Type	note
Title	YOU DESERVE TO BE SAFE: A Guide For Girls With Disabilities
Author	Lorna Renooy
Contributor	Sarah Deer
Security Level	1
Synopsis	DAWN Ontario produced this guide to talk about the specific problems of violence and abuse that you may experience.
Description	When we talk about girls with disabilities, we include many different types of disability. They can be a mobility, visual, or hearing disability. They can also be a facial disfigurement, or communication, learning, psychiatric or developmental disability. Some girls may also have hidden disabilities such as a chronic illness, diabetes, epilepsy or environmental illness. "There are only two people in my school who have a physical disability, and I'm one of them. I have problems when I try to use my wheelchair in the crowded hallways. People give me a hard time and say that I'm in the way." Negative attitudes in society about disability make it more likely that girls with disabilities will experience violence and abuse. "My mother is always coming down on me real hard because of my disability. She tells me how stupid and slow I am, and she threatens to physically hurt me. The abuse is scariest when it comes from someone you know and love." In many cases, girls with disabilities do not experience violence and abusive behaviour from strangers, but from people they know and trust. "This guy at my work kept bugging me to be his girlfriend. I guess he thought I was an easy target because I have cerebral palsy." Like all women, girls with disabilities experience sexual harassment and assault.
Last Reviewed	April 9, 2004
Links (if any)	resource guide