Bridging trauma-informed care and organizational accommodations: an ethnographic analysis of tensional knots in an anti-violence nonprofit

Accessible services are not always available for survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence who are d/Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH). Constraints on communication for staff at issue-based nonprofits often negatively impacts their work to achieve the organization’s mission. Drawing on data gathered from 12-months of ethnographic research at a regional, issue-based, anti-violence nonprofit in the southwestern U.S., this ethnography investigates tensional knots that restrict staff from supporting D/HH clients. Mandated accommodations disrupt ableist practices and construct knotted organizational tensions between: (a) generalized vs. specialized support for clients, and (b) routine vs. non-routine intervention practices. Participants describe a complex and tangled set of organizational tensions in their engagement of generalized, routine structures, while inventing new, non-routine avenues to communicate support to their D/HH clients. Ultimately, the tensional knots uncover issues nonprofits face with addressing accessibility and the interplay of tensions.