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Our inquiry into theharassment of disabled people
What we found out
Easy read
What is in this booklet page
About this report 1
Why we need to know more 3
How we did the inquiry 8
What we found out 15
What organisations can do to stopharassment of disabled people 22
1
The Equality and Human RightsCommission wrote this report.
We work to make sure everyone getstreated in a good and fair way.
This report is about harassment ofdisabled people.
Harassment is when someone hurtsyou or does bad things to you.For example, being nasty to you,hitting you or calling you names.
Sometimes people use the wordsbullying or hate crime when they talkabout harassment.
About this report
2
This report is about what we learntfrom our inquiry to find out aboutharassment of disabled people.
It says:
l why we need to know more aboutharassment of disabled people
l how we did the inquiry
l what we found out
l what organisations can do to stopharassment of disabled people.
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Why we need to know more
Newspapers and TV talk about whathappens to some people but manyother disabled people and theirfamilies also suffer harassment.
Often other people know it ishappening but do nothing or do nottreat it seriously.
Harassment is things like:
l calling you names
l saying nasty things or making funof you
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l hitting you
‘I have been hit by a stranger andbeaten up by young children…when someone tried to help me
by putting me in their car, they started rocking the car’
l damaging your home, garden orcar on purpose
‘Local kids throwing eggs, bottlesand beer cans into the backgarden’
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l stealing your money or making youspend it on people who pretendthey are your friends
‘Some people I thought were myfriends were just using me. I hadthat extra bit of benefit and theythought I was rich’
l sending you nasty emails or textmessages or filming harassmenton a mobile phone and putting iton the internet
l doing or saying something sexualto you that you do not want
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‘I think some disabled women think they are lucky to get anyone
so will put up with anything’
l domestic abuse when theharassment is done by your partneror family carer
l institutional abuse when theharassment is done by someonewho works in a service that iscaring for you.
Disabled people are more afraid ofcrime than other people but often donot report harassment.
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This may be because:
l they think no-one will believe themor take them seriously
l they are worried about what willhappen
l they do not know who to talk toabout it.
We did the inquiry to find out howmany people this affects and how wecan change things.
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How we did the inquiry
What we looked at
The inquiry looked at harassment ofdisabled people in England, Scotlandand Wales that stops them beingrespected, safe or in charge of theirlives.
This included harassment of a disabledperson’s friends and family andharassment of someone people thinkis disabled.
We looked at harassment:
l by individuals or groups of people
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l by strangers or by family or friends
l in public places and in the person’shome.
We did not look at harassment at workas there are other rules and laws forthis.
We wanted to find out:
l why disabled people sufferharassment
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l how public services and transportcan stop it happening.
‘I was bullied as soon as I got onthe school bus every day…punched, kicked, spat at.’
Who we spoke to
l disabled people and theirorganisations
l local councils and social services
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l organisations that run and checkpublic services
l newspaper and TV companies
l police and other people who knowabout the law.
How we got the information
l papers and reports other peoplehave written
12
l people who sent in information
l interviews
l questionnaires
l meetings in different parts of thecountry and interviews withdisabled people
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l formal meetings with people fromthe government and publicservices.
Public services are organisationslike local councils, the police,schools, the NHS and publictransport.
We looked at 10 cases. These are 10disabled people who were killed orseriously injured by harassment.
We held events about:
l serious violence and abuse
l how the newspapers and TV affectwhat people think about disabledpeople
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l harassment using mobile phonesand the internet.
Checking how we did things
2 advisory groups helped us plan andcarry out the inquiry.
1 was independent and not involvedwith the Equality and Human RightsCommission.
The other group was people from ourDisability Committee.
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What we found out
What we found
We found that harassment of disabledpeople is a serious problem:
l we only hear about a small numberof cases. Many disabled people donot report harassment and think itis just something they have to putup with
l disabled people are not sure how toreport harassment or think theywill not be listened to or believed
l public services and other peoplesometimes do not think it ishappening
l public services do not realise howserious harassment is for disabledpeople and do not try to stop it
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l before we can stop disabled peoplebeing harassed we need to changethe way other people think aboutthem and include them in society.
Why we think this is happening
l public services only look at eachsingle case of harassment, insteadof working together to find out if itis happening more often to certainpeople or in certain places
l the police and other public servicesdo not always think bullying orother bad behaviour happensbecause a person is disabled.
This means they do not use the lawproperly to stop it
17
l public services are missing thechance to stop small things thatcan grow into more seriousharassment
l public services sometimes thinkabout changing the way thedisabled person lives instead ofdealing with the people who harassthem
l different public services do notwork together well
l we do not understand enoughabout why disabled people getpicked on and how to stop it
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l it is difficult for disabled people toreport harassment and for publicservices to keep good recordsabout it
l the law does not give enoughsupport to disabled people orenough punishment to people whoharass them
l we do not learn from really seriouscases and understand how to stopthings like this happening again.
Changing things
We think everyone could do muchmore to stop harassment of disabledpeople.
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This includes governments and peoplewho work in:
l local councils
l housing
l the NHS and social care services
l police
l courts
l schools
l transport.
20
We think 7 things need to happen:
l leaders in organisations takeharassment of disabled peopleseriously and really want to stop it
l there is better information abouthow many disabled people andtheir families are affected, howserious this is and whatorganisations do about it
l it is easier for disabled people toreport harassment and get theright support from all parts of thelegal system
l we understand why and howpeople harass disabled people andknow how to stop it
21
l everyone in the community hasmore respect for disabled peopleand understands how harassmentaffects them
l everyone shares good ideas aboutstopping harassment andsupporting disabled people
l all staff who work with disabledpeople have training andinformation about what to do ifsomeone is harassed.
