The “Untold Stories” research project

A new report released by the University of Arizona revealed that hidden sexual abuse is more widespread among Arizonans with disabilities of all ages than was previously known. The “Untold Stories” research project highlights what the authors call a “disturbingly high rate” of sexual violence among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Arizona. The Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council (ADDPC) helped sponsor this project.

Executive Director of the ADDPC, Jon Meyers, joined Arizona Horizon to discuss the report.

Meyers said that the project is the culmination of nearly three years of work done by Dr. Lynne Tomasa, a researcher at the University of Arizona affiliated with the Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities. The report focused primarily on the lived experiences of individuals who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and have been victims of sexual violence, sexual abuse or sexual exploitation.

“It needed to be done and it’s been a long time coming,” Meyers said when asked what spurred the research to be done. “I think it’s fair to say that the Hacienda incident of 2018 here in The Valley was the impetus for a lot of work in the state of Arizona on the topic of sexual abuse against individuals with IDD. Although, certainly the problem didn’t begin there, it’s been around forever… and so as a Council, we decided that it was important to fund research so we could better understand the scope of the problem.”

Interviewing individuals for this report was a challenge, according to Meyers. He said that it required extraordinary skill and training, and not many people in Arizona are adequately trained to do that.

“One of the greatest difficulties we find finding people that are willing to speak about it in the first place,” Meyers said. “It is something that often causes shame for individuals who have gone through it, issues of distrust and far too seldom is it actually disclosed.”

Meyers said that a lot of people have been disturbed by the “Untold Stories” research project from the information that was shared.

“Some of the information in the report is not necessarily graphic, but certainly does explore what people have gone through in some detail,” Meyers said. “A lot of people are willing, now, to do more to bring about systemic changes but what we find is that collaboration, coordination remain significantly difficult for those of us that work in this area.”

Meyers added that there are so many pieces and systems involved they “simply have much more work to do” to get everybody working together and on the same page about making improvements.