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l Austra ia
Family Violence in the Deaf Community
Disability Royal Commission submission
December 2022
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About Deaf Australia
Deaf Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which we work and pay our respects to Indigenous Elders past and present. Sovereignty has never been ceded. It always was and always will be, Aboriginal land. We recognise the past atrocities against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this land and that Australia was founded on the genocide and dispossession of First Nations people. We acknowledge that colonial structures and policies remain in place today and recognise the ongoing struggles of First Nations people in dismantling those structures; and especially that of Deaf, Deafblind and hard of hearing First Nations peoples. We also acknowledge and respect the members of the Deaf Community in Australia, who preserve their rich heritage, culture, and our language; Auslan. We acknowledge our custodians of Auslan, promoting awareness, equality, and access through our sign language. Deaf Australia was founded in 1986 as a not-for-profit organisation that represents all Deaf, Deafblind, and hard of hearing people, and others who are fluent and knowledgeable about Auslan. The focus has and continues to be on developing access to information and accessible communication. We work with Australian governments and collaborate with key stakeholders to make sure that Australia complies with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The UN Convention and the National Disability Strategy guides our work; we aspire to achieve equity for Deaf people across all areas of life. Deaf Australia advises that this document may be publicly distributed, including by placing a copy on our website.
Contact Details:
Authored by: Catherine Miller
Email: info@deafaustralia.org.au
Postal Address: PO Box 31 Northcote, Victoria 3070
Website: www.deafaustralia.org.au
CEO: Mx Jen Blyth
Chairperson of the board: Ms. Debra Swan © Copyright Deaf Australia 2022 This publication is copyright, apart from use by those agencies for which it has been produced. Non profit associations and groups have permission to reproduce parts of this publication if the original meaning is retained and proper credit is given to Deaf Australia. All other individuals and Agencies seeking to reproduce material from this publication should obtain the permission of the CEO of Deaf Australia.
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Key Notes
This section includes key information about the submission that the reader should be aware of while reading.
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In this submission, Deaf Australia will use Deaf person/people/community to refer to all d/Deaf, Deafblind, and hard of hearing people who use Auslan as their language of preference, unless otherwise stated.
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We write broadly about signing Deaf people, but recognise that Deaf people are intersectional beings, and that this paper was written by a white Deaf cis-het woman, so important nuances covering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, trans-women, non-binary peoples and men, BIPOC and all other intersecting identities are likely to be missing from this paper.
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This submission is not exhaustive and does not cover every aspect of a person’s life in relation to family violence. It is recommended that there is more work done by the DRC to understand this aspect of a Deaf person’s experience in addition to this submission.
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Introduction
There are very few untouched by violence as a Deaf person, yet not ONE Deaf woman or girl has ever been untouched by violence. Not one. Violence within the Deaf community is particularly nuanced because of the external status of being ‘disabled’ and the internal status of being part of a CALO minority group.
We agree with the WHO’s definition of violence as “a violation of an individual’s human or civil rights through the intentional use of physical force or power (threatened or actual) which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or 1deprivation.” It is this meaning of violence we refer to when we talk about violence towards the Deaf community.
Able-bodied people are tacitly given more of a license to be violent towards disabled bodies because they are portrayed as people to be stigmatised, depersonalised, dehumanised and devalued. Research 2has borne out time and time again that communication difficulties between hearing perpetrators and Deaf people plays a central role in the abuse of Deaf people. Language deprivation means that there is increased physical emotional and financial dependency on others for basic needs, a lack of control over their own lives and a lack of knowledge about sex, and “good” versus “bad” touching. The pervasiveness of violence in the broader society towards the Deaf community demonstrates it is a rare Deaf individual, whether male, female, non-binary, or trans who has not been touched by violence.
We point the finger of responsibility of violence towards Deaf people at the broader society’s failures to provide Deaf people with quality education as well as access to a diverse range of communication strategies. We point the finger of responsibility of ongoing, persistent and pervasive violence towards the extreme reluctance to provide educational resources about violence in any form or manner in an accessible format or make it language concordant. The T.V. advertisements relating to how violence is never acceptable, for example, is often not captioned, nor do they portray disabled or deaf actors. It is also never in Auslan. Resources are generally provided in English only. There is never any funding to provide Auslan translations of what is already available, or to train Deaf people to become professionals in these arenas.
