A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities (pdf)

This guide helps women with disabilities from around the world to overcome the barriers of social stigma and inadequate care to improve their general health, self-esteem, and independence as active members of their communities.
Chapter 14 specifically covers abuse, violence and self-defense. The chapter discusses different kinds of abuse, preventing abuse, support for women leaving violent partners, sexual violence, abuse in institutions, and what to do to be safer.

Breaking the Links Between Poverty and Violence against Women: A Resource Guide (pdf)

"This resource guide explores the ways in which poverty and violence are linked. It acknowledges the efforts of women’s groups, community organizations and service agencies that support low-income women to take control of and deal with the poverty and violence in their lives. Another area of focus is to inspire community-based groups to take action on poverty and violence issues by providing practical examples of what others are doing."

Confronting the Sexual Abuse of Women with Disabilities

This VAWnet paper provides a brief summary of the research on sexual abuse of women with disabilities. The document also covers the origins of our knowledge concerning the sexual abuse of women with disabilities, the methodological quandaries related to sexual abuse research in general and the data on women with disabilities and the men who abuse them, and concludes with an exploration of the efforts of women with disabilities and their allies to counter sexual abuse.

Crimes Against People with Disabilities, 2007 (pdf)

"Using 2007 National Crime Victimization Survey data, the study found that persons with disabilities were victims of about 47,000 rapes. Rates of rape and sexual assault were more than twice those for people without disabilities. In addition, youth with a disability ages 12 to 19 experienced violence at nearly twice the rate as those without a disability."

Forging New Collaborations: A Guide for Rape Crisis, Domestic Violence, and Disability Organizations (pdf)

This document was created as a roadmap for bringing together agencies at the intersection of violence and disability so that they can create a new and effective approach to safety, healing, and accessibility to services for their clients.

Impact: Feature Issue on Violence and Women with Developmental or Other Disabilities (pdf)

This publication presents a collection of articles that explore violence as it impacts women with developmental and other disabilities. This collection offers strategies and ideas for bringing together disability service providers, sexual and domestic violence programs, law enforcement and the justice system, policymakers, researchers, and women with disabilities to prevent future victimization.

Individual-Systemic Violence: Disabled Women's Standpoint (pdf)

"This article explores reasons for the systemic omission of women with disabilities from mainstream research and from services addressing non-disabled women's experiences."

Interpersonal Violence and Women With Disabilities: A Research Update

"This article provides an update on what researchers have learned during the past ten years about abuse and women with disabilities and offers some perspectives on the state of current research and its implications for future studies and advocacy efforts."

On the Road to Equality: Statewide Findings & Policy Recommendations (pdf)

"A supplement to the Status of Girls in Minnesota report by the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota in partnership with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Focus groups were conducted in 18 Minnesota communities that included African American, Latino, Native American, Asian American, LBT (Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender), and disabilities communities — to share key research findings and gain community input. This report captures the voices and policy recommendations of these communities, nonprofit and public leaders."

Recognizing and Interrupting Abuse of Adults with Disabilities

Part of the World Institute on Disability, this website provides information on abuse towards those with a disability. Headings include "What is Abuse", "Types of Abuse", "What contributes to Abuse", and more.

Resource Guide for Advocates & Attorneys on Interpretation Services for Domestic Violence Victims (pdf)

This document provides guidelines from the Interpretation Technical Assistance and Resource Center that focus on court interpretation for domestic and sexual violence victims with limited English proficiency. These guidelines inform how advocacy, interpretation, and language access can be integrated.

Serving Women with Developmental Disabilities: Strategies for the Justice System

Women with developmental disabilities experiencie a far higher rate of sexual assault and rape than other women, and experience this victimization repeatedly. This article explores some of the issues facing police, prosecutors, judges, advocates, and other members of the criminal justice system, and provide some suggestions for how they can better serve women with developmental disabilities.

Stories from Women with Disabilities

Real stories from women with disabilities. Each of them has survived abuse. Some talk about how they were abused by a parent or family member, others tell about abuse by a partner or husband, or by someone else. Some women already had a disability when they were abused, while for others, the abuse caused a disability.

Study Reveals Unique Issues Faced by Deaf Victims of Sexual Assault (pdf)

"Describes findings of a study describing some of the unique barriers faced by deaf victims seeking help and offering recommendations for improving the relationship between law enforcement and the deaf community."

The Facts about Sexual Violence

This fact sheet provides current information and statistics on sexual violence. Information includes a working definition, explanation of different forms of sexual violence and legal protections for victims of sexual violence.

Violence in the Lives of Persons who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

"This Special Collection offers information regarding the experiences and needs of individuals who are Deaf or hard of hearing and victims/survivors of domestic and/or sexual violence. The collection seeks to increase knowledge and understanding of deaf culture, provide resources to assist professionals working directly with deaf individuals, and highlight best practices."

Working with Victims of Crime with Disabilities

This is a product of the Symposium on Working with Crime Victims with Disabilities, funded by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and coordinated by the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA). They developed recommendations for OVC and the victim assistance field on improving the response in serving crime victims with disabilities.