Disability hate incidents

About disability hate incidents

A disability hate incident is defined as:

Any incident perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice based on a person's disability or perceived disability.

This means a hate incident is when anyone feels they have been picked on or targeted because of their disability. The victim or the witnesses' perception is used to 'early-identify' if an incident is motivated by hostility towards the victim's disability.

Disability hate incidents also include the following:

• disability hate by association - sometimes you may experience disability hate incidents through your association with a disabled person, for example, as carers or family members
• presumed disability - incidents where an offender has mistakenly believed that the victim is disabled

Identifying the type of incident early will ensure that it is recorded appropriately. The agency that you report it to will take into account the element of prejudice towards disabled people in their investigation.

About direct disability hate incidents

Direct disability hate incidents include:

• physical abuse - spitting, punching, kicking, slapping, pushing or behaviour which leads to physical injury
• threats - words of a threatening nature, for example “I’m going to beat you up” or “I’m going to get you and your family”
• verbal abuse - name calling, swearing, abusive telephone calls
• sexual abuse - this can be abuse including degradation, rape, assault
• written or printed abuse - letters by post, leaflets or posters using prejudiced language, abusive text messages and so on against disabled people
• graffiti or disability hate language or images - written or drawn onto property
• attacks on property or home - deliberate damage to your home or assistive equipment, eggs or stones thrown at property, tyres slashed, windows broken
• harassment - persistent intimidating or threatening behaviour which is spread over a period of time

Who a disabled person is

Under the Equality Act 2010 a person has a disability if they have:

• a physical or mental impairment
• the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities

Guidance on the definition of disability on GOV.UK.

These are the same as under Disability Discrimination Act.

The social model of disability distinguishes between:

• 'impairment' (functional limitations of mind, body, or senses) 
• 'disability' (disadvantage or restrictions of activity placed by the society). 

A key concept of the social model is that society disables people by the way things are arranged. Organise things differently, and they are suddenly enabled - though the impairment has not changed. 

The social model regards disability as:

‘The loss of or limitation of opportunities to take part in the normal life of the community on an equal level with others due to physical or social barriers.’

The above definition focuses on removing barriers that prevent disabled people's participation as citizens.

Disabled people include people with:

• physical disabilities or who find it difficult to move around
• sensory disabilities or who can not hear or see, or who find it difficult to hear or see
• learning disabilities
• mental illness
• long term conditions

In April 2005, the law was changed by section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Section 146 imposed a duty upon courts to increase the sentence for any offence (for example, assault or criminal damage) aggravated by hostility based on the victim’s disability or presumed disability. For the purposes of Section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, disability is defined as ‘any physical or mental impairment.’

Report a disability hate incident

Report to a third-party organisation

Support services for victims of a disability hate crime

Links to support in other formats

True-Vision easy read self-reporting forms for people with learning disabilities

Working with disabled people, their carers, and support organisation, we've designed an easy read form.

If you have a learning disability or care for someone that does, you can download easy read forms to report hate incidents.

You can:

• draw on the form to tell us more about what happened
• report all types of hate incidents through these forms
• get information about disability hate incidents and support available

Send an email to communitysafety.casework@brighton-hove.gov.uk to get a form.