Research team shines light on world of 'hidden violence'

Social work students and researchers in family violence are creating a toolkit to better serve victims with disabilities.

The eight-chapter document is meant to help groups who are used to serving able-bodied people communicate better with disabled women, who are two times more likely to experience abuse.

The Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research presented the first draft Tuesday night to groups trying to serve women with disabilities.

"Where we are failing is that we're not hearing them," said Rina Arseneault, associate director of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre at the University of New Brunswick.

"We need to start building the bridge with the associations that are working with women with disability. Let's work together. … As soon as I understand better what it means to be blind, what it means not to hear, what it means to be in a wheelchair, when I know all that, I'm better prepared."

The toolkit looks exclusively at interpersonal violence, including intimate partner violence, most of which happens in the home.

"There's this world of hidden violence that we're trying to bring into the light," said St. Thomas University assistant professor Angela Wisniewski.

The toolkit

Arseneault said the document was developed using research conducted by her, Wisniewski and many St. Thomas social work students.

They conducted an online survey last year to find out the gaps, and they learned that housing, education and lack of knowledge about available resources are three of the biggest challenges facing women with disabilities.

The researchers also conducted two focus groups, one with service providers for women with disabilities and another with groups who serve victims of violence.

The work led to guidelines on the unique considerations service providers should keep in mind.

For example, women with disabilities sometimes depend on caretakers. If those caretakers happen to be the perpetrators of violence, that adds an extra layer of complication when the women try to escape.

Things like medication, how many pills should be set aside for when a woman moves to a transition home, whether she has a service animal, or if she needs accessible entrances and exits are also included.

STU student Pamela Young said the "safety planning" section was where she was involved the most.

"A lot of people will stay in a relationship because they have no other way to get through day to day," she said.

Arseneault said the lack of credibility is another aspect that's unique to women with disabilities.

"If you have a learning disability, a lot of people won't believe you, [or] will say 'Oh, really, is she exaggerating?'"  

Two women

Arseneault said the whole project started with a workshop she had with two women — one who couldn't hear and one who couldn't see. She wanted to talk to them about their needs.

"I thought I was ready. I had everything written, every word I was going to say was written," she said. "But in the first 10 minutes they stopped me and said 'Just a moment, Rina … we can't understand any word you have used, they're too complicated for us, and some of the words aren't even part of our sign language.'"

She said that's when she realized the service industry needs to take a step back.

A year and a half later, what she presented Tuesday was just a drop in the ocean, she said. This toolkit is still in draft, and the researchers will continue learning, she said.

The next step is ethics approval to begin interviewing women with disabilities who have experienced violence. So far the Fredericton team has been relying on first-hand accounts gathered by other researchers.

Denise Billings, another St. Thomas student, said she felt challenged by the project.

"It's not new information by any stretch, but it has challenged the way that I've been thinking about things. And how, when I go forward in practice as a social worker … I'm going to look at it with a disability lens now."