As someone who has experienced intimate partner abuse, Akii Ngo wants to help others in similar situations.
Born with chronic illness, Akii, from Melbourne, also lives with a number of other conditions, including Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, chronic pain and has a functional neurological disorder.
Akii also has a spinal injury from intimate partner violence.
It is this lived experience that has motivated Akii to become a leading advocate in violence prevention.
Akii wants to see girls, women, feminine-identifying and non-binary people with disabilities empowered.
"I do a lot of advocacy work to ensure that people with disabilities have rights and are treated fairly and equally as anyone else would," Akii said.
It took Akii more than 10 years to speak about their lived experiences with violence in public.
"I lived with the internalised shame of what I experienced because I blamed myself," Akii said.
This week in Hobart, the disability royal commission has invited witnesses to relate their lived experience with sexual, domestic and family abuse.
This is the second part of the hearing, with the first part held in October last year.
In October, the commission heard from experts and advocates on the experiences of abuse of girls and women with disability.
This week will focus on the lived experience of girls and women who have experienced violence and abuse, inclusive of feminine-identifying, trans, inter-sex and non-binary people with disability.
The opportunity to be heard
The disability royal commission has heard that 40 per cent of women with disability in Australia have experienced physical violence, with girls and women with disability twice as likely to experience sexual abuse compared to girls and women without disability.
Disabled girls and women are also more likely to experience family and domestic violence, stalking and harassment, and intimate partner violence.
Witnesses appearing at the Royal Commission this week will relate their own raw and tough stories related to these experiences.
Carolyn Frohmader, the executive director of Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA), said that this hearing was "a once in a lifetime opportunity".
"It is absolutely vital that women and girls with disability get that opportunity to be heard," she said.
Ms Frohmader has 25 years of advocacy experience and set up WWDA as a way for women with disability to support each other.
"[When I started,] women with disabilities didn't even have a place at the table anywhere," she said.
Giving evidence in last year's hearing, Ms Frohmader focused on what she described as "critical issues of forced sterilisation and forced contraception".
At this week's hearing, Ms Frohmader and some of her team will be giving evidence on the broader systemic issues, including the need for law reform.
"Women and girls with disability, including feminine-identifying and non-binary, experience very egregious forms of gender based violence, that I don't think are well understood," she said.
The royal disability commission will be held in Hobart, Tasmania this week — a state that has a higher rate of disability than any other state or territory.
Ms Frohmader, who is based in Tasmania, said it was an important decision to have the hearings in the island state.
Although she was concerned the royal commission was only "scratching the surface", Ms Frohmader hoped it would give girls and women with disability a chance to be "heard, listened to and believed".
"We are the experts. We know our lives. We know our bodies. We know the things that need to change."
For Akii, the royal commission as a step in the right direction.
"Having those experiences of the people that have gone through what they're sharing is vitally important because I think it provides a greater understanding of the magnitude and the gravity of the issues," Akii said.
"But it also gives power and empowerment to the people that are providing their voice.
"Having a platform where there's hearings that people can share their stories and experience is just one of the pieces of the puzzles to create change."
