The Ministry of Justice is funding a team of disabled and non-disabled researchers to talk to D/deaf and disabled adult victims and survivors of rape and sexual violence in England and Wales about their support needs. 

Every individual who has been affected by sexual violence deserves to be able to access high-quality, specialist support, however, sadly, we know that many survivors are not always receiving the level of support that they deserve. To help improve services and ensure that disabled survivors' needs are being met, we need to know much more about disabled people’s experience of sexual support services. This research can help provide an important insight to the experiences of D/deaf and disabled survivors of sexual violence to help shape support services going forwards.

The research team, led by Dr Andrea Hollomotz and Dr Leah Burch at the University of Leeds will undertake qualitative research to understand the support needs of disabled adult victim-survivors of rape and sexual violence. The research team have produced the following video to provide an insight to their work, including why it is needed and what you can expect if you participate.

Please visit https://survivors-project.leeds.ac.uk/ for further information about the project and how to get involved.