Linking the Assessment of Self-Reported Functional Capacity With Abuse Experiences of Women With Disabilities

Abstract

Women with disabilities are abused at rates similar to or greater than their nondisabled counterparts. Compared with nonabused women, women abused by an intimate partner have a greater risk of being disabled or having an illness that affects their activities of daily living. Although disabled women experience similar forms of abuse to those of nondisabled women, some forms of abuse are unique to disabled women due to the limitations that the disability itself presents. This article presents a conceptual analysis of abuse of disabled women and discusses assessment procedures that can assist in identifying abuse and informing service delivery. We propose a model of abuse assessment for women with disabilities composed of three elements: traditional assessment anchored on the Power and Control Wheel that encompasses the unique forms of abuse that disabled women experience; comprehensive functional assessment through self-reporting and self-rating; and attention to heterogeneity with regard to cultural sensitivity, structure of reporting, and nature of disability.