1 Confronting the Sexual Abuse of Women with Disabilities

The immense and important research on the sexual abuse of women often ignores disability, and disability research rarely considers the sexual abuse of women with disabilities. Similarly, service providers and various advocates often fail to connect these crucial issues. For example, although legislation such as the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act affirmed, "that disabled persons have been subjected to a history of purposeful unequal treatment... in our society, " it confronted neither the covert nor the sexual forms such purposeful mistreatment takes. Likewise, the Violence Against Women Act, adopted four years later, may have considered the gender-specificity of male violence against women but not the particular vulnerabilities of women with disabilities. In both instances, reformist efforts to politicize issues exclusively around either gender or disability are problematic for women with disabilities and for those engaged in feminist and disability politics. Thinking about and organizing against the sexual abuse of women with disabilities renders gender a more explicit component of disability studies and activism. As well, it enriches feminist analyses of and activism against violence against women