When mothers with disability enter the justice system, they often confront discrimination that overshadows their fundamental rights as parents. Instead of receiving support to care for their children, they are frequently judged through a lens of stereotypes, stigma, and systemic barriers. Tragically, many lose custody not due to abuse or neglect, but because the system fails to provide fair accommodations and respect their capacity to parent.

A Mother’s Experience in Court

Imagine a mother with disability sitting in a crowded courtroom. She loves her child deeply, yet the system fails to recognize that love. The judge and lawyers use complex legal language she struggles to follow. No one provides easy-read documents or a support person to explain the process. Her disability becomes the central focus of the case, eclipsing her commitment and capabilities as a parent. She feels invisible, her voice unheard. What she needs is support to raise her child safely; what she fears is losing her child simply because the system cannot see past her disability.

Systemic Barriers in the Legal Process

Mothers with disability encounter significant barriers at every stage of the legal process:

• Physical and Communication Barriers: Courtrooms are rarely designed for accessibility, lacking features for those with physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities.
• Lack of Training: Legal professionals often lack training in disability awareness, leading to harmful assumptions that mothers with disability are less capable or credible.
• Procedural Bias: Entrenched bias can deny mothers an equal opportunity to present evidence or testimony, fundamentally undermining their right to a fair hearing.

Discrimination in Child Custody Cases: The Shocking Statistics

Child custody decisions represent a critical area of injustice. Research consistently shows that parents with disability, particularly mothers, are disproportionately involved with child protection services and face dramatically higher rates of child removal.

• **Parents with disability are significantly overrepresented in child protection proceedings. Studies indicate that in up to *70-80%* of cases involving parents with intellectual disability, the primary reason for custody loss is the parent’s disability itself, rather than evidence of abuse or neglect.**
  • Source: National Council on Disability (US) – Rocking the Cradle: Ensuring the Rights of Parents with Disabilities and Their Children.
• **A comprehensive Australian study found that parents with intellectual disability are *overrepresented* in the child protection system by a factor of up to 10 times, with mothers being particularly vulnerable to having their children removed.**
  • Source: Collings, S., & Llewellyn, G. (2012). “The presence of intellectual disability in the background of children subject to child protection court orders.” Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability.

This occurs because assessments often focus on the disability itself rather than evaluating parenting capacity with appropriate supports in place. Without reasonable adjustments—such as accessible parenting programs, tailored home support, or peer advocacy—disability is wrongly equated with an inability to parent.

The Emotional and Social Impact

Navigating the justice system is emotionally devastating for mothers with disability. Many report profound fear, shame, and helplessness. The threat of losing a child can deter women from seeking help for domestic violence or poverty, trapping them in unsafe situations. On a societal level, this stigma reinforces the false narrative that disability and motherhood are incompatible, leading to social isolation and a lack of support.

Towards Inclusive Justice for Mothers

An inclusive justice system must recognize the rights of mothers with disability by implementing concrete accommodations to ensure fair treatment. Key reforms include:

• Providing accessible legal documents (Easy Read, braille, audio).
• Ensuring qualified interpreters and support persons in court.
• Mandating disability-aware training for judges, lawyers, and child protection workers.
• Assessing parenting capacity with supports in place, not in their absence.
• Funding community-based services, respite care, and peer-led advocacy to support families to stay together.

Conclusion

Mothers with disability deserve the same rights, dignity, and opportunities to parent as anyone else. Yet, justice systems too often treat them with suspicion rather than support. By dismantling stereotypes, providing mandatory accommodations, and reforming discriminatory custody practices, we can build a system that protects families instead of breaking them apart. Every mother, regardless of disability, has the right to be seen for her love, her strengths, and her capacity to raise her children when given the right support.

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Additional Key Statistics & Sources

• UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD): Article 23 explicitly requires states to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities in matters relating to marriage, family, and parenthood, and to provide appropriate supports to prevent family separation.
  • Source: United Nations CRPD.
• Prevalence of Removal: A 2020 Australian Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has heard extensive evidence that parents with disability, especially women, are at high risk of having their children permanently removed.
  • Source: Disability Royal Commission (Australia).
• Lack of Accommodations: A survey by Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) found that a majority of women with disability reported significant barriers to accessing justice, including attitudinal bias and a lack of accessible information.
  • Source: Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) – Position Paper on Violence against Women with Disability.