Summary Disabled women experience disproportionately higher rates of gender-based violence than non-disabled women, including unique forms of violence related to caregiving relationships and abuse that targets their disabilities. However, there remains a paucity of research that seeks to understand these experiences in ways that can inform practice, which limits social workers’ ability to ensure that services and policies appropriately meet the needs of disabled women. To address this gap, this paper presents a qualitative meta-synthesis that brings together findings from 49 qualitative studies conducted across six continents. Findings Following a five-stage data synthesis process, four themes were identified from the meta-synthesis: (1) opening doors: the importance of accessibility; (2) community as a means of empowerment and overcoming adversity; (3) centering lived experience and survivors’ voices in all spaces; and (4) awareness as an essential step to change. Applications Despite including research from six continents and diverse global settings that varied by type of disability, form of violence, and qualitative research design, the meta-synthesis identified common themes illustrating the need to foster connection, center survivors’ experiences, improve accessibility to services, resources, and information, and strengthen collaboration across sectors and organizations. These findings offer actionable implications that social workers can implement to ensure improved service provision across sectors and to advocate for policy changes that address intersecting vulnerabilities of disabled women that transcend international borders.
Baird et al. (Mon,) studied this question.