But he, along with the rest of the disabled community, fear they will not be listened to or taken seriously by police as shocking new figures reveal victims of disability hate crimes are unlikely to receive justice.
They show that just 1.2% of reported disability hate crimes over a year resulted in a charge or summons. Charities Leonard Cheshire and United Response looked at 11,000 incidents between April 2022 and March this year.
The figures come as new research shared with the Daily Express revealed a fifth of the British public has admitted to abusing disabled people simply because of their condition.
It is no surprise that Mark, 57, is filled with a sense of dread whenever he steps outside of his Essex home.
He has a learning disability and was abused when walking home from work a few years ago.
The campaigns adviser said: “I heard a vehicle revving up and some guys shouting.
“They started calling me names like ‘fatto’ and ‘four eyes’. It went on for a while and I tried to ignore it. The next thing I knew, something hit me.”
Mark later realised that he was covered in egg. He added: “I’m usually pretty confident with travelling and can get myself out and about but it was scary.”
He said he is determined he will report it if it happens again – and is calling for every victim of disability hate crime to do the same.
He insisted: “For too long, people with learning disabilities and autism like me have had to live in fear of being targeted simply because of our disability.
“We have to keep pushing until this stops.”
The new research by not-for-profit support provider Dimensions also revealed that 6% of UK adults admit to having physically hurt someone because of their learning disability or autism – a shocking total of 3.6 million people.
Now Dimensions, along with the Daily Express and Leonard Cheshire and United Response, is calling on the Government to reverse its decision to merge an anti-hate crime strategy into a wider plan to tackle general crime. It wants it to develop a bespoke hate crime strategy.
The charities said: “We need to narrow the justice gap between the number of disability hate crimes recorded and the number of offences resulting in a charge. There are real people behind these numbers and once a person has been a target of hate, they can be utterly changed.”
