In Canada, disabled people experience violent victimization at nearly three times the rate of abled people. [1] Disabled women are far more likely to experience all forms of intimate partner violence (IPV), including physical, sexual, emotional, and financial abuse, regardless of disability type. [2–3] Despite this reality, the disabled community is often excluded from gender-based violence (GBV) services, policy and prevention strategies. This exclusion is not accidental, it is an intrinsic part of ableism: a system of oppression that maintains abled people’s power over disabled people.
Ableism upholds white supremacist and colonial definitions of who is and isn’t valued. It is embedded in policies, institutions, and everyday interactions, shaping whose safety is prioritized, whose pain is believed, and whose lives are protected. Sins Invalid tells us, “The same oppressive systems that inflicted violence upon Black and brown communities for 500+ years also inflicted 500+ years of violence on bodies and minds deemed outside the norm and therefore ‘dangerous’.” [4]
Ableism increases the risk of GBV and makes it harder to access safety and support. Disabled people are often desexualized (considered devoid of sexual agency and desire) and denied the right to define our own relationships, bodies, or boundaries. We are subjected to medical abuses such as institutionalization and sterilization. The lack of meaningful representation in media, education, or leadership sends a harmful message that disabled people are not whole, diverse, or valuable members of society.
Structural barriers also limit access to sexual health and GBV supports: discrimination and stigma, physical and digital inaccessibility, communication and language barriers, and culturally unsafe services. Combined with the pay gap and inadequate social supports like the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), many disabled people are forced to remain in violent environments, dependent on caregivers or institutions for survival. When disabled people are abandoned by policy, violence thrives.
Disability Day of Mourning
Held annually on March 1, the Disability Day of Mourning honours disabled people who have been killed by caregivers, institutions, partners or family members. It is a day to remember the lives lost to ableist violence, and to recommit to building a world where disabled people can live free from harm.
In 2025, the Disability Day of Mourning fell just days after Ontario’s provincial election, which determined the future of housing, income supports, and health care — systems that directly affect disabled people’s safety. The timing served as a stark reminder: policy choices cost lives. [5]
Suggested citation
Rodé, K. & Lopez, J. (2026). We Won’t End Gender-Based Violence Without Disability Justice. Learning Network Backgrounder. London, Ontario: Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children. ISBN: 978-1-998746-14-9.
This violence has never gone unanswered. As society consistently fails disabled people, disabled community has had to actively resist GBV largely on our own: building care networks and safety plans, leading research, shaping legislation, and demanding systemic change. Organizations like Disability Alliance BC, established in 1977; The Disabled Women’s Network (DAWN) Canada, which traces its roots back to 1985; and the Disability Justice Network of Ontario (DJNO) launched in 2018, are among those leading this resistance. The GBV sector is already being strengthened by disabled leaders, organizers, researchers, and survivors — it is time for the sector to look beyond inclusion and toward liberation.
This Backgrounder focuses on disabled wisdom and innovation, not as mere inspiration, but as essential infrastructure for justice work. Disability Justice (DJ) is a movement and a framework that positions disability as a political and collective experience shaped by systems of oppression and generations of resistance. DJ calls us to reimagine access, care, safety, and liberation. It centers the leadership and wisdom of those most impacted and offers principles that can transform how we understand — and respond to — violence...