Celebrating Disability Pride Month: Honouring Strength, Diversity and Community

Disability and Violence

July is disability pride month. It is a time to celebrate the disabled community, while actively working to eradicate ableism and accessibility barriers. At Luke’s Place, we also recognize that people with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by all forms of gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV).

Survivors of IPV with disabilities can often face unique forms of abuse, such as:

• Having access to their mobility aids, communications aids or medication controlled and/or denied
• Having their disability used for humiliation, abuse or shame
• Being isolated from the disabled community
• Having their disability invalidated
• Harm or threats of harm to service animals
• The threat of institutionalization if the relationship is ended

In addition to violence faced by disabled survivors, IPV can cause non-disabled survivors both permanent and temporary disabilities.

We also recognize the immense amounts of accessibility barriers within the family court and shelter systems. This also results in some of the lowest reporting rates of IPV.

Luke’s Place is committed to creating accessible spaces for our clients and community and continuing to educate ourselves on disability justice practices.

For more information about intimate partner violence and disabilities visit the resources below:

• Fact Sheet on Women with Disabilities and Violence
• Resource by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
• Statistics Canada information of violence and disabilities
• Women with Disabilities and D/deaf Women, Housing, and Violence
• Women with Disabilities and Abuse: Access to Supports Report on the Pan-Canadian Focus Groups