1. Disabled Women and Domestic Violence: Making the Links Dr. Ravi K. Thiara Centre for the Study of Safety and Well-being, University of Warwick R.K.Thiara@warwick.ac.uk

2. Our recent study  First ever national study in the UK  Managed by Women’s Aid  VAWRG and SWELL  Mixed team - disabled & non-disabled researchers  Advisory group included disability activists/ consultants

3. Underpinnings  Social model of disability  Women’s Aid definition of domestic violence  Women with physical and sensory impairments exp abuse from ex/partners, family members or PCs

4. What we know  Huge gaps in research, policy & service development  Barriers – lack of accessible services, low take-up of DV provision, tiny numbers disclosing to disability/DV orgs, absence of awareness campaigns

5. Women’s abuse experiences  Varied and multiple abusers  1 - 22 years  Wide range of violence; pervasive ‘non-stop- abuse  Women’s impairments used in the abuse  Two particular features: –high levels of degrading emotional abuse –high levels of often extreme sexual violence

6. Sexual Violence  Many spoke about this for the first time - included repeated rape and forced sex and demands for sex in return for the provision of care. ‘It was sex all the time, twice a day. He would hold me down with his hand over my mouth always, and I hated it, I hated it. He said because I was deaf, I deserved it’ ‘It was sex all the time, twice a day. He would hold me down with his hand over my mouth always, and I hated it, I hated it. He said because I was deaf, I deserved it’  Sometimes, more than one perpetrator had been involved.

7. When abuser is carer: neglect, isolation and intense vulnerability… Issues of increased control and power At night times, he’d shut the door on me so I couldn’t call him for anything, so he wouldn’t hear me. And if I wanted to like use the toilet or anything he’d tell me to just piss myself there and then….. At night times, he’d shut the door on me so I couldn’t call him for anything, so he wouldn’t hear me. And if I wanted to like use the toilet or anything he’d tell me to just piss myself there and then….. Once he threw me on the floor with my dinner and said ‘that’s where you eat your dinner, that’s where you belong’.

8. When abuser is carer… I had a motability car, he would take it and disappear for days on end with it, leaving me stranded in the house, unable to get the shopping etc. But you don’t say anything as a disabled woman, I felt so ashamed that this was happening, so I didn’t tell anyone, didn’t ask anyone for help. I’d just be stranded…. And he banged me against the wall, shouting insults,’ you cripple’, all that sort of thing…you get used to it

9. When abuser is carer… One time, he actually took the battery out of this wheelchair I’m in now. He just unplugged it so I couldn’t move and if it wasn’t for a mutual friend that came to the house he wouldn’t have plugged it back in. And I don’t know how long I’d have been staying there with a dead battery. ….. or sometimes -- this is a good one – he’d quickly move my wheelchair just as I was shifting myself into it

10. Financial abuse by abusers who are carers  Taking control over women’s finances  Using women’s social security money to fund alcohol/drug dependency  Women denied money for their prescriptions and other essentials related to impairment  ‘Getting rid of her’ because she could no longer work

11. Not believed and meant to be grateful  Dominant view of disabled women as asexual and intimate relationships: ‘People pity him because he is taking care of you… are reluctant to criticise this saint or to think he could be doing these terrible things. … people don’t really ‘see’ disabled women. And people don’t easily see a disabled woman as a wife, partner, and mother, as a sexual ordinary person. So I think for some people it’s hard to think well this might be a woman who’s being sexually or physically abused by her partner,… because disabled women don’t have sex, do they?’

12. Abuse by paid carers Well, I have been stolen from and abused by my care workers and then there was a huge argument with social services and the housing people because they refuse to believe it or even investigate it. They were just on the care worker’s side and got all serious and judgemental if I started to try to tell them about it.

13. Responding to the abuse  Being disabled made abuse worse i) limited capacity to get away ii) impairment used as part of it eg. not being able to see or hear an attack coming or to get out of the way  Issues for women with ‘no recourse’  Women don’t tell – ashamed, self blame  Abuse preferable to ‘a life of care agencies’ = stay in abuse for many years  Terror, depression and loss of sense of self, vulnerability, PSV  Ongoing impacts on self and on children

14. Women’s help-seeking  Many never sought formal or informal help – no information  Other barriers – physical accessibility, thought no services, racism and feeling ‘doubly different’, ‘no recourse’, not being believed  Not being believed esp. lesbian interviewees

15. Women’s help-seeking  Strong reactions to who was ‘most unhelpful’ - 80% said social; 50% also the police  But few could think of any agencies at all that were ‘most helpful’ - possibly a DV refuge or disabled people’s organisation  Thus formal support – needs very rarely met  Almost no accessible services

16. Survey of DV services?  Services patchy or minimal & lack of resources big issue  Some DV services had good practice - specially adapted premises, accessibility  Many not accessible at all /not DDA compliant & still a very long way to go  Attitudes, disability equality awareness often poor among staff, DE training usually poor/ short

17. Survey of disabled organisations  Lack of resources: huge issue  Majority - DV not seen as their remit & don’t ask about DV; not an issue for them to deal with  May have only male advocates  Majority do not have DV policies & not members of DV fora  Lack of info about DV among staff common  Highlighted problems in accessible refuges and outreach services

18. Quote from disability worker ‘The agencies need to work together, it’s not rocket science! It’s no good if refuges don’t know about disabled people’s organisations and it’s no good if they don’t know about refuges. It’s silly, isn’t it?’

19. What we found Gaps in provision & research Lack(s) of services, sensitive training, policy making, awareness raising (public & victims) Barriers to getting help & accessing services  Disabled women experiencing abuse face intense vulnerability, neglect and isolation

20. Disabled Women’s Advice  Be informed about disabled women’s needs  Take advice from / consult disabled women  Provide accessible well-publicised DV services that disabled women know about: tell women about them!  Do not threaten with institutionalisation  Develop disability equality schemes with input from disabled women. Write into the strategies  Take disabled women seriously and do not patronise us

21. What is needed  More comprehensive services  Awareness raising and training across the board  The allocation of dedicated resources: key  Definitions?  Monitor, collect data

22. In sum… Disabled women experience –Greater need for services, coupled with –Far less provision (what there is often inadequate) & –Lose out on both counts Wide range of recommendations But not much good practice to learn from