Personal Safety Fears of People With Disabilities

Many People With A Disability Or Long-term Health Condition Fear For Their Personal Safety

A recent poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) reveals that a third of adults (32%) with a disability or long-term health condition do not feel safe in their locality. A quarter (24%) mention that they have difficulty using police services in their local area.

Correspondingly, just over a third of women with a disability or long-term health condition (35%) don't feel safe from harm in their local area, this figure rises to almost half the adults (44%) who have a mental problem.

Conversely, three in five respondents (59%) feel safe when out and about in their local area; and half (51%) find it easy to make use of police services in their local area.

Technical details

Ipsos conducted 1,504 telephone interviews in England and Wales with adults aged 16 years and above with a longstanding health condition or disability. The fieldwork was carried out between 7 December 2006 and 7 January 2007 by telephone and the data was weighted according to the national profile.