disabled | Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor

My job as an educator has me working with students with disabilties. I get to attend a lot of trainings and workshops offered by the state. Today I attended a seminar on Fair Housing and Assistive Technology, organized by the Disability Law Center and held at the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

I had to pick and choose which sessions I went to and I found myself really wanting to attend the session on violence against women, but there was another one more directly relevant to my job being given at the same time, so I attended that one instead.

I did get the handouts, though from the violence seminar. Here are some stark statistics from various studies:

50% of girls who are deaf reported to have been sexually assaulted

39% of ever-married females with disabilities physically or sexually assaulted by partners

62% of women with and without physical disabilities experience abuse of any type, emotional, physical, or sexual

Women wtih physical disabilities experience abuse for longer periods of time than women without disabilities

1,247 women and 440 men were killed by an intimate partner in teh U.S. in 2000

In Utah, the oldest reported victim of rape was 95 years old; the youngest was 3 days old.

Indivuals with disabilties are abused by more people

A sample of 7,027 Canadian women found that women with disabilities had 40% greater odds of violence in the 5 years precedign the interview in the research and these women appeareed to be at particular risk for severe violence.

There is a lot of work being done in the areas of advocacy and violence prevention. Systemic Changes are taking place in the areas of employment, income support and support services in general, deinstitutionalization and changing attitudes through public education on violence against women with disabilities, as well as support to families.

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