An Overview – How To Best Use The Disability Without Abuse Project’s Many Features

Thank you for using the Disability Without Abuse Project. I thought it would be helpful to provide an overview of how we have set this up, the many ways to use the Project, and how you can best benefit from your participation. We have tried to identify different ways that people with disabilities experience abuse and criminal victimization, established discussion groups, and developed an Advisory Board to help guide our efforts.

How We Have Set This Up:

The Disability Without Abuse Project is new (launched Independence Day 2020), but is an extension and expansion of a project called Disability and Abuse, which was operated by Dr. Nora Baladerian (and which is now permanently closed),

Dr. Baladerian is a psychologist who specializes in treating individuals with developmental disabilities and intellectual disabilities who have been the victims of sexual assault, rape, incest, domestic violence, and other crimes, as well as victims of emotional abuse. Dr. Baladerian has served as a trainer, consultant, and expert witness for four decades, speaking to groups all over the world about this subject.

In June of 2020, Dr. Baladerian decided to expand the work, and, in collaboration with attorney Marc Dubin, developed this new project – the Disability Without Abuse Project. In collaboration with Marc, the scope of the work was expanded, to address victims with disabilities beyond those with developmental disabilities and intellectual disabilities. The new project focuses on abuse and criminal victimization across all disabilities, including the Deaf community. We explore what studies exist, what organizations are doing, what resources are available, and what experts are writing about this important topic.

We developed a website ([www.DisabilityWithoutAbuse.com]), a Facebook presence, and a Twitter presence, as well as a robust Listserv, to share information, resources, and expertise. We brought together individuals and organizations with expertise and resources, and developed a distinguished Advisory Board. And, we made the work we are doing accessible to the public, and invited the public to help us, by reading the postings on the listerv, the website, Twitter, and Facebook, and sharing the information and adding to the discussions.

The Many Ways To Use The Project:

Getting involved with the Disability and Abuse Project is easy, and benefits everyone.
You can:
– Visit the website, and share the URL with friends and family, to get the word out about our work. Ask them to subscribe to our listserv, and have them select one or more of our discussion groups.
– Subscribe to one or more of our listserv groups.
– Apply to be on our Advisory Board.
– Tell local media about us. Have them use us a resource in their news stories.
– Forward helpful articles and materials to us for review, for possible posting to the listserv and website.
-Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and ask friends and family to follow us as well.
– Read the posts, and respond – we want to hear from you and learn from you.