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Applying the Social Ecological Model to Violence against Women with Disabilities

Miranda Sue Terry

Violence against women (VAW) is a broad term used to capture aggressive acts committed toward women, which consists of numerous types of violence with the most commonly known types of abuse being emotional, sexual, and physical. One relatively invisible group, women with disabilities, not only experiences emotional, sexual, and physical abuse but also a unique type of disability-related abuse, which may increase their risk of experiencing acts of violence. The U.S. Congress passed two distinct yet not mutually exclusive policies into law to address violence against women and rights for individuals with disabilities: the Violence against Women Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. This paper will discuss these policies with suggestions to increase protection for women with disabilities experiencing violence and the implications for these policy changes using the social ecological model.