Resources on technology-facilitated abuse for women with disability

Responsible government

Respect, listen and respond to the diverse lived experience and knowledge of women and their children affected by violence
- 11 Deliver policies and services to address the disproportionate impact of violence on particular groups.
Respond to sexual violence and sexual harassment
- 15 Strengthen the capacity of all sectors to address sexual harassment to ensure women are safe at work, while studying, in public and online.

The Commonwealth Government is working with the disability sector to:

identify how technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) is being used in the context of domestic and family violence
develop specialist materials to empower frontline workers in the community to effectively support women with intellectual and/or cognitive disability
provide support to ensure the program can support frontline workers across the country.
The Commonwealth Government has provided $1.5 million between 2019–20 and 2021–22 to fund resources on technology-facilitated abuse for women with intellectual and/or cognitive disability.

The first tranche of resources on technology facilitated abuse (Easy English guides: ‘What you can do about abuse through technology’ and ‘What you can do about image-based abuse’) was released in 2020.
Tailored webinar-based training for domestic and family violence and disability support frontline workers was launched in January 2021. As at end September 2021 eSafety has trained 204 frontline workers from the domestic and family violence and disability sectors.
Research into the TFA experiences of women with an intellectual disability and/or cognitive disability was released in August 2021.
In collaboration with the disability sector, eSafety launched a second tranche of resources in August 2021. These resources include case study videos (featuring actors with intellectual disability), conversation cards and wallet ‘keep safe’ cards and posters.
In 2022, eSafety will develop and launch an online learning module to complement its support offering for frontline workers supporting women with intellectual disability.

The intended outcomes of these activities are to increase sector capacity and capability in understanding the impact of technology-facilitated abuse on women with intellectual and/or cognitive disability
Indicators for monitoring and evaluating the performance of these activities include:
- completed development of targeted and accessible training materials
- number of frontline workers trained.

27 October 2021