ASHLEY BROMPTON: Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our webinar today. Thank you for filling out the poll. It was really interesting to see the responses. A lot of folks are planning on doing what I'm planning on doing this weekend, which is watching a favorite TV show, or movie, or just enjoying something on Netflix if you are me, and catching up on sleep. 

Working out, cooking happening, not to the same extent. We All have to take our self-care in the directions that work for us. So I'm really excited to be introducing these poll features into our sessions during our waiting periods so that you have something that you can interact with and we can get to know each other and talk to each other while we're waiting. 

My name is Ashley Brompton. I'm with the Center on Victimization and Safety at the Vera Institute of Justice. Welcome to all of you to today's webinar. We are pleased to bring this to you as part of our 2021 End Abuse of People with Disabilities webinar series. Before we get started today, I want to provide some information about the accessibility features of our webinar platform and how you can interact with us throughout the session today. 

You should be in listen-only view-only mode. That means you can hear and see us, but we cannot hear and see you. If you would like to turn the captioning on, you can go to the bottom of your screen. It now says "Live transcripts." It used to say "Captioning" for those of you who have been around on our webinars for a while. If you click that little caret to the right of the CC box, you can choose one of two views. You can either choose the Show Subtitle or View Full Transcript view. Once you do, the words I'm speaking should appear below my video if you're using the Subtitle view or to the right of your Zoom window where the chat would normally be if you're using the Full Transcript view. 

Today, we're going to have a multilingual space. The presentation is in English with American Sign Language and Spanish interpretation available. You should see one of our American Sign Language interpreters on your screen right now. If you requested Spanish interpretation, you should have received an email about how to access the spoken language interpretation line on Zoom. If you did not receive that email, my colleagues should also be posting some information in the chat for you. We're going to plan on pausing every 20 minutes or so for an interpreter switch. This ensures the highest quality of interpretation throughout our session today. 

If you have any issues with the interpreters or the captioning, or any other challenges throughout the session, please let us know. We value complete access in our virtual sessions. If we have a technical problem, we will pause to address the issue. If the issue cannot be resolved, we may have to cancel the session. If that happens, we'll send you an email with further information about what happened and what our response was. 

Feel free to use the chat to communicate with each other or with our Vera staff, who is helping out today. If you have a question for the presenters, however, it would be really helpful to them and to us if you use the Question and Answer box rather than the chat so that those questions don't get lost. 

Some of you might have noticed already the chat does scroll throughout the session. It's hard for us to find questions that may have been asked earlier in the session if they're not put in the Q&A. You can find the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen. You just click that, and you can add your question right in there. We do hold questions until the end of the discussion just to make sure that the panelists have an opportunity to get any information out that they would like to do. If you'd like to ask a question in American Sign Language, please raise your hands, and we will confirm that you need that, and then we can give you video privileges. 

A quick note about the chat pod, you cannot save the chat pod. This is a security feature. You also cannot copy and paste from the chat. If we share any links and the chat, we will make sure to include them in participant materials for the session. We know how valuable those are for you all. So we will make sure that they are provided in a way that you can access after the session since you can't copy and paste them. 

Right now, if you join using your web browser, you may only be seeing speaker view, which is probably the American Sign Language interpreter only. This is not ideal. You're not going to be able to see myself or the panelists in today's session. If you joined via the Zoom desktop application, which is what we would recommend, you should have several viewing options if you click the View icon in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. 

One of those options should say Gallery View. Once there's a PowerPoint being shared, it might say Side by Side Gallery view. That's the best option that you want to select that will allow you to see not only the American Sign Language interpreter but also the panelists today and the PowerPoint that's being shared. It will give you the full view of everything that is happening in today's session. If you have any problems figuring out which view you are in, please let us know in the chat or the Q&A. And we are more than happy to help you figure that out. 

We will be recording today's webinar. The recording and materials will be posted on the End Abuse of People with Disabilities website within two weeks. A record of attendance and materials for the session, including the PowerPoint, will be available for download via link in the chat pod. I'm going to go ahead and copy and paste that link in now so that you have it. And it will be posted periodically throughout the session as well. You can click that link. And you can download the resources that you might need for the session, including the PowerPoint and the record of attendance. 

I'm now going to introduce our panelists for today's session. Our main presenter today is Leslie Myers. Leslie joined Vera in October of 2010 as a senior program associate. She provides technical assistance to OVW, that's the Office on Violence Against Women, grantees, and others. Leslie also works to prepare self-advocates to work with their peers who have experienced violence and abuse. In addition, Leslie was the co-project director for the Supporting Crime Victims with Disabilities Grant, which created a robust toolkit for service providers, law enforcement, forensic interviewers, attorneys, and others on serving victims of crimes with disability. 

Leslie has been working on issues related to violence against people with disabilities since 1994. In 1997, after losing her leg, Leslie made the issue her life's mission while standing at the bottom of a set of stairs leading to a sexual violence agency where she was applying for an internship. Leslie worked as a project director for Milwaukee Disability Grant Programs multidisciplinary collaborations focused on enhancing the capacity of service providers and improving the coordination of supports and services for women with disabilities who are victims or survivors of violence. 

For those of you commenting in the chat right now that you can only see myself and the interpreter, that is correct. Right now, that is all that is on the screen. Leslie and Leigh Ann will be joining us in a few moments. 