The next section has our ideas abouthow to make these things happen.
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What organisations can do to stop harassmentof disabled people
The only way to stop harassment ofdisabled people is to make sureeveryone understands that they needto get involved in changing things.
Governments in England,Scotland and Wales
Governments make the rules and lawsthat say how we should deal withharassment of disabled people.
Governments should:
l find out how these rules and lawswork together and how to usethem better to stop harassment ofdisabled people
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l look at ways to make sure disabledpeople have the same rights andchances to be involved in theircommunity, not just kept safe
l look at ways schools and collegescan get better at including disabledstudents to stop them beingharassed.
They should also find out more about:
l harassment of disabled people andhow the law deals with this
l whether some groups of people arepicked on more than others.
24
Councils and other localorganisations should:
l work together to stop harassmentof disabled people and treatdisabled people fairly.
The law says all public serviceshave to do this but we did not findmany services working welltogether.
l make sure disabled people knowhow to report harassment
l make sure disabled people havegood advocacy support
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l check that services give disabledpeople the right support when theyreport harassment
l make sure their staff are trainedabout harassment of disabledpeople and know how to deal withit.
People who run housing servicesshould:
l involve disabled people in planningsafe places to live
l find out how to stop harassmenthappening or getting worse
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l make sure disabled people knowhow to report harassment to themor to other organisations
l make sure people who rent housesand flats agree not to harassdisabled people and take action ifpeople break these rules
l make sure it does not affect adisabled person’s housing rights ifthey have to move out because ofharassment.
NHS and social care servicesshould make sure:
l they have good safe ways forpeople to report harassment inhospitals and care homes
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l people know their rights and getadvocacy support if they need it
l all services and staff know what todo if they think someone is beingharassed.
Police, the courts and legalservices should:
l make sure disabled people havethe same chances as everyone elseto use the law and be treated fairly
l find a way to describe harassmentor hate crime so that everyoneunderstands what this means andknows what to do about it.
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The police should:
l keep better information aboutharassment of disabled people sothey can act quickly if it happensmore than once
l think about stopping theharassment, not just asking thedisabled person to change howthey do things
l make sure people know whichpolice officer is dealing with itwhen they report harassment
l give people clear information in away they can understand
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l find out whether the person isdisabled when they look at anycrime as this might be harassmentbecause of their disability
l find out as soon as possiblewhether the person needs extrasupport to say what has happened,talk to the police or go to court.
Courts and other legal servicesshould:
l keep better information aboutharassment of disabled people andwhat happens if they report it
l train staff to understand how todeal with harassment of disabledpeople
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l make sure disabled people havegood advocacy support
l check disabled people are gettingany other support they need tohave the same chance as otherpeople to report a crime and go tocourt
l treat harassment as a seriouscrime with proper punishment
l think about how harassment alsoaffects the person’s friends andfamily
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l make sure everyone knows if theperson is disabled and understandany extra support they might need
l make sure disabled people aretreated fairly in court and no-onesays they cannot understandthings or be trusted because oftheir disability
l learn from disabled people who usethe courts and use this to makethem easier for other disabledpeople to use
l treat people very severely if theyharass someone they know isdisabled so that other people seethis is a very serious crime.
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Schools and colleges should:
l help students understand andrespect disabled people and knowwhat to do if they see someoneharassing them
l make sure all students and staffunderstand rules about dealingwith harassment of students whoneed extra support
l have rules to stop things like namecalling that can grow intoharassment and make sure theserules are for staff and not just forstudents
l treat bullying with mobile phonesand the internet as seriously asother harassment
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l make sure disabled students andthose who need extra supportknow how to report harassment
l make sure disabled students havethe same chance to get involved inthings as students who are notdisabled.
People who run transport servicesshould:
l make sure they design and planthings to try to stop problemsbetween disabled people and otherpassengers
For example, disabled people andpeople with pushchairs who mightboth want extra space
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l work together so people can reportharassment on transport, stationsor bus stops to anyone who worksfor a transport company
l ban someone from using anytransport if they keep harassingdisabled people
l train all staff about how to dealwith and report harassment ofdisabled people before they start towork with the public
l involve disabled people in planningtransport and work with the policeto make sure transport is safe fordisabled people
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l keep information about times andplaces where harassment happensand use this to plan how to stop it.
Organisations that check services
These organisations have a reallyimportant part to play.
They decide which people can runpublic services and can use this tochange the way public services thinkabout harassment of disabled people.
They should:
l always get involved when someonein a service they check is reallybadly harassed
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l make sure they check how servicesdeal with harassment and haverules about this
l share information about how tostop harassment happening andmake sure services have rules andtraining about this
l work together and shareinformation about services wheredisabled people are harassed.
What we will do next
Over the next 6 months we will askwhat people think and look at ways tomake sure people include these ideaswhen they plan services.
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This paper has been designed andproduced for the Equality and HumanRights Commission by the EasyRead serviceat Inspired Services Publishing Ltd.Ref ISL 110/11. September2011.
To contact Inspired Services:
www.inspiredservices.org.uk
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© Equality and Human Rights CommissionPublished September 2011
ISBN 978 1 84206 410 8