We point the finger at the utter inadequacy of sex education resources. Not only is sex education in Australia designed with a heavy emphasis on criminal justice, but it is also designed without young people’s input3• It is designed without any thought towards young deaf people’s needs in terms of their experiences of the world and their communication needs. There are no resources designed in Auslan for deaf students. There is no genuine desire to put resources towards equipping Deaf adults to train in high quality and accessible sex education.
The lack of communication skills blocks the ability of Deaf people to understand what violence in all its forms is, to report violence or locate resources for help. Reaching out for help can be futile. Many refuge centres for survivors of domestic violence are accessed only by a phone call - imagine the Deaf survivor who is trying to escape and get support?
1 See: Araten-Bergen, T. & Bigby, C. (2020), Violence prevention strategies for people with intellectual disabilities: A scoping review. Australian Social Work, DOI: 10.1080/0312407X.2020.1777315 2 See for example, Ballan, M.S., et. al (2016) 3 See Marson’s (2022) Legitimate Sexpectations: the Power of Sex-Ed.
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Deaf people already struggle mightily to get their preferred interpreters booked; imagine what it’s like to try to even get a quality interpreter at extremely short notice, or in this context, no notice. What then happens is that family members/partners/friends who may be perpetrators will be the ‘interpreter.’ This already happens in situations such as the hospital and at the police station. These ‘interpreters’ are less likely to admit to the truth, even when they are not the perpetuator.
Aud ism is inbuilt into the criminal justice system. There is significant distrust of the police, because who would believe a Deaf woman and/or girl who requires an interpreter to voice for them (even then, who can trust that the interpreter can voice accurately for the Deaf person?) and a hearing individual who can speak for themselves? When Deaf women and girls are seen as failing the standard of success, behaviours and values of the broader society they are then disbelieved or not seen as worthy of much support.
Agencies such as the NDIS are also likely to indirectly allow the violence to happen, because they don’t recognise that the people surrounding the Deaf person are potentially the ones perpetuating the violence. When they are notified that violence has occurred towards the deaf person, they are likely to plan and conduct meetings to plan a route out of the violence with the perpetrators in attendance.
Intimate partner violence Women and girls with disabilities are twice as likely to experience violence compared to those who don’t have disabilities. Women and girls within their CALO communities are more vulnerable to family violence as well, and Deaf women and girls are therefore highly likely to experience a level of violence. Violence towards Deaf women and girls tend to be intersectional in that it is gender disability-CALD-based violence4• It is honestly remarkable that we still have living Deaf women and girls, given the very real risk of violence towards them. One recent research5 demonstrated that Deaf female undergraduates are two times as likely to experience interpersonal trauma, because violence towards women and girls are so pervasive.
The paucity of data in this area is due to research focusing primarily on those in private homes, at school and presented in a spoken and written language that is inaccessible for Deaf women and girls. The research available tends to ignore those who live in group homes, those who are living with family members as adults (i.e. elderly women living with their children). Yet we know that violence occurs because we share a common language (Auslan) and because the Deaf community is small every one of us knows someone who experienced violence. We all have examples of violence performed towards us. Yet who listens?
Intimate partner violence is a significant risk in the Deaf community. Yet this is rarely investigated and researched in depth because of a deep distrust of the police and communication barriers.
4 See, for example, Our Watch+ Women with Disabilities Victoria’s (2020) paper: Prevention of Violence Towards Women and Girls with Disabilities. chrome extension:// efa idnbmnnn ibpcajpcgl cl efindmkaj/https://a po .org. au/sites/ default/fi les/resou rce-fil es/2022 02/apo-n id316316_2.pdf
5 See, for example, West, C.A. (2022), Health, Human Rights, and Structural Violence: Identifying Barriers to Healthcare Access of Deaf American Sign Language Users in Rhode Island, Accessed Online at: https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=maisce
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Language concordant services are just not at all there to provide support for Deaf women and girls. Deaf women and girls are likely to contend with Deaf-specific abuse, such as restricting access to Auslan based resources, refusing to allow a social life with other Deaf people and/or damaging hearing aids and cochlear implants. This results in information deprived trauma, which is further reinforced by services not being available for Deaf women and girls, or services arguing they cannot provide interpreters due to being cash strapped. Emotional abuse can include refusing to sign or making cruel comments about the hearing status of the person.
