2022 Reports

Sexual Violence Against Women with Disabilities

Griffin, Fiona

Sexual violence is a public health epidemic of mass proportion in the United States that disproportionately affects women with disabilities. Despite increased rates of sexual violence against women with disabilities (WWD), organizations that claim to protect and raise awareness for individuals with disabilities perpetuate such injustices. In 2021, survivors of sexual abuse authored an openly published letter accusing the National Federation for the Blind (NFB) of acts of sexual misconduct, abuse, and rape within programs, conventions, and blindness rehabilitation centers associated with the organization. In response, the NFB documented an internal report with documented occurrences of sexual misconduct. Such instances are grave ethical and humanitarian violations against WWD that reveal the need for increased scrutiny of the factors contributing to sexual violence against WWD in the disability community. This paper elucidates explanatory mechanisms of such acts, positions these allegations in the broader context of sexual violence against WWD through a bioethical lens, and proposes protectionary forward measures.