Advocates push awareness about sexual assaults on disabled

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Advocates are focusing attention on the high number of physical and sexual assaults perpetrated against people with disabilities.

Nancy Smith, a suburban Columbus woman who works on victimization issues for the New York-based Vera Institute for Justice, said people with disabilities are often invisible in society and don’t know how to talk about what happened to them.

Sadie Hunter, executive director of People First Ohio, told the Columbus Dispatch for a story Sunday (http://bit.ly/1Xy2mE8 ) she once taught a sex abuse training class to a class of disabled and only one in 50 had not been abused.

An April report by Disability Rights Ohio found inadequate research and no statewide coordinated effort addressing sex abuse of the disabled.

Federal data shows higher rates of violent crime against the disabled.

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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com