This awareness has implications for future research. Continuing to ask questions

about the factors that influence law enforcement officer decision making is important.

Moreover, there are a number of questions concerning factors that affect reporting of

crimes by PWD. A greater understanding of law enforcement and victim variables is

necessary to understand the overall validity of the hate crime data collected. Further,

interventions in the form of training, education, and advocacy are necessary to adequately

estimate the extent of the problem in the lives of people with disabilities.

 The importance of this study to the lived experience of people with disabilities

should not go unstated. Never before have LEO's in the United States been surveyed on

the combined issues of crime against people with disabilities, attitudes towards people

with disabilities, and contact with people with disabilities. The results of this research

suggest the need for further training and awareness of LEO, involvement of disability

experts in crime victim advocacy, and the development of understanding and recognition

of hate crimes among persons with disabilities. The result of these interventions can and

should be to facilitate participation in the criminal justice process in a manner accessible

for a crime victim with a disability. Accessibility is meant to mean more than physical

accessibility. It is about attitudinal accessibility, process accessibility, and the like. It is

the recognition, the awareness, that there are factors that deter participation by persons

with disabilities. More importantly, persons with disabilities have a right to expect equal

participation in the criminal justice system when their civil liberties have been violated in

the same way they have a right to expect equal liberties.