(Posted 2025 March)

Domestic violence can impact anyone. But the challenges people living with disabilities and experiencing domestic violence face can be atypical. It’s important to know the specific challenges they face, why it’s important to understand their experiences, and ways to help.

(The term “disability” encompasses many forms and degrees of impairments, including physical, developmental, and psychological disabilities.)

Why It Matters

Women with disabilities are especially vulnerable to all forms of violence, including intimate partner violence. They are significantly more likely to experience physical, sexual, and psychological abuses and stalking than their peers without disabilities. They are also more likely to experience intimate partner control of reproductive and sexual health. Men with disabilities are more likely to experience stalking and psychological abuse than their peers without disabilities.

Unfortunately, violence against people with disabilities typically is not recognized as a significant problem, and the needs of victims and survivors are often ignored. Barriers to accessing services compound the impact of violence against people with disabilities.

Some Facts About People with Disabilities and Domestic Violence

1. People with disabilities have a higher lifetime prevalence of experiencing abuse than people without disabilities.
2. People with disabilities experience violent crime at twice the rate of people without disabilities.
3. Abuse can cause temporary or permanent disability.
4. People with disabilities are three times as likely to be sexually assaulted as their peers without disabilities.
5. Police are less likely to respond to reported violence against victims with disabilities. One study found police respond to 90 percent of reports by victims without disabilities but only 77 percent of reports by victims with disabilities.
6. A survey conducted by the Spectrum Institute Disability and Abuse Project found 70 percent of respondents with disabilities experienced some form of abuse by an intimate partner, family member, caregiver, acquaintance or stranger. Alleged perpetrators were arrested in only 10 percent of abuse cases reported to law enforcement.

What Domestic Violence Might Look Like for a Victim with a Disability

• Verbal and psychological abuse
• Physical violence
• Unwanted sexual contact
• Isolating victims
• Threats and intimidation
• Neglect
• Withholding medications
• Physically harming service animals
• Depriving victims of necessary physical accommodations or destroying assistive devices such as wheelchairs
• Financially exploiting victims and misusing victims’ money
• Preventing victims from seeking medical attention
• Threatening to “out” a victim’s disability to others if it’s non-visible or carries social stigma.

Ways to Help

Making resources more available and inclusive is one of the most effective ways to assist people living with disabilities and experiencing domestic violence. This might look like:

• Encouraging shelters, social service agencies, hospitals, and houses of worship to develop a referral list of organizations in the area specializing in the intersection of domestic violence and disability.
• Ensuring local health care professionals are properly screening patients with disabilities for domestic violence.
• Educating staff at social service agencies that assist people with disabilities to recognize the signs of domestic violence so they can respond appropriately.

If you or someone you know is experiencing violence, our advocates can offer support, education, and help with safety planning. Call the Domestic and Sexual Violence 24-Hour Hotline at 703-360-7273 for more information. If you are in immediate danger, call 9-1-1.

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