The Australian Disability and Violence Data Compendium was produced as part of a Disability and Health Unit project titled Violence against people with disabilities: maximising the use of data to inform the Royal Commission. It aims to:

comprehensively describe and compare national and state/territory datasets that include both disability and violence data;

• identify data that is readily available for research and other potentially valuable sources of data that are currently not accessible but may help fill knowledge gaps through future research;
• demonstrate how these datasets have (if at all) been used for research in this area;
• indicate the strengths and weaknesses of each dataset, including limitations in the data due to how it is collected;
• examine whether there is potential to improve datasets using data linkage.

Improving access to these data for research will enable up-to-date estimates of the prevalences of violence and abuse among people with disability, a better understanding of these issues with respect to various forms of violence and types and severity of disability, and identification of key factors (e.g. socio-demographic and spatial differences) that influence these patterns.

Improving knowledge in these areas is critical for reducing violence and abuse directed at people with disability.