Project Description

Sadly, people with disabilities get abused, sometimes at the hands of people who help or care for them. Care providers and personal assistants, including family members and service providers (paid or unpaid) can be abusive. When abuse occurs, a disabled person’s personal health, safety and emotional well-being may be at risk, along with their ability to engage in daily life activities. For a more detailed introduction to the issue of abuse of adults with disabilities, click here.

Our goal is to reduce the incidence of abuse and empower people with disabilities through education and support about abuse and safety awareness and abuse-prevention strategies. CAPE offers learning tools that appeal to wide audiences, including stories, movies, comic book scenes, quizzes, and games in formats that learners already regard as fun and entertaining.

The completed curriculum (anticipated for fall of 2008) will explore fundamental issues of abuse, best-practices training approaches, and stories of disabled people confronting and resisting abuse. CAPE also helps teachers adapt learning activities for use at disability and senior community events, rehabilitation sessions, schools and independent living training sessions. CAPE is funded by the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation and Research (NIDRR). Below are some samples of CAPE resources now available for free use via our website.

Read excerpts from our forthcoming book, Sticks and Stones: Disabled People’s Stories of Abuse, Defiance and Resilience. It is a collection of stories showing how people with disabilities have successfully resisted abuse. It also includes a teaching guide which offers disabled people, teachers, counselors and family members a range of approaches to teaching and learning about abuse.

CAPE Comic Book Scenes, depicting interactions between people with disabilities and their personal assistance providers or family members, show disabled people being mistreated and taking steps to confront or correct the mistreatment.  These scenarios help people with disabilities clarify what abuse is and create new strategies for challenging abuse. The teaching guide will offer training approaches for classes and individuals.

Several other elements of this curriculum are also available online.  These include several videos for disabled people, families, and professionals.  There are also tips for avoiding abuse, printable brochures, and links to other relevant and helpful websites. You may also take an interactive quiz that can help you evaluate your relationship with your care provider and determine how you can improve that relationship using the resources available here and elsewhere.

These tools, resources, and activities are designed to break through the stereotypes and provide real methods to stop abuse.  This site will be continually updated in the future, with the addition of more stories, more activities, and more multimedia resources.  Also, all of the resources in this curriculum are available in both English and Spanish.