Vulnerable, Exposed and Invisible: A Study of Violence and Abuse against Women with Physical Disabilities

Women with disabilities have for a long time been a neglected group within disability research, gender studies and research on violence. This paper presents the first part of a 3-year research project on violence and abuse against women with physical disabilities. The main contributions of this paper are, first, an attempt to create a comprehensive typology of abuse based on a classification of personal and structural abuse. Secondly, a mapping of the social context of the abuse with a special focus on the arenas of abuse, the time perspectives and the consequences for the women. And thirdly, an attempt to illustrate that depending on the situation the risk of being abused may be related to the women's disability, their gender, their age and the hierarchical structures of society and the institutions with which they come into contact.