Recommendations
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That Deaf-led research and analysis be carried out in depth with the intention of developing Deaf-based and appropriate prevention and intervention methods.
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That there be regular and timely evaluations of prevention and intervention methods to judge their effectiveness in preventing violence against women and girls.
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That Auslan and Deaf Awareness Training (DAT) is provided to all hearing services as a compulsory aspect of induction and regular training sessions that specialise in IPV to gain some awareness of this invisible problem.
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That staff working in services to prevent violence or provide shelter have significant knowledge and understanding of human rights and dignity afforded to deaf women and girls.
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That staff working in services to prevent violence or provide shelter for Deaf women and girls as well as Deaf plus women and girls be Deaf-led or highly knowledgeable about the Deaf community.
Violence towards deaf children Hearing parents of deaf children From the moment a baby is identified as deaf, the risk of violence is then present. This is more likely to happen within the 90% of deaf babies born to hearing parents (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 2016). Hearing parents are more likely to be rougher with their deaf children (need to source this one - based on mother-baby bond chapter) One study (need to find this source) detailed that abuse begins with neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse, usually from their parents.
Research suggests 81% of hearing parents cannot effectively communicate with their deaf children (Schwenke, 2011), putting deaf children at a higher risk of neglect and abuse as well as long-term damage to their emotional development and self-esteem. Children with language deprivation syndrome are unable to detail what has happened to them and so this is likely significantly underreported.
Teachers of deaf children We have historical anecdotal evidence of the incredible and appalling maltreatment of deaf children attending Deaf schools, with commissions across the world finding how deaf children were treated6 We know that this violence continues in the form of depriving deaf students of direct instruction in sign language and access to other signing peers in situations where there are no other deaf students
6 see for example: https://www.stuff.eo.nz/national/crime/129303965/abuse-in-care-deaf-children-smacked for-fai Ii ng-to-1 ip-read-den i ed-sign-1 a nguage
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attending the school7. We know that teachers and those with authority in education with little to no Auslan would engage in violent means with the students, including physical, verbal and emotional abuse.
I had a student in a kinder who was profoundly deaf and had severe autism. No expressive language was ever evidenced yet would demonstrate behaviour that was repetitive and looking back, they were trying to communicate feeling overwhelmed in the busy environment of the kinder. Looking to a colleague who worked in the special needs class for many years for advice, I was told that if that student demonstrated misbehaviour to give him a wedgie to “snap him out of it.” I was horrified at this suggestion and, absolutely refused to resort to that type of strategy.
Recommendations
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Parents who discover their child is deaf require wrap-around services. This includes the provision of a Deaf role model to support communication and be a present support person to ask questions at any time.
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Parents should be provided with the opportunity to access Auslan courses appropriate for parent-child communication. This should be automatically provided from identification of deafness with wrap around services to assist with any challenges to get involved.
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No Teacher of the Deaf can work with deaf children unless they are fluent in Auslan.
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Programs should always be Deaf-led or if this is not available, should always be led by people who are fluent in Auslan and have genuine links in the Deaf community to support these programs.
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Regular evaluations of staff involved in Deaf education - concerns should always be reported and investigated without punishment towards the whistle-blower.
Violence towards Deaf plus individuals When we refer to Deaf plus individuals, we are referring to a group of people within the Deaf community with disabilities other than deafness, such as autism, intellectual and severe language delay, needing to use a wheelchair or cerebral palsy. Deaf plus individuals are more likely to experience violence at the hands of able-bodied people, whether hearing or Deaf. This can include support workers, family members and those who work in group homes, for example. The violence towards Deaf plus people are severely underreported for several reasons:
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Mobility issues equates a reliance on others to do things an able-bodied person can do.
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Cognitive challenges equate a lack of understanding that what happens to them is unacceptable.
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Reluctance in the Deaf community to support Deaf plus individuals who do try to report what is happening for them.
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Services are not equipped with skilled staff to work with Deaf plus individuals.
