The Silenced Voices of Hidden Survivors: Addressing Intimate Partner Violence Among Women With Disabilities Through a Combined Theoretical Approach

As one of the world’s most vulnerable populations, women with disabilities are frequent victims of physical, emotional, sexual, and financial abuse. Indeed, they experience abuse at higher rates than women and men who do not have disabilities and men with disabilities. They are also more likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV) than any other adult group. Yet there is not one psychosocial intervention tailored to the needs of women with disabilities who have experienced IPV that facilitates their recovery from complex trauma. This is largely the result of limited (albeit growing) research on the risk factors for IPV, barriers to leaving abusive relationships, and trauma-related issues that women with disabilities face, especially among racialized women with disabilities, 2SLGBTQ+ women and gender nonconforming persons with disabilities, older/aging women with disabilities, and other subgroups. In order to develop the most culturally competent, effective interventions and policies to address the prevalence of IPV among women with disabilities, an approach that is informed by a combination of critical disability theory, feminist disability theory, and complex trauma theory is recommended. IPV among women with disabilities is a global injustice; therefore, this concern is highly relevant to the field of social work and its mission to advance social justice.

Girls with Disabilities in Zimbabwe's Inclusive Rural Schools: Challenges and Possibilities

The aim of this study was to understand the social and academic experiences of girls with disabilities (GWD) in Zimbabwe’s inclusive secondary rural schools. Guided by the concepts of the critical feminist disability theory, data were collected through in-depth interviews with five purposefully selected girls with physical and sensory disabilities and five special-needs teachers. The findings reveal that, despite the presence of supportive attitudes and resource centres, these GWD’s basic right to quality, inclusive education is negated in rural schools. The research participants narrated their struggles with barriers created by negative attitudes, resource constraints and inaccessible environments. The intersection of gender, disability and rurality contour the experiences of GWD. In particular, resilient patriarchal, religious and societal norms prefigure GWD as abject beings, unworthy of investment by some parents, teachers and state officials. Thus, the notion of inclusive education as adopted in Zimbabwean official policies does not appear to be supported by the implementation or awareness raising of teachers and school leaders in the Mberengwa district of Zimbabwe’s Midlands Province.

Using Facebook to tell stories of premature ageing and sexual and reproductive healthcare across the life course for women with cerebral palsy in the UK and USA

ObjectiveTo enhance understanding of the bodily and lifestyle effects of ageing with cerebral palsy (CP) for women, with a particular focus on experiences with sexual and reproductive healthcare (SRH) services in the UK and North America.DesignA qualitative study underpinned by feminist disability theory and drawing on digital ethnographies to capture health and healthcare experiences for women with CP.SettingA global community of 140 women with CP, who are members of the closed international Facebook group,Women Ageing with Cerebral Palsy(WACP).ParticipantsForty-five members of WACP who were based in the UK and North America. The women were aged between 21 and 75.MethodsMessages posted on WACP between January 2018 and October 2018 were collated and underwent thematic analysis to identify themes relating to effects of ageing and experiences of SRH for women with CP at different points over the female life course.ResultsThe breadth of experiences in relation to the effects of ageing and access to reproductive and sexual healthcare for women with CP can be divided into three themes: (1) bodily effects of ageing; (2) lifestyle effects of ageing; (3) experiences of reproductive and sexual healthcare.ConclusionsGiving women with CP a platform to ‘speak for themselves’ in relation to effects of ageing and SRH provides health professionals with an informed knowledge base on which to draw. This might improve treatment for this growing adult patient community whose experiences have not received attention in health discourse or services. Including these experiences in public medical and social discourse can also bring a new knowledge to girls with CP about what ageing could mean for them so plans can be put in place for their future.