For the second half of our session today, Leslie will be joined by Leigh Ann Bary. Leigh Ann joined the Sexual Assault Response Unit within the Disabled Persons Protection Commission in September of 2017. Leigh Ann is a self-advocate and experienced trainer. She has served as a trainer with the Awareness and Action Program of Mass Advocates Standing Strong and has trained at venues across Massachusetts South Shore. 

In 2016, Leigh Ann began serving as an advisor to the ACL multidisciplinary projects of the Massachusetts Building Partnerships Initiative and developed guidelines for Massachusetts Rape Crisis Centers in working with survivors with disabilities-- with intellectual and developmental disabilities, excuse me. Thank you both, Leslie and Leigh Ann. I'm now going to turn it over to Leslie to get us started today. 

LESLIE MYERS: Hi, everybody. Let me get my PowerPoint up here. All right. So this may be a good way to end Sexual Assault Awareness Month. So welcome, everyone. Our goals for today are to help you better understand sexual violence against individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We'll look at the factors that impact those victims and give you some tips on working with them. And then we'll round it all off by talking with Leigh Ann, who is a self-advocate, who will share some of her experiences within perspectives. 

Let's first take a look at some of the terms that we're using here. Sexual violence, we're using it as a non-legal term that refer to crimes such as domestic violence, or, sorry, sexual assault, rape, and sexual abuse. We also will talk about intellectual disabilities. The disability usually presents at birth and is characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviors, which includes many everyday social and practical skills. Developmental disabilities are the broader category of disabilities that originates before the age of 18. And this can be both intellectual, physical, or both. 

What we know is that the rate of sexual assault against people with intellectual disabilities is very high. It's seven times the rate of people without disabilities. And for women, that rate is actually 12 times higher. 

We also know that 49% of people with developmental disabilities are assaulted 10 or more times. More than 90% of people with developmental disabilities will experience sexual abuse in their lives. And while no research really exists on this, it is likely that people of color with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience sexual violence at even greater rates. 

Listed here some of the reasons you see these higher rates of sexual violence, including that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are often thought to be ideal victims because they're often isolated, they're devalued in our society, and they're often thought to lack of credibility when it comes to reporting. I'm not going to read to each of these. You guys will all get a copy of this. 

By leveraging these stereotypes about disabilities and taking advantage of the control that society has over people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, offenders use a variety of tactics against the individual with a disability. Offenders may exploit the trusting nature of the individual. They may become the primary caregiver or obtain a volunteer position at an agency where they will now have access to the individual with a developmental disability. They may leverage the fear of institution and isolation to maintain and keep the silence of the victim. 

We also know that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities don't have access to services. Only 13% of them will actually receive services. One of the reasons for this is the lack of-- or the barriers that exist. Those barriers can be physical, communication, programmatic, and attitudinal. Those barriers can existing victim services, in law enforcement, and within the legal system. 

Another reason is the lack of specialized knowledge and response in the organizations that serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the lack of specialized training for staff, lack of resources, and awareness of accommodations within the service agents. Now we're going to talk about some of the things we want you to remember. It's important to remember that a survivor with a disability is a person who is entitled to the dignity, considerations, respect, and rights that you expect for yourself. We want to meet the survivor we're there at, believe them, and treat adults as adults. 

We need to remember too that survivor is the expert in what they need so we need. So we need to ask them how you best can help. And be prepared to meet those needs. 

We shouldn't assume that somebody has a developmental disability. We shouldn't assume that anybody has a disability. And we don't want to ask. We want to focus on how we can help them to participate in services. And this requires noticing and really being aware of any struggles that they're having, whether it's filling out intake forms, or following your conversation, or doing other things that might be required. --so being aware, being ready to provide those services. 

And be prepared to know that a survivor might not know what they need. So you might need to be prepared to offer some things. And we'll talk more about this in a little bit. We want to offer to take a break if the survivor is tiring out or getting upset. And we want to ask them if they need anything. Most of all, don't be afraid to make mistakes. You can't make a mistake by offering help. 

For some people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, they may have difficulty reading and understanding information that is being provided verbally, especially following the trauma. So we want to think about some accommodations we can include, identifying a safe support person. And you want to make sure that they are not the abuser. 

You want to check to make sure that they're willing to be a safe support person and that you're getting permission from the individual themselves. They may need assistance completing forms or understanding written instructions. We all do a lot of major forms when we do intakes. And so this is something that could be difficult. So we want to make sure that we're providing them with assistance in completing those forms. We also want to provide some extra time for decision-making. 

We can put our information in plain language, easy-to-read formats. We can use pictures and illustrations to help explain concepts. We can read material to the person in a way that helps them understand the contents. You can check the understanding of the individual, have them repeat back, or you can them say it in their own words. Adjust the pace of the interview. Slow down as needed. And reword any questions that are needed. 

Some people might have difficulty communicating, especially following a trauma. One of the things that we have found is that people don't always have the words they need to describe what's happened to them. I've worked with a woman with an intellectual disability who was being evicted from her home from her apartment. And she didn't have the words to explain what was going on. So it required some digging to really find out what was happening. And I'm going to take a minute break here while we change interpreters. 

OK, there we are. All right. So she-- because she was being evicted, they needed intervention. But when we found out why she was evicted, it was even worse. She was being evicted because the landlord thought she was prostituting herself out of her apartment, which is against the rules. But what was really true was that a trusted taxi driver had befriended her and was bringing other taxi drivers to her home to use her for sex. He was collecting money. She wasn't collecting any money. 

