Discussions about the oppression that disabled women face.

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        Although I do not have a direct relationship to violence against women with disabilities, this particular topic struck my attention. I chose to research this topic because throughout the past term, many discussions about the oppression that disabled women face have arisen.  Within these discussion I have felt very interested and amazed to discover the lack of accommodation that disabled women face.  However, my knowledge of this oppression has been limited to the areas of limited accessibilities and the struggles to fit into the norm of society.  Through simple common sense I have come to the conclusion that women with disabilities can and probably do encounter more abuse in relationships than non-disabled women but I am not sure to what extent it exists and how often it occurs. In class and tutorials disabilities have been openly discussed, unfortunately with no direct focus on my concerns about violence. Furthermore, I am particularly interested in gaining knowledge about the extent of the abuse that occurs within disabled relationships and a woman’s options within an abusive relationship. Also, I wish to gain knowledge about what is being done to help disabled women who have been shown violence and the steps that the justice system takes to punish the abuser.        

        In my first article that I chose to discuss, Issue of sexual and physical violence against the disabled, many of my topic focuses were addressed. With regards to my concerns over the extent of the abuse, the article brought forth the alarming rates of violence that takes place against women with disabilities.  Types of violence that vary from actual sexual abuse to verbal abuse to neglect and abandonment are important issues discussed that disabled women face today.     New knowledge of the acceptability of violence in society, has challenged my views of what I believed is tolerable in within a variety of communities. To read about a case in which a man pressures his wife to commit suicide because she was a burden and both the community and justice system believe that a six month sentence is a sufficient punishment, challenges my beliefs that our society has evolved and become more acceptable of those different from the norm. I am also concerned in understanding the steps that are being taken to help disabled women in abusive situations.  The article addresses this question while clarifying the lack of help and the additional barriers that are put on disabled women who wish to leave an abusive relationship.  Not only do they have barriers such as finding accessible shelters but also the possibility of not being considered a “capable” parent alone and losing their children.  Overall, this article clarifies and addresses a range of questions that others as well as myself may hold about violence against women with disabilities. I do not believe that there is any key information missing from this particular article but I do believe that it would be more effective if more real life cases had been discussed.

        The article Opening the doors: addressing the sexual abuse of women with an intellectual disability, communicates particularly information about violence against women with intellectual disabilities.  Being my favourite article, it addresses, clarifies or challenges all of the focus questions that I hold. Beginning with a real life story of the abuse of an intellectually disabled woman Lori Jones, it provides a variety of reasons why intellectually disabled women are vulnerable to abuse. Although there are no specific statistics of abuse within the article, it proves an understanding of how these types of cases are handled.  While intellectually disabled women are dependent both physically and financially on their families, posses a lack of decision making power and have a low self-esteem, even if they do decide to report abuse false assumptions often arise. Further more my questions about the justice system were addressed and clarified.   To my surprise, where I believed otherwise, the justice system assumes that the victim does not need to be questioned because she will not be able to communicate her concerns while also ignoring many other standard procedures. However what made this my favourite article was that is presented both the negative and positive aspects of this issue.  It proved a clear list or workshops and conventions that are being held in society to help not only disabled women but also to help communities understand the disabled.  This article was able to add to the information that I already had about what is being done to help physically abused disabled women. Once again, there is no key information missing from this article and I believe that it is actually more informative than the others as it informed the reader that although society is still far away from truly being able to help disables women; our community is taking steps to accomplish this.  

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        My final article Women with disabilities: a time for change, does not specifically focus on just violence towards disabled women but it also discusses issues that lead up to that violence. It is able to clarify that it is because of society’s obsessions of perfection, the lack of education for disabled women and the implied meaning of sexually as “having sex” that portrays disabled women as non-human objects.   Since society does not see disabled women as being human they are often shown cruel behaviours and sexual abuse.  Moreover, due to this non-human treatment of disabled women, society accepts the violence ...

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