In recent policies, it is assumed that communities welcome the inclusion of young people with intellectual disability. However, little is known about perspectives of young people themselves. This article reports on research that sought to address this gap. Young people with intellectual disability living in three Australian small town communities participated in pictorial mapping and photo-rich methods to explore belonging and exclusion and links between these. Young people’s feelings of comfort and safety with local spaces and people were important for their sense of belonging. Emplaced relationships with family and some friends were key to strong belonging, as were positive attachments to disability support workers and spaces. Social exclusion, either from particular places or more generally, was keenly felt. Young people’s confidence, willingness to enter social spaces and relationships were magnified by ways that systems responded to their impairment, at worst fracturing their sense of feeling welcome and included.

Women with disabilities experiencing violence can face challenges accessing domestic and family violence (DFV) services. Our research explored how these services understood and operationalized access for women with disabilities. In this article, we use Levesque, Harris, and Russell’s access framework to show how to be accessible to women with disabilities, and DFV services can widen the lens of access and accessibility to respond to women’s own priorities. These centered around appropriateness, approachability, and acceptability. Addressing these broader issues of access in policy and practice alongside disability-specific needs can better align what services offer and what women need.

This study explored what helped and constrained children and young people with disability and high support needs, in feeling and being safe in institutional settings. Through adapted qualitative methods, 22 children and young people aged 7–25 years shared their conceptualizations of safety, along with facilitators and barriers to interpersonal safety in their everyday lives. Key themes were feeling safe and known in relationships, minimizing risk, having strategies and the opportunity to practice these, opportunities to learn about safety and supported transitions. The living patterns and environments of children and young people were different to their non-disabled peers, and they faced systemic barriers to activating safety strategies. Building meaningful prevention strategies for children and young people with disability requires specific skill in design and implementation. Without focused attention to their specific circumstances, measures promoting child safety may overlook the experiences of children and young people with intellectual disability.