So the truth of the matter was, she didn't realize how to tell anybody what was happening. And she didn't realize what was happening was wrong. So we sometimes need to dig a little bit, try and figure it out. They might be that something else is the problem. It might not be the sexual assault that they-- eventually you find out about, but it is something that is affecting their lives. 

So we want to concentrate on what the person is saying, be patient, take as much time as necessary. It might take longer to understand the individual. We want to make sure that we don't speak for the survivor or attempt to finish their sentences. And try to ask questions that require only short answers or a nod of the head if we're having difficulty understanding what they've said. 

Don't pretend that what they need or what they've what they want to say. If you don't understand, ask them to repeat it. You can consider if the person is able to write, you can consider writing as an alternative means of communication. But you want to first ask that's acceptable. 

Survivors who communication boards-- you want to be familiar with those, but also understand that this tool may not have the words needed to explain what happened either. So you might have to find a tool that-- pictures to add to that communication board. You also can identify a person who can act as a communications facilitator, a person that's familiar with the individual's speech. But again, this is something you need to make sure you're asking for permission before doing it. 

Some additional tips. Sometimes people might have difficulty with time. It's a difficult concept for a lot of people. So you might want to use common events like, was it before breakfast? Did it happen after lunch? Was it after school? Was it before school? This will help you to narrow down when something happened. If the survivor has difficulty with attention, you want to eliminate distractions in your area where you're meeting. You don't want to look like my room back here where I got tons of different things on the walls, tons of different things that can act as distractions. 

You want to-- even though I said to make the questions easy and able to be answered in single words, you want to try and avoid yes or no questions. You'll want to want to avoid "why" questions. "Why" is a difficult question to answer. And we don't want to cause the survivors to feel bad that they're unable to answer you. And we want to make sure that we're asking one question at a time. 

You can take some time to orient the survivors to your agency. Explain what's going to happen in the exam rooms or courtrooms. Help them really to acclimate their surroundings. It'll help them later on. Even if it may not get that far, it will help them to feel more comfortable. You want to pause after asking questions. You don't want to rush the survivor. If they take a long time to respond, let them have that time to respond. Give them time for processing and finding the words needed to relay their experiences. 

I thought that with-- because I've worked at the Independent Living Center, we've worked across different disabilities. But one of the groups that I found was most in need of the services that I provided, which was sexual assault and domestic violence assistance for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. There was many times when I would want to ask the question, "why?" Honestly, "why?" Why do you want us to keep going? And I had to understand that-- it took a while to understand that the feeling, and need, and really wish to feel normal. And that's a bad term to use. But to feel like you're having a normal life was very important to the individuals that I served. 

And several-- at least one of the women I worked with for quite a long time was someone whose parents had died recently. So she was living on her own for the very first time. Her parents thought of everything. They thought of making sure that she had money after they died, that she had a home to live in. 

But some of the things they did as a teacher her was about relationships. And so she had found the boyfriend. Her boyfriend would come over on the 3rd of the month. And he would stay for a few days. They had two children together. Though she didn't have-- she didn't have custody of either one. Children Services had both children. And she never even thought about trying to get custody of the children. 

And it was an abusive relationship that included sexual assault. And it was all about the money, all about her, all about power and control. But to talk to her about ending this relationship was not ever going to go anywhere because she didn't see anything wrong with it. Because at least, for that week, around the 3rd of the month, she felt like she had a normal life like everyone else. 

So part of these types of stories are giving you are-- because you want to train your staff on disability, training your staff on intellectual and developmental disability specifically, and the accommodations they need, about the stories they have to share with you. You want to budget for accommodations, create outreach materials that use plain language and images, learn about the issues that might impact survivors with intellectual developmental disabilities, such as guardianship laws, mandatory reporting laws. Work with programs that serve people with intellectual developmental disabilities to conduct outreach. Employ people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to provide peer advocate services. 

And so now, I would like to ask Leigh Ann to join us. And I'm going to stop sharing this. And will probably end in here. Hi, Leigh Ann. 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Hello, I was trying to get to Gallery views. 

LESLIE MYERS: Hey, all right. Welcome to our presentation here. I want to thank you very much for being willing to do this with our group here today. I don't know if you want to hear a little bit of your story with folks. 

LEIGH ANN BARY: OK, I don't mind. 

LESLIE MYERS: Thank you. 

LEIGH ANN BARY: So I was sexually assaulted when I was 16 by somebody was chatting the Chat Hi. I went to a hospital in Massachusetts, and I wasn't believed. They said I made it up. So I just shutted down, didn't talked to them. But what I-- this is one of the questions that I say to everybody, if you have something in the hospital that you're supporting? Has the communication of accessing survivor or not? Definitely because the house I went to, they acted like I wasn't that someone with a disability. So they rally with all the communications in front of my parents instead of me. And it was like, well, I'm right here. I'm the victim. 

LESLIE MYERS: OK, so I know that you've told me that after you were raped, you told a friend, who then went on to tell other people. How did that make you feel? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: So at first, I was mad at my friend for telling. But now I'm glad she talked I got the help I need. I was like, why would you say it? Why would you repeat what I said? I was new. I can talk of it for a while. But now we went our separate ways, unfortunately. But I was really bad at that moment she got the help I needed. 

