By: Selen Ozturk, Ethnic Media Services
Although disability impacts well over a quarter of Americans, anti-disability hate is on the rise — including violent crime.
Hate crimes against Americans with physical and mental disabilities have risen 29.5% steadily throughout five years, from 156 in 2019 to 202 in 2023, per FBI data.
Meanwhile, a 2019 comparison of FBI police report data and Bureau of Justice crime victim survey data found that police reported less than 0.5% of anti-disability hate crimes.
Stigma and ubiquity
“Disability is everywhere,” said Eric Harris, associate executive director of external affairs for Disability Rights California, the largest disability rights group in the U.S, at a Thursday, September 26 community forum on anti-disability hate crimes, held in Oakland by the California Commission on the State of Hate and the California Civil Rights Council.
“If you don’t have a disability now, you’re likely going to develop one at some point in your life … especially as we all live longer lives,” said Harris. “Yet, people with all types of disabilities still face discrimination.”
As of 2024, the CDC reports that over one in four U.S. adults — 28.7%, or over 70 million Americans — have a disability.
Among these disabilities, 13.9% are cognitive; 12.2% are mobility-related; 7.7% involve difficulty with independent living, including errands; 6.2% are hearing-related; 5.5% are vision-related; and 3.6% involve difficulty with self-care, including dressing or bathing.
“For example, even though they have existed all over the world throughout history, many people with mental health disabilities still choose not to disclose them often because of the stigma,” said Harris. “They don’t get the accommodations they need to do their job better because they don’t want to be viewed differently, or denied opportunities.”
“Changing laws at the local, state and federal levels can positively influence folks’ lives, but we still have a lot of work to do as community members to change hearts and minds as well by talking about disability … not to tokenize it, but as part of our regular, everyday lives,” he added.
“In many communities, particularly Asian American, identifying with a psychiatric disability is not traditionally common,” said Dr. Karen Nakamura, Haas Distinguished Chair of Disability Studies and anthropology professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “Disability is viewed as a karmic responsibility, so it reflects bad things about one’s ancestors and one’s family as a whole gets stigmatized.”
“There are also more modern legacies of disability in Asian American communities, like poisoning from the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War,” she added. “We all carry in our bodies and minds these toxic burdens of the past, whether cultural stigmas or the legacies of history, that makes pan-community alliance around disability so difficult.”
Disabilities are often exacerbated by co-existing health conditions, which are themselves exacerbated by stressors like hate.
The CDC reports that as of 2024, American adults with disabilities are 40.5% more likely to be obese, compared to 30.3% of those without; 20.9% more likely to smoke cigarettes, compared to 10.2% of those without; and 10.4% more likely to have heart disease, compared to 3.7% of those without.
Criminal impacts of anti-disability hate
1.6% of all 11,447 reported single-bias hate crimes in 2023 were motivated by disability, the FBI reports.
The largest motivation is race and ethnicity, motivating 52.5% of single-bias hate crimes.
“The problem with this reporting is that if there are intersectional categories, it’s hard to find aggregate data,” said Nakamura. “If you’re only disabled, you’d check that category first. But if you’re Asian American or African American and disabled, you may feel that this is an incident where you’ll sooner check the racial category.”
“Police interactions are also very deadly to people with disabilities, particularly psychiatric,” she continued. “Many of us are proud that we closed the asylums, but now among the largest mental healthcare facilities are the Cook County Jail and L.A. County Jail. All we’ve done is replace our asylums with prisons, and I don’t think they’re any better.”
Although data is limited, the California Board of State and Community Corrections statistics show that in 2019, 32% of jail-incarcerated people had an open mental health case — and the issue was worsening.
Between 2009 and 2019, counties statewide experienced an average increase of 15% in the part of their jail population with an active mental health case.
Meanwhile, a 2015 Washington Post tally suggests that at least a quarter of Americans fatally shot by police suffer acute mental illness at the time of death.
“The U.S. has a system where we only have one number, 911, to call for emergencies,” said Nakamura. “Many Asian countries have two numbers, one to call for police and one to call for other issues like fire and ambulance. That’s a much safer way to direct responses.”
“Crime may be a small part of the larger problem of hate against adults and children with disabilities, but it’s often the most harmful,” said Greg deGiere, civil rights advocate with The Arc of California.
The federal Office for Victims of Crime found in 2018 that, between 2009 and 2015, people with disabilities aged 12 and older were “at least twice as likely to be victims of violent victimization than people without disabilities” — nearly 30 out of every 1,000 people, compared to 12 of every 1,000 people.
Between 2011 and 2015, people with cognitive disabilities aged 12 and over suffered rates of violent crime twice that: nearly 60 out of every 1,000 people.
deGiere attributed low response of law enforcement largely to the low reporting of hate crime against disabled Americans.
A report on the 2012 National Survey on Abuse of People with Disabilities found that even when victims with disabilities did report abuse, nothing happened in 52.9% of cases and alleged perpetrators were arrested in only 9.8% of reported cases.
“As someone who’s been involved heavily in the disability community, I feel safe in assuring you there are a lot more hate crimes than what’s reported,” said deGiere.
Last year, the California Justice Department reported 18 anti-disability hate crimes.
As recently as 2017, there were as little as four reported all year.
“Reporting those 18 anti-disability hate crimes does reflect the progress we’re continuing to make … with a criminal justice system we’ve been systematically denied access to,” added deGiere.
Californians experiencing or witnessing hate can receive support and resources by reporting online in 15 languages at cavshate.org, or reporting by phone in over 200 languages by calling (833) 866-4283, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.