Women and Disabilities project from college Gender and Society Class

Intro- “women constitute 75 percent of the disabled population in low and middle-income countries due to gender discrimination in the allocation of resources and access to services.”
General issues that disabled women face- Statistical Surveys conducted by the disability movement found that disabled women have poorer health than the general population because they have less access to good health care than men because they face more discrimination due to being women and disabled. Disabled females are also among the poorest people.
Females with disabilities are two times as likely to be in unpaid employment than men are.

Women with disabilities face many issues of mobility, and very little support services that will help women with disabilities.
“Where disadvantage seems to escalate with disability and gender, access to help and assistance decreases.”
Disabled women are seen as not being sexual or desirable.
Abuse issues-
　
Disabled women face just as much abuse as women who aren’t disabled. Their need for help form others heightens this abuse. They are also stigmatized and socially isolated adding to their problems.
“MYTHThe disabled are 'unattractive' and therefore not subject to sexual assault.”
“REALITYRape is an act of violence not motivated by sexual attraction. In fact, the disabled may be subjected to assault precisely because they are seen by attackers as particularly vulnerable.”
“MYTHThe disabled are asexual and, if assaulted, will react very differently from other people.
“REALITYWomen with disabilities are not asexual. The reactions of a disabled woman will be similar to those of any other woman, although the trauma of being overpowered may sometimes be greater. In any case, in any sexual assault, degradation, humiliation, and power are the issues ... not just lust or passion.”
“MYTH“Women with disabilities are raped and abused at a rate at least twice that of the general population of women.25”“Among developmentally disabled adults, as many as 83% of the females’“Disabled women have a rate of 85% of them as victims of domestic violence. ^xvi ‘　
Accessibility Issues-
In the United States, over 12% of Americans report experiencing disabilities. More than 50% are women. Women with disabilities often do not receive necessary health care because of:
lack of transportation and support services,
inability to locate accessible exam tables,
lack of reproductive health care,
some physician’s lack of awareness and knowledge about disabilities, other accessibility issues.
“ No one has to walk to be a typist, but if a company is housed in a building that is inaccessible to wheelchairs, and therefore refuses to hire a competent typist who uses a wheelchair because it would be expensive to fix the building, has it discriminated against her on the basis of her disability? Laws may say yes, but people will resist the laws unless they can see that the typist’s inability to work in that office is not solely a characteristic of her as an individual.”

Women with disabilities represent a disproportionably high percentage of the unemployed within the disability community. The disability movement has conducted several statistical surveys and found that women with disabilities are among the poorest people in society. Women with disabilities also have poorer health in comparison to all other groups in the society. This is because women generally have less access to good quality health care than men in general do, but is compounded by the fact that women with disabilities face additional discrimination on the grounds of their disabilities.
Connection to the class-
It connects to the class because disabled women are even more oppressed than able bodied women. They suffer many of the same things we have talked about in class and these things that happen to disabled women, detailed in the presentation.

　
　
　
Sources-

www.Ilga.org
www.disabilitynet.net
www.capegateway.gov
www.secasa.comThe disabled woman who is raped, especially if blind, deaf, or emotionally disabled, is probably not capable of effectively cooperating in efforts to apprehend or prosecute her assailant.”
“REALITYOn the contrary, women with disabilities have effectively cooperated in prosecuting assailants, using their unimpaired abilities.”www.awid.orgwww.ncdsv.org
www.opcc.netwww.ksl.com
Women’s voices Feminist Visions - Social Construction of Disability, pg. 117.