People with disability (including autism) experience significantly higher rates of violence, abuse and neglect than people without disability. These forms of violence are often gendered and further compounded for women and gender diverse people who experience higher rates of violence than both men with disabilities and women without disabilities.
The heightened rates of violence are not caused by disability or autism themselves, rather they reflect the interaction between gender inequality, ableism and other intersecting inequalities in our society.
Violence against people with disability, particularly women, girls and gender-diverse people is not inevitable. A primary prevention approach aims to stop violence before it starts by addressing the social norms, attitudes, structural inequalities, institutional practices and unequal power relationships that drive this violence.
The development of Victoria’s next State Disability Plan and the State Autism Plan (2027–2031) presents an important opportunity to recognise the disability sector as a setting for violence prevention and strengthen the integration between disability reform, autism policy and primary prevention of violence frameworks to better support the safety, rights and dignity of people with disability, particularly women, girls and gender diverse people. It is an opportunity to recognise and leverage primary prevention of violence as key to reducing demand on the disability sector (through preventing injury and disability itself) and building the capability of the disability sector to deliver stronger outcomes for women, girls and gender diverse people with disability that support their safety, equality and wellbeing. It provides an opportunity to further strengthen how primary prevention of violence against people with disability is embedded across education, employment, housing, digital participation, justice, service systems and community inclusion initiatives. Importantly this includes recognising inclusion, autonomy, accessibility and supported decision-making not only as rights-based objectives, but also as foundational violence prevention strategies that support community safety.
Respect Victoria has provided advice to support the development of Victoria’s next Disability and Autism Plans. Our contribution to the public consultation process highlights:
- The nature, prevalence and drivers of violence against women and gender diverse people with disability, such as gender inequality, ableism and other intersecting inequalities.
- Primary prevention as a fundamental solution to addressing all forms of violence against people with disability by targeting harmful social norms, structural inequalities, institutional practices and unequal power relationships.
- Opportunities to sustain and strengthen the focus on primary prevention of violence against people with disability, particularly women and gender diverse people, in the next Victorian State Disability Plan and next Victorian Autism Plan 2027-2031.
Consistent with the findings and recommendations of Maintain the Momentum, Respect Victoria’s 2025 report on the progress of prevention, Respect Victoria’s advice identifies opportunities to continue and strengthen the focus on primary prevention of violence against people with disability in the State Disability Plan and Autism Plan renewals. We suggest this could be achieved through:
- continuing to prioritise working in partnership with people with disability to prevent family and sexual violence through understanding and highlighting the gendered and ableist drivers
- continuing to support collaboration, partnership and capacity building between the disability and violence prevention sectors to address the drivers of violence against people with disability
- prioritising providing access to inclusive and tailored information, education and support services on sexual and reproductive health and respectful relationships for people with disability
- exploring tailored and inclusive digital literacy and online safety education and support for people with disability to enable safer online experiences
- continuing to support and enable equal economic participation of women and girls with disability through a range of government legislation, policy and regulatory levers
- continuing to prioritise effective data and outcomes reporting, with a strengthened focus on mechanisms to collect and report gender and disability disaggregated data about violence against people with disability
- considering opportunities to embed, complement and/or support key recommendations within Maintain the Momentum, Respect Victoria’s Three Yearly Report to Parliament on the Progress of Prevention 2022-2024, that impact on the rights and safety of Victorians with disability and/or Autism.
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Download the PDF, or read State Disability Plan And Victorian Autism Plan 2027-2031: Respect Victoria feedback online.