the eSafety Commission’s resources at this link.
