Women with disabilities: a European snapshot

When reflecting on the issue of disability in Europe, most rarely?consider that the majority of people with disabilities are women. More than 29% of European women have a disability, compared to 25% of men (data from 2022). Women with disabilities have specific and often discriminated needs that relate more closely to their being women than to their disability. To be precise: the care and support issues, the work environment, school, leisure, and safety in public and private. Consequently, when considering policies and actions for and about disability, people should use an "intersectional" perspective - which takes the different characteristics of a person into account - since the condition of disability does not make a person a "standard" who loses their socio-cultural status, sexual preferences, age, physical condition or, indeed, their gender. When we talk about women with disabilities, therefore, we need to think about disability policies tailored to their needs specifically. It's an approach that considers different human conditions as a part of life, leaving the rhetoric of the minority. Actually, how can more than 20% of the population be considered a minority?

The III Manifesto on the Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities

For years now, the European Disability Forum has taken up the issue of women with disabilities. Its working group has issued multiple manifestos and alerted the European Commission on various fronts, always highlighting the importance of an intersectional approach to European Union policies for women. Here we find the important work done by the EDF in a few key areas: violence against women and girls with disabilities (which will be discussed further in this article), the consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic, climate change, accessibility, economic crisis, and poverty, war, and above all the empowerment of women with disabilities. The EDF encourages them to be the advocates of their destiny and choices, finally clearing them of their stereotypical characterization as passive, unwilling, and possibly a-sexed beings. This concept is then joined by "leadership", not only to foster the inclusion of women and girls with disabilities in positions of leadership but to make them leaders of their lives with the right to make personal decisions. Through accessible digital and physical services and policies that take their needs into account, women with disabilities are encouraged to step out of the shadows. So, the III Manifesto is an important document, and we encourage all people to read it for an objective snapshot of the lives of women with disabilities. When the EDF wrote the manifesto, they circulated a questionnaire to which 500 female European citizens responded. The results show a tragic picture, one figure among all: more than 58% of the women who responded had experienced some form of violence.

Violence against women with disabilities: perspectives and wording.

In Italy, women with disabilities are twice as likely to be victims of violence, compared to women without disabilities. This is testified by the latest ISTAT (the National Institute of Statistics) survey, which finally included disaggregated data on women who are victims of violence, including those with some form of disability. Eurostat data are no better. According to the EDF's research, 58% of the women who participated in it disclosed having been victims of violence at least once. But what kind of violence are we talking about? We mean hidden violence - such as the caregiver's refusal to help a woman with disabilities, not allowing her to use her money independently, preventing her from leaving the house under blackmail, etc. - and the sexual violence that is sometimes committed by husbands, parents, or caregivers who work in the facilities where women are hospitalized.

Wording is also a key issue when it comes to violence against and even murder of women with disabilities (11% of femicides in Italy). When a caregiver makes the extreme gesture of killing his wife or daughter with a disability, newspapers often publish headlines such as "Exasperated by the situation: kills daughter." What situation? Above all, what justification? Even a murderer becomes a victim with such narration. Part of a tragedy is mainly caused by disability, but the real problem is the lack of protection for women and their inability to report on such tragedies, realize their tragic situation, and get out of it before it is too late. Today's journalistic communication uses language that becomes complicit in such violence as it exposes women with disabilities in a way that they become part of a vicious cycle, and this has disastrous consequences. ? ? ?

?Accessibility as help and support

In my opinion, accessibility is one of the tools that can best intervene in improving the living conditions of women with disabilities. Through accessibility, women can feel more autonomous and able to get out of violent situations, demand to be protagonists of their lives, and question paradigms that classify them as passive beings in all areas of life. Digital accessibility, moreover, can play a crucial role in gathering information and asking for help. Accessible websites allow women with disabilities to access services dedicated to women, as well as communities that can support them and teach them about their rights. This type of information is usually available online and digital accessibility allows them to browse anonymously and anywhere, including from home, where they are often relegated. What they find, be it a public service announcement or a poster with a downloadable PDF, can become the source of crucial information for women with disabilities.

Dajana Gioffrè ,

Chief Visionary Officer AccessiWay