Domestic violence affects every community – but the risk is even higher for people with disabilities, who too often go unheard and unseen. July is Disability Awareness Month. This is a time to celebrate the contributions and resilience of people with disabilities, and it is also a time to confront some hard truths. One reality that too often goes unspoken is the high risk of domestic and intimate partner violence (IPV) that people with disabilities face.
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, people with disabilities are more than twice as likely to experience violent victimization than people without disabilities. This includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse – and it often comes with unique forms of control and harm that non-disabled people may never have to think about.
So why does this happen, and how do abusers use disability as a tool of power?
When Caregiving Becomes Control
For some survivors, an abusive partner is also their caregiver. They may help with mobility, daily living tasks, medication, transportation, or communication. This dependence can quickly become an avenue for manipulation.
Abusers may withhold or ration medication, refuse to assist with feeding or bathing, sabotage medical appointments, or threaten to abandon the person altogether. These actions are not just neglectful – they are abusive. By threatening a disabled person’s health or safety, the abuser keeps them trapped in fear.
In some cases, the abuser might intentionally make a survivor’s disability worse. This could be done by purposefully giving them the wrong medication, causing injuries, or preventing them from accessing needed equipment or medical care.
This dynamic is sometimes called caregiver abuse, and it’s more common than many realize. Unfortunately, it’s also underreported, partly because the survivor may not know where else to turn or may fear they won’t be believed. Or, it is so normalized that they do not recognize it as abuse.
Taking Away Tools for Independence
For people with disabilities, tools like wheelchairs, hearing aids, prosthetics, communication devices, or service animals can mean the difference between dependence and independence. Abusers often know this – and they use it against survivors.
An abuser might hide or destroy mobility aids, refuse to help with maintenance or repairs, or prevent someone from using adaptive devices altogether. They might threaten to harm or get rid of a service animal, knowing that doing so would severely limit the survivor’s freedom.
These acts are a direct attack on a survivor’s autonomy and freedom of movement. They make it harder for survivors to leave, reach out for help, or even communicate that abuse is happening.
Isolation and Silencing
People with disabilities already face barriers to community life and social connection. Abusers often make this worse by isolating their partner from supportive friends, family, or services.
For example, they might discourage or prevent the survivor from attending medical appointments alone, speaking privately with a provider, or using online or phone-based resources. Survivors with sensory, intellectual, or communication disabilities may find it even harder to tell someone what’s happening when the abuser is always present or actively intercepting calls, emails, or messages.
Silencing someone who already faces barriers to being heard is a devastating tactic — and it’s one reason abuse in the disability community is so often hidden in plain sight.
Why Reporting and Support Can Be Harder
Even when survivors want to seek help, the systems designed to protect them aren’t always accessible.
- Many domestic violence shelters and crisis centers still have physical barriers, like stairs and narrow hallways, that make them unusable for people with mobility devices.
- Some shelters may not allow service animals.
- Survivors with hearing or vision disabilities may not have interpreters or accessible formats when they reach out for help.
- Police, courts, and medical staff may not be trained to recognize signs of abuse in disabled people, and myths about disability can lead to survivors not being believed.
These gaps highlight why it’s so critical to make domestic violence services truly accessible for all survivors — including survivors with disabilities.
Accessible Safety Planning: Meeting Survivors Where They Are
Safety planning is a key part of domestic violence advocacy — and for survivors with disabilities, it needs to be customized to address unique risks. Here are a few core ideas for accessible safety planning:
– Keep critical items accessible. Help the survivor plan how to safely store backups of medications, mobility aids, batteries, or assistive technology — ideally in a place the abuser can’t easily find or control.
– Emergency contacts and safe places. Work with the survivor to identify trusted friends, neighbors, or agencies who understand their disability needs and can help if they need to leave quickly.
– Transportation plans. Discuss options for accessible transportation if the survivor needs to escape — for example, does the local shelter have a lift van? Do they need help arranging paratransit or a trusted driver?
– Service animals. Make sure safety plans include safe arrangements for service animals – they should never be left behind.
– Communication support. If the survivor uses an interpreter, communication device, or alternative format, make sure crisis lines and advocates can communicate in a way that works for them.
– Legal and medical backups. Help the survivor gather copies of important documents, prescriptions, and medical instructions, and store them in a safe place or with a trusted person.
Accessible safety planning recognizes that there is no “one size fits all.” It centers the survivor’s unique needs and abilities and it honors their right to autonomy, safety, and dignity.
This Disability Awareness Month, let’s commit to lifting up the voices of disabled survivors, challenging ableism in our communities, and advocating for services that work for everyone.
If you need any additional information, have a question, or a concern, feel free to reach out to Options at our 24-hour toll-free helpline 800-794-4624. You can also reach an advocate via text by texting HOPE to 847411 or click 24-Hour Chat with Options.
Written by Anniston Weber
This project was supported by subgrant number 25-VAWA-07 awarded by the Kansas Governor’s Grants Program for the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice’s STOP Formula Grant Program. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of the Kansas Governor or the U.S. Department of Justice.