LESLIE MYERS: Because she took away your story? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Yes. 

LESLIE MYERS: Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like when you first met with the police? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: So one of the police I had-- it happened in two different towns. So I had to go to two different police stations. The first officer was very nice. He was very-- and trauma-informed. The second wasn't really so nice. He said, if I didn't talk, then I can't do anything to help me. So he wasn't really trauma-informed till I got frustrated, and he didn't really give me time to process what he was trying to ask. So it was very frustrating for me. 

LESLIE MYERS: Yeah. What could the police do to make it better for people who are victims? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Be trauma-informed. And take your time. Explain things, what you need them to do. 

LESLIE MYERS: Great. Your case went to trial, which is pretty unique. Can you tell everybody how the prosecutors helped to prepare for court? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: So my lawyer-- I think it was about a week or so, whatever it was, took me around the court to tell me what everybody's going to be. So she showed me when the lawyers, the judges will all be, where everybody will be. And that helped my anxiety very well. 

LESLIE MYERS: OK. What do you think, is it good practice? Do you think it's-- 

LEIGH ANN BARY: It is because people with intellectual and developmental disability-- with me, I was like, waoh, what does a courtroom look like? I've never been one. So it really helped my anxiety calm down for the day of the trial. I had two trials. So the first time, she took me around. Then the second time, I got the sign of what everybody sits. 

LESLIE MYERS: Yeah, it sounds like it was a really good guy that helped you out there. 

LEIGH ANN BARY: It was. 

LESLIE MYERS: You also told me that one of the people who really, really helped you was a counselor. Could you tell us today how that has helped? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: So that counselor that helped me, she was actually listening. She is not a believe-me. She actually really helped me. She went to my first trial. She actually sat in court when I testified. So I just keep my eye on her, just so I could focus, not be so scared. But after I testify, she came down to and sat with me. So she was there for me. So she was really, really supportive of me when I went to court. 

LESLIE MYERS: She must be very proud of, well, how far you've come, huh? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Yeah, we lost contact, unfortunately. So I went off in a while. But yeah, she was my last support. 

LESLIE MYERS: Can you tell us about the work that you're doing now? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: So I work at the Disabled Persons Protection Commission in Massachusetts. I'm one of their support leaders. So I peer. My peers have been sexually assaulted. We talk whatever they want. I let them leave the meeting. I will come with ideas if they don't have anything to do. But I meet with people who've been sexually assaulted, females and males. 

LESLIE MYERS: How did you come on board? How do others do to find out about that job? And how did you become a peer leader? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Like I was actually saying, I was on the ACL grant for Disabled Persons Protection Commission. And we did a grant that helped-- Rape Crisis do gatherings better. And executive director of DPMC came up to me during the meeting and said they were going to start the Sexual Assault Response Unit and if I was interested. And I was afraid to apply because I know it would be a trigger for me. But I did apply. And I'm now doing this. 

LESLIE MYERS: And you have you worked with a survivor who might be looped. If you help move to be able to be a peer supporter? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: I did have a peer that I paired with. And she really wanted to do what I wanted to do. Now she's one of peer support leaders with us. So she's become over, teamed up with me. And then now she's a peer support leader. 

LESLIE MYERS: OK. All right. Today we got a lot of people on this call. There's 381 people on this call. So there are advocates, there's lawyers probably, some police officers, others. What are some things that you would really like them to go away with from this webinar? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Excuse me, sorry. To listen, to believe them. Take your time with them. Let them take breaks in between. Explain things and simply don't use big terms because people with intellectual disabilities somehow don't understand big terms. And just really be there for them. 

LESLIE MYERS: And with the scoop work that you are doing now-- I talked about tactics and the reason why people might be at increased victimization. What do you think of how that is framed? How do you think about how that is framed when talking about people with disabilities? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Can you re-word that, Leslie? Sorry. 

LESLIE MYERS: Yeah, I know. It's just kind of a new question. Sorry about that. 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Sorry. 

LESLIE MYERS: I talk about being vulnerable. I talked about being unable to stand up for yourselves. I talk about being unable-- being able to be manipulated by others. Can you explain how that feels when I talk like that about you, about other people with disabilities? I don't want to sound like I'm being mean or anything like that. 

LEIGH ANN BARY: So I think the education you're doing is great because professions now need to learn how to work with people on trauma. When it first happened to me, I didn't want to talk about it. I'm like, no, no, don't talk about it. Don't hang around me. I think it's really good that people-- because more people now coming in are trauma-informed and work with people with disabilities around sexual assault or whatever it is. 

LESLIE MYERS: As a person with a disability as well, we're often taught to be compliant. I've had a lot of hospital stays when I hurt my leg. And I know where the hospital-- the nurses and the doctors, they do stuff to you without asking permission. And that happens to other people with disabilities as well. People with developmental disabilities, such as spina bifida, may have constant contact with medical professionals who don't respect their boundaries, who don't ask permission first. So a nurse doesn't come in the middle of the night, they ask, may I take your blood pressure? They just take your blood pressure or your temperature. They really don't think about your boundaries, your personal space. 