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Reporting to the police presents with challenges unique to Deaf plus individuals, such as a reluctance to believe them, try to understand what is happening and provide appropriate support.
7 Snoddon et. al (2020) references this as social and epistemological violence. See: Snoddon, K. (2020). The social and epistemological violence of inclusive education for deaf learners. Disability Studies in Education Critical Conversations. Vol. 9, 5.
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Violence can be physical, verbal, sexual and emotional. We also know of anecdotal reports where ex peers of Deaf plus young people from school have manipulated them by saying statements such as “I won’t be your friend if you don’t give me money.”
Recommendations
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Prevention must start early in the Deaf plus child’s life. Programs that are touted as life-skills programs must include best practice sex education and preventative violence education tailored to everyone’s needs.
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There should be school to post-education tracking, data collated, and support provided whenever there is a question mark involved along the way.
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Support people involved in Deaf plus services should be thoroughly screened. Employing staff who are barely out of school or have Auslan qualifications untested should never be the standard of care.
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Support staff should be expected to keep up the date with qualifications and training.
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Support staff should be fluent in conversational Auslan.
Elder Abuse
The general statistics available is that one in five experience some level of elder abuse. Those with disabilities are more likely to experience abuse, with 1 in 4 doing so. This is on the basis that they are reported, meaning that there are many more who do not report their abuse due to a variety of factors. As the generation of baby boomers age, the risk of elder abuse increases and this risk increases significantly more so with the elder Deaf population as well. While there are community grassroots programs and organisations such as COTA8 to support those at risk of elder abuse, this is not accessible to the deaf elder population, for reasons as cited above: the lack of Auslan translated materials, lack of access to interpreters especially in emergency situations, everything is produced in English and reaching out for help requires a level of fluency in English which many don’t have.
It is indeed impossible to see Aged Care in a positive light. It is also impossible not to be aware that Aged Care is a dangerous space generally speaking and even more so for Deaf people who have no choice but to go into care. To give you one example; we know that there are many who are isolated because of being the only Deaf person living in the home. We know that there are many who are desperate for contact yet the staffing turnover and the demands placed upon the homes mean that no staff are able to adequately communicate with them. This is a form of informational deprivation abuse, intentional or not9 and exacerbates the informational deprivation trauma they already experience.
One Deaf woman isolated in aged care was physically frail and needed a support worker to take her out and about for short bursts of time. She went into a lift at the home and the lift broke down, with only herself in it. She was in it for just over an hour and had fallen. There was no way of communicating with her and it took firefighters to get the lift opened. She was found dehydrated and taken to emergency; she is now in palliative care and declining. Although the staff indicated their distress at not being able to communicate with her the fact remains; they hadn’t made the effort before and nor was there any thought to making emergency procedures visual for this woman.
8 Council of The Ageing 9 See, for example, Johnson, P. Cawthorn, S., Fink, B., Wendel, E. & Schoffstall S. (2018). Trauma and Resilience in Deaf Individuals. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Vol. 23, 4: 317-330.
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The Deaf elderly community are often reliant on their adult children for language access. Over 80% of elder abuse is perpetuated by the adult sons and daughters10. Childhood experiences of violence means that Deaf elders are more likely to accept abusive behaviour towards themselves (private communication). We have anecdotal reports of elder Deaf people having their children borrow money from them only to refuse to pay it back. We have anecdotal reports of elder Deaf people being situated in nursing homes with no other Deaf members and not being able to communicate with staff in their preferred language of Auslan. We have anecdotal reports of elder Deaf people have family members cut them off and refuse to communicate with them. There are also reports of Deaf spouses attempting to visit their Deaf spouse in the nursing home, but unable to get inside the building for hours because there are intercoms to get in, and nobody comes to let them in.
Recommendations
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Watch/listen to concerns shared by elderly people and their caregivers to understand the challenges and provide support.
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Report abuse to the relevant authorities, and/or support the elderly person/people making the report. Provide wrap-around support in keeping in touch, utilise preferred interpreters where necessary and refer them to community organisations such as Ephpheta or the John Pierce Centre.
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Educate those working in elderly community organisations to be Deaf-aware, know how to provide appropriate support and communicate with them using their preferred interpreters.
10 See https:ljseniorsrights.org.au