Invisible No More: Strengthening Violence Against Women Research Through Disability Inclusion

The WHO’s 2025 checklist calls for women with disabilities to be fully and safely included in research on violence against women, highlighting that their experiences are widely underreported despite higher risks of abuse. It provides practical guidance on inclusive design, ethics, data collection, and dissemination so research can produce evidence that leads to better protection, services, and policies.

Produced by the World Health Organization in 2025 through its Department of Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Child, Adolescent Health and Ageing, this checklist was developed under the UNDP–UNFPA–UNICEF–WHO–World Bank Special Programme of Research in Human Reproduction, with contributions from institutions such as the University of Exeter, the University of Melbourne, UN Women, UNFPA, and disability organizations across Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. The document responds to a long-standing problem in global research: women with disabilities face higher risks of violence than other women, yet their experiences remain largely missing from surveys, statistics, and policy debates. The checklist sets out to change that by showing how disability can be meaningfully included in research on violence against women, from start to finish.

The Hidden Reality of Violence Against Women with Disabilities

The checklist is rooted in evidence that women with disabilities are significantly more likely to experience intimate partner violence and other forms of abuse. However, most existing data underestimate this reality. Many surveys fail to reach women with disabilities, overlook disability-specific forms of violence, or exclude them altogether due to inaccessible methods. Abuse such as withholding medication, denying assistive devices, or exerting control through caregiving relationships is rarely measured, even though it is common. This lack of data has serious consequences: it weakens prevention efforts, limits access to services, and leaves policymakers without the evidence needed to act. The document argues that excluding women with disabilities from research directly undermines global commitments to gender equality and the promise to “leave no one behind.”

Making Research Inclusive from the Start

Rather than treating disability as a special add-on, the checklist insists that inclusion must be built into every stage of research. This begins with planning and leadership. Women with disabilities and organizations representing them should be involved in setting research goals, guiding implementation, and shaping how findings are shared. Their participation should be meaningful, paid, and supported with capacity-building where needed. The checklist also stresses the importance of dedicated funding for reasonable accommodations, such as accessible consent materials, sign language interpreters, transport, assistive devices, and personal support persons. Without proper resources, inclusion remains an intention rather than a reality.

Ethics, Safety, and Respect Come First

Ethical safeguards are at the heart of the checklist. Research on violence is sensitive and risky, and those risks are often greater for women with disabilities, especially when they depend on caregivers or lack privacy. The document makes it clear that informed consent must be obtained directly from participants whenever possible, in formats they can understand, and in private settings. Caregivers should not replace women’s own consent, as they may be controlling access or even be perpetrators of abuse. For women with intellectual impairments, researchers are encouraged to use simple comprehension checks and to regularly confirm that participants wish to continue. Crucially, the checklist states that studies should not go ahead if accessible, violence-related support services are not available. Asking women about violence without being able to offer help is considered unethical and potentially dangerous.

Better Questions, Better Data, Better Change

The checklist places strong emphasis on how questions are asked and how data are used. It encourages the use of internationally recognized tools to measure both disability and violence, while also expanding surveys to include disability-specific forms of abuse and a wider range of perpetrators, such as caregivers, health workers, and service providers. Questionnaires should be accessible, easy to understand, and carefully tested to avoid stigma or confusion. Once data are collected, researchers are urged to break down findings by age, type of disability, severity, dependency level, and other social factors, where sample sizes allow. This helps reveal patterns of violence that would otherwise remain invisible. Finally, the document calls for research findings to be shared in accessible formats and for women with disabilities to play a leading role in turning evidence into action, whether through policy advocacy, community engagement, or public communication.

In the end, the checklist is not just about better data. It is about fairness, dignity, and accountability, and about ensuring that women with disabilities are no longer left out of research that directly affects their safety and rights.