Safeguards Project - Women with Disabilities Victoria

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Safeguards Project

The Safeguards Project aims to increase women with disabilities access to safe, useful and good practice information about their right to safety and respect that builds their confidence, knowledge and actions to identify and seek support if they experience violence and abuse.

Why was the project developed?

Research shows that women with disabilities are at much higher risk than other women of experiencing violence and abuse including multiple types of violence and abuse experienced over longer periods of time from multiple people (perpetrators) throughout their lives. Women with disabilities are also more likely to experience violence and abuse than men with disabilities.

What is the project doing?

The project has created guidelines to help services develop effective violence and abuse prevention resources with and for women with disabilities. The project has made a video with an accompanying video guide for women with disabilities to help them identify violence and abuse, get help and feel safe.

About the guidelines

Our Right to Safety and Respect Guidelines for developing resources with women with disabilities about safety from violence and abuse contains six good practice guidelines organisations can follow to create quality resources. Each guideline has a set of indicators to show what good practice looks like and how to work towards it.

Who are the guidelines for?

The guidelines are for all Australian organisations that:

support women with disabilities who may have experienced, or are at risk of experiencing, violence and abuse
are developing a resource on violence and abuse for women with disabilities
wish to enhance existing resources on violence and abuse to make sure they are relevant and accessible to women with disabilities.

Click here to download a copy of Our Right to Safety and Respect – Guideline for developing resources with women with disabilities about safety from violence and abuse [PDF]

For a full list of Safeguards resources, click here.

Video resource and video guide

In the 20-minute video, women with disabilities speak about their experiences of violence and abuse. They talk about how they found ways to speak up and be heard and get support to live free from violence and abuse. The video includes captions, Auslan interpreting and an audio description option for people with vision impairment. The video guide has extra information, discussion questions and is available in Plain English and Easy English formats.

Who is the video and video guide for?

This video and video guide were made for women with disabilities. The video can be:

watched alone or with a friend or support person
used by community groups and organisations
useful for self-advocates, friends and advocates, family, support workers and other people who work with women with disabilities.

Click here to download a copy of Our Right to Safety and Respect – Video Guide [PDF]