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Biography

Tafadzwa Rugoho is a Ph.D. candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He has published extensively in scientific journals as well as book chapters. Tafadzwa has over twenty-five publication to his name. He has edited a book called Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescents with Disabilities. He is a disability activist.

Michael Ashley Stein is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School since 2005. Considered one of the world’s leading experts on disability law and policy, Professor Stein participated in the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; works with disabled peoples’ organizations and non-governmental organizations around the world; actively consults with governments on their disability laws and policies; advises a number of UN bodies and national human rights institutions; and has brought landmark disability rights litigation globally. Professor Stein has received numerous awards for his transformative work, including the inaugural Morton E. Ruderman Prize for Inclusion; the inaugural Henry Viscardi Achievement Award; and the ABA Paul G. Hearne Award. His authoritative and path-breaking scholarship has been published worldwide by leading journals and academic presses and has been supported by fellowships and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation and Research, among others. Professor Dr. Stein holds an Extraordinary Professorship at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights, is a visiting professor at the Free University of Amsterdam and teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Pamela Wright is a visiting Professor at the Athena Institute of the Faculty of Science. She is the Director of the Guelph International Health Consulting, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She has published extensively over the past three decades. She has worked both in low- and high-income countries.

Jacqueline E. W. Broerse is a professor of innovation and communication in the health and life sciences (focusing on diversity and social inclusion) and director of the Athena Institute of the Faculty of Science. Since 2017 she is also Vice Dean of Research at the Faculty of Science. She is a member of the board of the Netherlands graduate research school Science, Technology and Modern Culture (WTMC). Since 2012, she has coordinated the Erasmus Mundus Joint Degree Program on Transdisciplinary Solutions to Global Health Challenges. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board (CBG). She is the Program Director of the research master's degree program Global Health, and she is a member (and chair) of various educational boards, including the Examination Board of the Royal Tropical Institute.

Abstract

Women have experienced sexual abuse, and very few of them report to the police or seek other services, such as medical attention. This study aims to gain insight into the barriers women with disabilities face when accessing police, health, and counseling services after experiencing sexual abuse. Barriers such as long distances, physical barriers at service sites, communication barriers, gender issues, lack of confidence in the service providers, and an overall lack of resources were reported. In a study undertaken in Zimbabwe, women with disabilities encountered intersecting barriers such as the intersection of disability, and gender, poverty, unemployment, and low levels of education aggravated structural and social impediments for women with disabilities when seeking services after sexual abuse.

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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