An estimated 83 percent of women with disabilities will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime. Despite this overwhelming statistic, researchers have only just begun to explore the problem of sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse among women with disabilities. In a 2002 study that involved a series of focus groups with women with disabilities, particularly women who were deaf, researchers discovered that these women encountered a lack of understanding from community-based service providers. Thus, simply disclosing sexual abuse is a problem for women with disabilities and deaf women in particular experience a profound sense of isolation. Communication, in addition to isolation, is a major problem for deaf women who must rely on interpreters to communicate, thus giving up any sense of privacy. Preliminary findings from a National Institute of Justice-funded study into sexual abuse within the deaf community indicated that the depletion of deaf services has been devastating to their community and that deaf women long for police and hearing agencies to understand more about deaf culture and how to communicate effectively with this community. A future institutional ethnographic investigation is expected to assess whether the policies and practices of the Minneapolis Police Department promote an appropriate response to sexual assault within the deaf community; findings from this research will underscore areas of focus for policymakers and service delivery systems. It is hoped that continued research in this field will contribute to a better understanding of the challenges faced by women with disabilities. References