Women with disabilities typically occupy positions of extreme marginalization and exclusion that make them more vulnerable to violence and abuse than other women. There is a profound silence around the lived experiences of many women with disabilities that has meant that the violence in their lives is largely invisible and unknown. Further, many of our social practices involving women with disabilities appear to be based on contradictory assumptions that give rise to a series of paradoxes. Practices such as overprotection, segregation, the training of women with disabilities to comply with requests from staff, and a prevailing view that women with disabilities are simultaneously asexual and promiscuous all increase the incidence of abuse and violence rather than prevent it. This article examines experiences of a number of Australian women with disabilities, their mothers and other women who work with them, and official reports of several Australian inquiries into violence.
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