Sexual violence against students with disabilities on campus: a review of resources and accessibilities
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Sexual violence against students with disabilities is like a submerged iceberg hiding beneath the surface of educational settings, unnoticed and ignored. On college campuses, students with disabilities experience more sexual assaults on campus than their peers without disabilities, yet there is a noticeable lack of discourse on prevention strategies and the potential benefits of increased accessibility (Burczycka, 2020; Busby K. & Birenbaum J., 2020). Most Canadian universities fail to provide accommodation for disclosure and policy implementation, which are their legal duty to ensure trauma-informed services for the students (Chugani et al., 2021; Fread, 2021). This denial of accommodation to people with disabilities disregards not only constitutes a violation of legal obligation but also infringes upon their inherent human rights. This barrier to justice has been a product of long-standing systemic oppression of one of the largest minority groups – people with disabilities. Research demonstrates that, instituting inclusive policy, accommodation and accessible services can eliminate the sexual violence incidents on campus (Chugani et al., 2021; Findley et al., 2016; Holloway, 2019). Moreover, these steps towards inclusivity would be meaningful to change social attitude towards people with disabilities.