And so a lot of times, people who have disabilities that have impacted them for a long period of time or for their entire lives have lost that ability to really be able to say no when someone is coming towards their-- invading their personal space or their body. Do you think you have a problem with people, some of the people that you work with? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Yes, I will share just a little bit. I went to the hospital. And I didn't know about SANE is. I can't think. It's like-- it's a nurse that will do rape tests. And I didn't know about a lot of services out there because I was so young. I didn't like how the hospital treatment because they said they had to do it right then and there. 

Thank you, Nancy. Sexual Assault Emergency Campus Examiner. Thank you, Nancy. I can't-- my brain is tired today. So they didn't really explain what they were doing. They would go into it right now, in this moment where I didn't know I could take breaks. If I knew about saying I would have called them like, can you help me with this? 

But if you do have victims, and I-- this is like-- I'd like to share this. If anybody is in Massachusetts that does have a victim of a sexual assault and they call 911, the ambulance can skip the local hospital and bring you to the same hospital. That's a new thing. So I just want to share that. 

LESLIE MYERS: All right. And you've got a fan club out there. So that's great. [LAUGHS] It's time for our interpreters change. So why don't we take a minute to allow the interpreters to change? OK, so there are a number of things that people do to try to get close to individuals with disabilities. You've always been-- you lived at home, correct? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: I lived in home until I was 21. And then I lived at school, but now I live in another person's house. So you shared living right now. So I'm on my own, pretty much. 

LESLIE MYERS: You're on your own, yeah. 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Yep. 

LESLIE MYERS: And there are some people who have intellectual developmental disabilities who don't live on their own. 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Yes. 

LESLIE MYERS: They live in group homes. They live in family homes. They live in other places that are more institutional. And they could be at greater risk of being hurt and abused. They're more isolated. They have less chance to meet with people outside of the facility they live in or even within the program that they work within. 

I worked at a residential facility for a couple of years. That's actually how I lost my leg. And many of the individuals that I've worked with were survivors. Many of them have never had and never had any type of services because they were confined to their program or programs, which included the residential portion. And that program also included what they did during the day, going to a day program or going to work. So they were always confined within that program and have little opportunity to meet with people outside of that institution setting. 

So that's it has been-- that's another issue that comes up to people, and especially people with intellectual developmental disabilities, who have tended to be placed in institutions. One of my favorite people of all time has been-- besides you, Leigh. 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Thank you. 

LESLIE MYERS: --is Cindy Bentley, who is a very great self-advocate, who has experienced most of her life-- I shouldn't say most of her life. She's been in this institution for over 20 years now, but then all of her childhood in an institutional setting, and experiencing violence of types in that institution setting. 

So we have quite a bit of time left. And I want to go ahead. And Ashley, do you want to open this up for questions? I think there is quite some questions out there that people have for Leigh Ann. Hopefully, not me, but have for Leigh Ann, maybe. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: This is Ashley. We'll open it up for questions. I know that there was some stuff, particularly in the beginning of the presentation, that we moved through a little bit quickly. So if you have questions, or if you opened up the PowerPoint, and you realize, hey, it would be helpful to revisit something, please let us know. 

I think that there was some confusion about seemingly contradictory recommendations to both, "Keep questions as simple as possible. And make the responses as simple as possible, but also not use yes/no questions." And so how do you decide how-- what a simple question looks like and when to use strategically use yes/no questions where you're not sort of over directing someone? 

LESLIE MYERS: And I think that that's a hard thing to do. You don't want to-- because with a yes/no question, you're putting words in somebody's mouth. So they may think that you want them to say yes, you want them to agree with you. So it's kind of a fine balance. You don't want to be putting-- especially if any of the stuff would go to court, you don't want it to be something where you're making up the story for them. 

A simple question might be, Leigh Ann did the sexual assault happens for lunch or after lunch? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: It happened on the weekend. 

LESLIE MYERS: On the weekend? So was it-- 

LEIGH ANN BARY: It was night, sorry. My brain's a little-- sorry. 

LESLIE MYERS: It's OK. So that's a simple question. It's a simple answer. She told me it was on the weekend. Does that makes sense to everybody? I don't know if I'm making everybody? 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: It does make sense, Leslie. And there's a follow-up question in the chat. That is, if you suspect someone has been sexually assaulted or sexually violated, how can you start having that conversation? How can you bring it up with them? 

LESLIE MYERS: Leigh Ann, do you want to answer first? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: How is it-- you can borrow how my friend did it. She kind of could tell I was kind of tense. I wasn't myself. Too you can kind of just ask them what's wrong. And if they want to tell you, you can now say you're here later on, if you want to talk about it. 

LESLIE MYERS: We encourage asking people on a regular basis about abuse. They may not tell you the first time you ask. They may not tell you the second time you ask. But you've opened up the door. And let them know that that's something that you're willing to talk about. 

And if you look at it, there's a lot of blood times you'll see signs that sexual abuse has happened. It could be that someone has is now incontinent and wasn't incontinent before, or that someone's acting completely different than they normally act, or someone's recoiling against you reaching towards them. All these things are possible signs to look for. 

And bringing it up is complicated because you have to understand the terms. So you might want to ask if everything's OK. And if somebody has hurt them, or somebody has touched them in a way that they didn't feel comfortable with? Because using the term sexually violated might not be in the best vocabulary of the individuals. Does that help? Does that make sense? 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: That was helpful. And just recognizing that everyone is different and has their own best way of approaching and talking about these things-- 

LESLIE MYERS: Right. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: --that work for them, which leads me to another question that came up a couple of times, once in registration, once in the chat, once in the Question and Answer. So it has been sort of recurring, which is around something that Leigh Ann and Leslie you both mentioned, which is being trauma-informed when working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. People are curious sort of what that looks like? What that even means, and if there's anything specific you can recommend on how to be trauma-informed when you're working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities? 

