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I am Deaf or Hearing-Impaired

If you are Deaf or Hearing-impaired you may feel particularly vulnerable to being raped.

Deaf/H-impaired women have talked about being sexually assaulted by people they know and trust - a male friend, family member, neighbour, teacher, a man who offered them a lift home, someone in a boarding house or institution.

The incidence of sexual assault against members of the Deaf community is estimated to be at least four times higher than that for the general population (Johnson, L., The particular vulnerabilities of deaf children to child sexual abuse, Deaf Society of NSW, 1994). Most of the rapists are men who the Deaf/H-impaired person knows and trusts. They may be Deaf or hearing men.

Some common feelings

• You may not be quite sure about what rape actually is, or whether what happened to you was sexual assault.
• You may try to tell yourself that what happened wasn't so bad.
• You may feel embarrassed, guilty or ashamed.
• You might think you were raped because you are Deaf /H-impaired.
• Or you may feel something different.

Things you can do

• Tell someone about it.
• If you've been assaulted, or if you've been made to have sexual contact in a way you didn't want, it's important to tell someone who will understand how you feel. It is hard for anyone to speak about being sexually abused; you have an extra problem in a world where most people are ignorant about Deaf communication.
• Let people know you are Deaf/H-impaired.
• If you decide to go to a police station or hospital, let them know you're Deaf/H-impaired. Deaf/H-impaired women have told about people thinking they were in shock, or they were drunk, because those people didn't understand why their communication was different from that of a hearing person.

Some common difficulties

• It can be hard to tell police that a parent or friend sexually assaulted you.
• It can be hard to sign about the assault in front of the interpreter, and see the interpreter use signs for it. Some Deaf/H-impaired women use fingerspelling for some words about the assault, and ask the interpreter to do the same.
• It can be hard to report a Deaf offender-this can seem like betraying the community. There can be pressure not to 'dob in a deafie', and some people are afraid that if they do he will kill himself, because he can't fit into the hearing world.
• It can be hard to deal with fears that people in the Deaf /H-impaired community will gossip about the attack.

You are not to blame for what happened, even if you
were friendly with the attacker in the beginning.

Getting help
Police
If you go to the police they should offer to take you to a sexual assault service for counselling and/or medical attention, if you want. You have the right to an interpreter, and you may prefer a woman.

NSW Health Sexual Assault Services
NSW Health Sexual Assault Services offer free face-to-face counselling after a sexual assault. They can arrange an interpreter who uses the language you prefer, for example Auslan or Signed English.

You may want a friend or a family member to be your interpreter, but this can cause problems in counselling. When you use a professional interpreter anything you sign about is confidential-this means they cannot talk about it with anyone else, or even tell anyone they interpreted for you. The interpreter is not a counsellor; her job is to help you and the hearing counsellor talk to each other.

The NSW Rape Crisis Centre
The TTY number at the NSW Rape Crisis Centre is 9181 4349, for telephone counselling, information and referral. You can ring any time, 24-hours, you don't have to give your name, and it's confidential and free.

Other services
You can contact services that don't have TTY telephones through the National Relay Service.

For service providers ...

How can you make access easier?

• It is easier for a lot of deaf /hearing-impaired women to use services if there is a worker (either hearing or deaf) who can sign. Services should say on their brochures and leaflets if someone there can sign.
• Services should advertise their TTY number, if they have one (and get one if they don't).
• Services need to develop connections with the Deaf /Hearing-impaired community.

Booking an interpreter
When you book an interpreter for a deaf/hearing-impaired person, you'll need to find out whether they communicate through: Australian sign language (Auslan), Oral, Cued Speech or Signed English (SE). A woman who is deaf and blind will need an Usher interpreter.

Agencies that can arrange sign-language interpreters for deaf /hearing-impaired people include Language Services, the Community Relations Commission of NSW, the Deaf Society of NSW, and the Health Care Interpreter Service.