Experiencing Physical Disability: Young African Women in Lesotho

The article unwraps notions related to young African women’s lifeworld experiences of physical disability. The study is positioned in the broad context of the theoretical frameworks of phenomenology, existential sociology, the social construction of reality, feminist disability theory, and intersectionality. Focus is given to the way social systems of cultural oppression and discrimination impact women with physical impairments and manifest in how they perceive and make meaning of their everyday life experiences. Women with physical impairments often experience a double measure of oppression—being both female and disabled. When these women try to engage in a normal life and interact with others, they experience barriers imposed on them by their social reality—particularly in the form of cultural norms and patriarchal ideals. There are also instances where participants demonstrate resilience in the face of negative social stereotyping, instances that clearly show that they are not different, and do not perceive themselves as being different to able-bodied women. Drawing on semi-structured in-depth interviews with eight young Black women who are living with physical disabilities in Lesotho, the objective of this article is to examine their everyday life experiences within a predominantly able-bodied society.

Education for Women and Girls with Disabilities in Ghana : A Powerful Tool for Change

Women with disabilities (WWD) from countries around the world, including Ghana, are often deprived of public education. The World Report on Disability in 2011 estimated that literacy rates for WWD may be as low as 1%. This study employs critical feminist disability theory, combined with a phenomenological lens, to explore the educational experiences of ten Ghanaian WWD who have received public education in Ghana, and have had both positive and negative experiences. The results of these interviews yield policy and practice recommendations to improve access to, and success in education for more WWD in Ghana. These recommendations include the need to advocate and to implement Inclusive Education (IE) Policy in Ghana, to introduce disability studies in all school levels, to counteract negative cultural beliefs about people with disabilities, and to educate the public for changes in attitudes, especially teachers, students, and the community.

Toward a Theory of Black Deaf Feminism: The Quiet Invisibility of a Population

This article considers ways to enhance the conceptualization of Black deaf women’s lived experiences through an intersectional lens. An intersectional framework places emphasis on how social constructions of blackness, gender, and deafness shape the identity and experiences of Black deaf women. To outline the need for such a theory, this article first examines social constructions of Black deaf women in the intersections of race, gender, and deafness in comparison to current research. Second, I discuss the relevancy of social theories (i.e., critical race feminism, feminist disability theory, and theoretical approaches prominent in critical deaf studies) in providing a conceptual framework for an analysis of identity in relation to race, gender, and disability. Finally, I introduce the tenants of Black Deaf feminism and discuss the ways Black Deaf feminism enhances intersectionality by centering the lived experience from the standpoint of Black deaf women.

Trauma-Informed Social Work Practice with Women with Disabilities: Working with Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Women with disabilities experience intimate partner violence (IPV) at higher rates than both nondisabled women and men, and men with disabilities. Their significant exposure to IPV suggests notable levels of trauma-related symptomology. However, there is a dearth of research on trauma and IPV among women with disabilities, and services tailored to their diverse strengths and needs are scarce. Guided by critical disability theory and feminist disability theory, this article describes culturally sensitive, trauma- informed approaches to practice with female survivors of IPV with disabilities.

Private Dependence, Public Personhood: Rethinking “Nested Obligations”

This paper responds to Love's Labor, Eva Feder Kittay's seminal contribution to feminist disability theory, arguing that Kittay's “nested obligations” approach creates a two‐tiered system of justice in which care relationships built around private dependence and private obligation are figured as wholly prepolitical, to the detriment of both gender justice and disability justice. I suggest that centering the civic membership of the disabled person allows us to keep what is valuable in Kittay's contribution, namely her theorization of the nature of care and its political significance, and her call for collective support of care relationships, while omitting the nesting of obligations and resituating care recipients and care workers as equal and interdependent.

Philosophical Inclusive Design: Intellectual Disability and the Limits of Individual Autonomy in Moral and Political Theory

Drawing on the built environment concept of “inclusive design” and its emphasis on creating accessible environments for all persons regardless of ability, I suggest that a central task for feminist disability theory is to redesign foundational philosophical concepts to present opportunities rather than barriers to inclusion for people with disability. Accounts of autonomy within liberal philosophy stress self‐determination and the dignity of all individual persons, but have excluded people with intellectual disability from moral and political theories by denying their capacity for individual autonomy, seen as a chief marker of moral personhood. This paper modifies and extends feminist theories of relational autonomy by arguing for the need to view autonomy as a feature of persons that is manifested only through relations of support, advocacy, and enablement. An “inclusively designed,” relational account negotiates the tensions encountered in attempts to apply autonomy to people with high support needs, and politicizes the concept as an advocacy tool for people with intellectual disability and their allies.