LESLIE MYERS: Leigh Ann did want-- 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Yeah, so I'll hear a little bit of background about this-- just is a little bit of background on how we became more trauma-informed at Disabled Persons Protection at Massachusetts. When our union's first said we were having two therapists that were trauma-informed, that felt comfortable working with people who have intellectual disability, around sexual abuse. And we kind of used to-- now we're up to-- how many we have, like this big list. 

So kind of being aware-- so I'm trying to think of being aware-- it's hard. I'm trying to think-- like being given time to speak. Being aware of what trauma could have-- what trauma can happen. Being trauma-informed, knowing the steps when somebody discloses they were sexually assaulted. Knowing the step to what to do, how to help them, where do you get the help. So that's kind of what's mean to be trauma-formed. That kind of makes sense. 

LESLIE MYERS: And for me, because of the high rates of violence against-- sexual assault and sexual violence against people with intellectual and developmental disability, I will assume that everyone that I meet has a history of sexual violence because it's better to be safe than sorry. So I will assume that everyone does. And by doing that, it's the way I interact with them. The way that I can offer assistance, that kind of makes them feel in a safe place, when they're with me, that I'm a safe person to talk to. 

And it has to do with just the interactions in general. So that to me, is-- within the agency, like a disability agency, to be trauma-informed is making it less clinical and more, really, feeling having a feeling of emotional safety, of physical safety, really taking your time with people. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: And another was another comment in the chat never ask what's wrong with them, ask what happened, which I like the way of sort of summing up. I also want to let folks know that we have in the past done a session with a trauma therapist on trauma for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, both the way that trauma might manifest differently and also some clinical approaches for it. So I will make sure that the link to that session is posted in the participant materials folder after this session. I will go in and add into that to make sure that you all have access to that because I think there's some questions coming in about specific clinical approaches, which I think might be better answered in that session as well. 

LESLIE MYERS: And Ashley, did you have, in the toolkit, a whole section on Becoming Trauma-Informed for those who are interested in having their agency become trauma-informed? 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: So I will link to that as well. I'll make sure that all of the resources that we have around trauma and specific approaches to addressing trauma in the lives of people with disabilities are linked for you all. So you have access to them as well. I think that would be helpful. 

We did have some more questions come in. One of the questions is for you, Leigh Ann, which is really about your experience. Did you work-- as you were working with the prosecutor's office, or with law enforcement, or just in your feeling journey? Did you work with a victim advocate specifically, maybe someone in law enforcement or with the prosecutor's office? If not, do you think that that would have helped your experience if you had someone that kind of does what you do now help you through the process? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: No, I didn't. I don't think I heard anybody because our unit is so new that so new. Our unit just decided in 2017. So no. My lawyer was really good. I think-- I don't know if she was in love with it, whatever it's. I don't know what she was, I think. She kept my parents. And I informed them everything. So they were really good. They're really not-- the other officer, other would told me that-- he was OK. he I said, he wasn't trauma-informed. But when he did testify, he really did it-- I wasn't there, but I heard he did a good job. 

So law enforcement was pretty good with me. But my lawyer was amazing. She was really patient with me and really understood how scared I was. And she was really with being trauma-informed. Does that curve into it? 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: Yeah. And do you think that if you had worked with someone who-- someone like you, someone who now does this. If he has had the opportunity, do you think that that would have been helpful to you? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: It would of because I really struggled with what happened. I really, really struggled with it. I thought I'd get very depressed. So yes, I think if I had known as a peer that's been through it. I think it would really help me emotionally better when I was. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: The one recommendation we might offer is thinking about how to engage people with disabilities and becoming advocates the way that Leigh Ann has really become an advocate. And Leslie, I don't know if you have any suggestions about approaches that organizations can take for really increasing the participation of people with disabilities in this work? 

LESLIE MYERS: We offer training for self-advocates to learning how to become peer supporters. And that curriculum is available or-- it's mainly for self-advocacy organizations, but definitely connecting with your programs that serve individuals with intellectual developmental disabilities, connecting with your Voc Rehab, get some volunteers for that. 

And really just opening up your doors and really thinking outside the box. I think that-- the training I went through when I worked with Sexual Assault Program because I did actually finally get up in the stairs. After my amputation, I finally did get upstairs and work for the Sexual Assault Program. The training I went through easily could have been accomplished by a person with the intellectual developmental disability. And so it would have made a huge difference in both their lives as well as some of the people who'd have ended up serving. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: Leslie, do if that peer support curriculum is currently available online? Or is that something people should email you about at this point? 

LESLIE MYERS: Right now, they should email. We're actually putting it online so that it-- because of COVID, we figured that people might want to-- it be easier for people to learn on their own. Minnesota, I know there's somebody from Sexual Assault Program in Minneapolis. Minneapolis was our test group. And there we did that in-person training. But we're going to make this available to folks online so that they can do it individually on their own. So right now, you have to email me because I do not think it's on the website unless I was wrong about that on the new website. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: I don't think it's on our newly revamped website. Everyone should go check out our newly revamped website. If one of my colleagues wouldn't mind posting the link in the chat to our website, that would be great. I do think there are resources on-- for example, writing in plain language that might be helpful for you all in there. 

