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RACHEL: Hi, my name is Rachel Miyazaki.
COURTNEY: My name is Courtney Cole.
RACHEL: And today we want to talk about a topic
that isn't talked about enough.
COURTNEY: Which is the impact of sexual abuse
on the disability community.
RACHEL: The #MeToo movement was started in 2006 by Tarana Burke.
COURTNEY: It sparked a national conversation,
which led to survivors speaking out.
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What you may not know is that people with disabilities
are twice as likely to face sexual abuse
as their non-disabled peers.
RACHEL: Disability advocates from all over the world
are starting to speak out about the need
for disability to be included in the larger #MeToo movement.
COURTNEY: Alice Wong, from the Disability Visibility Project,
approached us and wanted to really start a discussion
about how this issue affects people with disabilities.
This collaboration culminated in a Twitter chat
that happened on February 21, 2018.
ALICE: Hi, my name is Alice Wong.
I'm the founder and director
of the Disability Visibility Project.
When I first saw the #MeToo movement come out,
especially on Twitter, it was, you know, really exciting.
It kind of gave permission for a lot of people, publicly,
for the first time, to tell their stories.
There wasn't the same kind of
floodgates opening in terms of
stories from the disability community.
COURTNEY: Emily Ladau tweets: #MeToo and #TimesUp
have been inclusive of disability only at surface level.
"Disability" is often a word added among a list
of marginalized identities that a movement
claims to represent, but substantive dialogue
and allyship are missing.
RACHEL: What are some main takeaways
that you got from the Twitter chat,
or main ideas that you saw popping up?
VILISSA: Just the fact that people needed
a space to share their stories.
I think for some people, it was the first time
or one of the handful of times
that they were able to talk about it.
You know, folks just really supporting each other.
But I think when you get that type of response
from those within your own community,
I think it means something of value.
COURTNEY: Were there any specific stories or comments
during the chat that really hit hard for you?
ALICE: Well, I do think a lot of the stories from
people who have been institutionalized,
I think that's a missing piece that part of the larger
#MeToo movement doesn't understand.
People who rely on, you know, personal assistants
just to get out of bed, just, you know, to be a part of society,
they don't realize how much imbalance there is
in the power dynamics.
These are all, kind of, relationships that
can easily lead to
coercion, abuse, and violence.
RACHEL: @GeorgesDryad tweets: All the advice --
"run, fight back" -- is for non-disabled women.
What if you can't run?
What if you can't fight back?
Where's the advice for us?
VILISSA: You know, it's so easy to
tell somebody to come forward
but when it comes to having intersected disability identities,
that's not easy.
You know, there are certain communities,
such as people of color, those that are LGBTQ,
those with psychiatric disabilities, have a very genuine and
understandable and realistic fear.
COURTNEY: Alaina Leary tweets: I'm a disabled sexual assault survivor.
I've written publicly about being a survivor --
often my disability is erased or abled status is assumed.
It's also assumed I'm straight and my assailant was male.
ALICE: You know, there are so many different intersections:
disabled person of color, disabled femme,
disabled womxn of color,
whether you speak English,
whether you're monolingual or not.
These are all huge factors in terms of
not only just being taken seriously
but also being believed.
I think the purpose of all these stories
is to really motivate us and politicize us and to,
to activate us and to get us passionate
to get us to care about one another
and also to think about the work ahead.
We all have the power to do something.
And I do think stories are that spark.
COURTNEY: Whether someone identifies themself
when they tell their story or tells it anonymously,
for the rest of the community, it shows that we exist.
We're out there and we're experiencing this abuse
too.
RACHEL: For anyone thinking that, "Oh there are already
so many stories out there, my story won't make a difference",
you can't tell your story enough.
Even if a hundred other womxn say "#MeToo",
your "#MeToo" will still be valid
and still be just as important.
COURTNEY: If you want to share your story
there are a few ways you can do that.
On social media, you can share your story @RootedinRights
and use the hashtag #DisabilityToo
You can send us a letter,
or you can submit an audio, video, or written piece online.
RACHEL: You can find all this information and more
at RootedinRights.org/DisabilityToo
ALICE: We can't be the only ones doing this
and that's part of the idea of visibility
is that hopefully people will see it.
They'll be moved by it and they will carry this forward.
The work has just begun.
COURTNEY: Share this video.