Disability abuse

Disability abuse occurs when a person with a disability is abused physically, financially, sexually, or psychologically because of their disability, a phenomenon that has been categorized as a form of hate crime and that extends beyond visible disabilities to people with learning, intellectual, developmental, or mental health conditions. It commonly takes three forms: bullying, including physical, verbal, and cyberbullying, with research finding that 63 percent of autistic children in the United States and 82 percent of children with a learning disability in the United Kingdom are bullied; sexual abuse, which is notably underreported despite studies indicating that more than 90 percent of developmentally disabled people will experience it at some point in their lives; and institutional abuse occurring in hospitals, care homes, and nursing facilities where disabled people often reside. The World Health Organization estimates that disabled people make up about 15 percent of the global population, yet they face disproportionate risks of violence: disabled children experience violence at roughly three times the rate of non-disabled peers, and adults with mental health conditions face about 50 percent higher risk of violence. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/