I am also going to put Leslie's email address in the chat if you would like to email about that curriculum. Because, again, once it's online, people can use it much more freely with anyone that they would like. Another question that came through that really touches on a lot of what we were talking about today, though isn't something we really dived into, is the lack of sex education for people with intellectual disabilities and the impact that that has on their risk for sexual assault, and also how they learn to even think about sexual assault and talk about sexual assault. 

Do either or both of you have anything to kind of talk about the importance of sexual education for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities? 

LESLIE MYERS: Leigh Ann, did you learn-- did you have sex Ed acquired school? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: No, I did not. 

LESLIE MYERS: Yeah, it definitely puts individuals at a disadvantage And it's part of the reason why oftentimes, individuals don't have the words that are-- words needed to explain what happened to them. If it's-- I think that the thinking is that if you talk about it, you're going to meet people with developmental disabilities really sexual. 

And I think there's a lot of misconceptions about people with intellectual developmental disabilities. And definitely, with the schooling that people get is all over the place, even for kids without disabilities. As far as sex Ed goes, if I'm might be wrong, maybe you can help me out here, but as far as I know that, a lot of places don't do that at all. 

Some of the places I worked with, they actually give some classes. And within school of general kind of-- as far as just relationship abuse for kids with disabilities to kind of just-- to bring it up. And it was part of our curriculum we did. It was called Everything I Needed to Learn I Had Learned in High School or something like that. It was a course all about being a person with a disability in the community, working with personal care workers, and having your own apartment, your own money. 

There's so many different stereotypes that are used. Stereotypes that people with developmental disabilities are really sexual or that they can't possibly have relationships with other people, they can't get married or have children. This is a lot of stereotypes out there about people that really precludes that sex education that is really needed. And I can somebody has added it in the chat, about that's really needed. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: We still have more questions. And they just keep coming in. People are really interested and learning from you all and having you all share your experiences. Another question that came in, Leslie, on something you talked about early on, is recommended that we not ask if a person has an intellectual or developmental disability, but we need to provide them with accommodations. How do we do that without asking them if they have a disability? 

LESLIE MYERS: We asked them what they need to participate in the process. It's also about recognizing that-- if you reckon-- if you think that anybody who walks into your office could possibly have a disability that you can't see, the first thing you're going to do is look for things that they might be struggling with. And then ask them what you can do to help them better participate in services. Leigh Ann, do you have some suggestions? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: You've just read my mind. I'm just going to say don't assume they can do it on their own. And don't assume if they can that they need help, to kind of balance it. And don't-- like I just said this in my first training today. Some people say, Leigh Ann Bary, I have a disability. Don't assume the person has a disability first. First language, ask. Don't assume they want. I haven't taught disability as many as needed. They don't assume what they want first. 

LESLIE MYERS: And there's a lot of people with learning disabilities who don't even realize they have learning disabilities, but they are going to have difficulties maybe during the paperwork, doing some of the other stuff. I think that maybe we need to pause for an interpreter break or switch? I'm trying to be good. [LAUGHS] 

LEIGH ANN BARY: I know my cat is scratching on my door. He's driving me nuts. Sorry. I'm trying not to let her in. 

LESLIE MYERS: So there's a lot of people who won't admit that-- they don't have the words to talk about their disability. They don't think of themselves as people with disabilities. And so, if you always approach something from what kind of accommodation can we provide? It really is a helpful lens to look through because they know what they're going to need if they don't know how to read. You're going to be able to notice that they don't need to tell you I can't read. You can just kind of notice and say OK, let me. Why don't we go through this together instead of I can't-- to having them tell you that I can't read this. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: Yeah, and we also typically recommend affirmatively offering some accommodations, just as suggestions of things that you can do. I think that's also really helpful to give people ideas of what they can actually ask for. Sometimes people don't know what you can actually offer. And so it's helpful to just give them a little bit of information about what their options are. 

I want to pull a question from registration because I think that it would be helpful, which is, can you talk about the difference between plain language, easy-read language, and how we would typically write in our materials. 

LESLIE MYERS: No. [LAUGHS] 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: Two minutes or less, Leslie. 

LESLIE MYERS: I tend to use the words interchangeably, unfortunately. Easy-to-read is going to be really less words, using pictures, using a lot of white space. Whereas plain language is really rewriting the text to make it so good as at a different grade level. 

Maybe some of our other staff out here can jump in because I tend to use them interchangeably. And because I like to use pictures and a little bit of writing, but also rewrite. It you write. And so we're built in there. It's not about dubbing down. It's about rewriting it so that it makes sense, that is, to more people, 

And it works for people who have English as a second language too. It's to have this material that has a lot of white spaces, uses big print, uses different ways to provide that information to me so that it makes sense for more people. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: Yeah, and I think when we talk about plain language a lot, we talk about how it's really about writing in a way that makes it accessible to everyone and using common words and phrases. I think, especially when we're talking about sexual assault, domestic violence, there are terms of art that we sometimes use, right? Not everyone knows what a sexual assault nurse examiner is. Not everyone knows what a protection warder is if we were talking about domestic violence. And so explaining those concepts is really important in plain language. 

Easy-read takes it to the next level, right? Where we are really conveying our concepts, using images, using very few words, trying to make it just as simple as we possibly can. And we do have some materials on this. So if you are interested in learning more, we can certainly point you towards trainings and other information that might be helpful to you. But I think, particularly when you are working with people with intellectual disabilities, it's great to build your skills up and really breaking concepts down in your writing and have those materials. 

LESLIE MYERS: As our friend in DC would say, break it down. Break it down. That is the way you want to do it. And we want to explain the information in a way that most people can understand. We need to write to the audience. So if we're developing something for people who don't read well, we want to make it in a way that they can get it. Yeah, as you just said, Selma. That's right. Break it down. 

And so the-- you don't want to use a bunch acronyms or a bunch of things that are really like Ashley said, that are specific to your field of work. You want to make it so that more people understand. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: Thank you. We got another question about reaching out to people with disabilities to do this work. So we talked a little bit about the training curricula that we have. But how would a sexual assault organization or a Rape Crisis Center go about reaching out, finding people with disabilities to start engaging in conversations about this work? 

LESLIE MYERS: Leigh Ann, you want-- 

LEIGH ANN BARY: So when we sat down. We did a lot of outreach to rape crises like, hey, this what we offer. If you have any peers or individuals that need help, let us know. We did a lot of reach to different organizations. We did Deaf and Hearing. We did on department of TDS, MRC, Person-- we do a lot of outreach. I do really remember all of the terms because we did so much. 

So we did a lot of outreach that we did. And then people would reach out to us and like, hey, what services do you offer? So we kind of did the collaborative work together. 

LESLIE MYERS: And there are self-advocacy organizations, People First is one, Centre for Independent Living. There's the Developmental Disabilities Council that a lot of states have that you could go to. And as well as programs that do more of the institutional work, such as sheltered workshops, places like goodwill. So I think that many of those programs are a good way to do outreach. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: Great. I'm trying to see if there are any other questions that I feel could be helpful or that we haven't already addressed. Do you all have any final thoughts for our audience while seeing if there's anything else that we can possibly answer? 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Ashley, if anybody has any questions for me, you can give them Jenna's email. And Jenna can forward it to me because I get so many emails. So I'll think of it. If you have any questions, you can reach out to Jenna. Jenna is my supervisor. And she's the call. So send out her email if anybody has any questions for me, after the-- if you we think of any. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: Thank you so much, Leigh Ann, for that offer. What I'll do is I'll put both Leslie's email and Leigh Ann's email in the Participant Materials folder so that if you all want to reach out. I will also put our contact information on CVS. So that if you would just like to reach out to CVS generally, you have that option, as well. So that way, if anyone wants to reach any of us, they have the opportunity to do so. 

LESLIE MYERS: And I just want to thank Leigh Ann for being so open and willing to work with us. And I really appreciate her insights into this as well. 

LEIGH ANN BARY: Any time. You know that. Any time you guys have anything you need me to help you with. I'm willing to really help you. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: There is a question that came into the chat just now. I think it's more so about opportunities to keep minor children safe. I don't know if that's something that you will have any thoughts on? I know, typically, we think more about later adolescents and adults. 

LESLIE MYERS: I did a presentation in Missouri last year or the year before. And someone asked, how can I keep my child safe? And there was no good answer to that. Teaching them to talk to you, being open to you, really that you're willing to listen to that they have someone to connect with. You could try and keep them close to you. But that's not going to work forever, obviously. They're going to need to go out. So teaching that their body is their own-- too often because of people's disabilities. We have parents, and then eventually, caregivers have so much contact with a person's body that they lose that ability to say no. Teaching them it's OK to say no. 

So there's no real good answer. You can't really lock them up and keep them from ever growing up. Teaching them that they should speak up and that you will always be there. I think it's the way to go, is it you will be there if it's needed. And that is never their fault. 

ASHLEY BROMPTON: Great. Thank you so much, Leslie. And thank you, Leigh Ann. Both of you, this was a really great opportunity to have a good discussion about both your experiences and some of the ways in which we can really work to meaningfully support survivors with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

I do want to take just a quick moment to recognize why we decided to do this session in April. It is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. And as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we feel very strongly that we need to be having conversations about the impact of sexual assault on people with disabilities, particularly people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, given the rates of victimization that Leslie talked about early on. 

So we wanted to take this opportunity to really remind people that this Sexual Assault Awareness Month and every month between now and Next Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we should be having these conversations. And thinking about solutions, not only to how to best provide services but also to the root of the problem. How do we make this become a less frequent experience in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities? 

We appreciate your time today. When you close the session, you will get a pop-up first survey. We do hope you will complete the survey. It helps us to know what we did well what we can improve upon. I did post a link a few moments ago, and I will do so again right now to the materials. 

Please note that the materials that we talked about during the session, such as the curricula that we have and some other materials, are not necessarily up there yet. I will make sure that they are posted today. So if you want to wait until tomorrow to open up that folder, or you can revisit it. I will make sure they get posted. What is in there right now is the PowerPoint that Leslie shared earlier on, and that does have her contact information on it as well as the record of attendance. 

If you have some issue accessing either of those items, you can email us at cvs@vera.org, and we would be happy to send you copies of either of those or anything else that we share today. Thank you so much. Thank you to the interpreters and the captionist sent to all of you who are here watching with us and spending some time with us today. And most of all, thank you so much, Leigh Ann and Leslie. Have a great afternoon, everyone.