As technology has evolved over the past decades, it has become increasingly intertwined in everyday life. While there are benefits to new innovations, technology has also created new ways for women and girls to experience harassment and violence. Technology Facilitated Gender Based Violence (TFGBV) is a growing area of research and practice that examines how technology intersects with Gender Based Violence (GBV).
The term TFGBV encompasses a wide range of activities, such as sending threatening or sexually explicit messages and stalking. TFGBV manifests in a variety of ways and is shaped by the regional, cultural, and legal contexts in which it appears. Some of these activities exist solely in the online space, but they can often lead to ‘real world’ consequences. For example, it is not uncommon for abusers to use technology to stalk survivors (Please note that the term ‘survivors’ is also meant to include those currently experiencing abuse). Researchers are constantly seeking to better understand this issue and how to best manage it, but it is clear that a woman’s race, class, and disability status, among other identities, plays a role in how they experience TFGBV. A discussion of TFGBV and intersectionality could be an entire book, but this writing will seek to explore one piece of that puzzle: how TFGBV impacts women and girls with disabilities.
Three Resources to deepen your knowledge of TFGBV:
TFGBV can have negative impacts on any woman, but the impact it can have on those with disabilities is unique. Disability manifests in a large variety of ways, and each individual has their own needs and ways of meeting them. For many people, this includes technology. As diverse as disability is, the ways in which technology is utilized by women and girls with disabilities are just as wide ranging.
Online communities, social media, and assistive technologies enable women and girls with disabilities to connect with other people in a way that might be impossible in day-to-day life. When technology is what enables someone to live their day-to-day life, build community, and advocate for themselves, ensuring it is a safe space is extremely important.
Safety concerns come in many different forms, including harassment, as well as increased risk for data and privacy breaches, as many tools, such as screen readers, require access to sensitive information. Just Access notes, “Accessibility permission enables important features like screen readers, voice commands, and other technologies that assist individuals with disabilities. At the same time, this makes the device more vulnerable to malicious actors seeking to exploit user privacy and data since the apps can then monitor all activities on the mobile screen, including personal information and banking credentials.” This shows that while women and girls are at higher risk of TFGBV in general, women and girls with disabilities have additional risk factors due to their unique needs.
It’s also important to note that disability is associated with higher rates of poverty. This is often due to policies, laws, and attitudes that make it difficult for people with disabilities to gain employment and earn money. In the United States, people with disabilities often rely on government programs to pay for expensive but needed supports, such as support staff. Still, policies require people to make below a certain amount of money. When they make more money than is permitted, they risk losing their support. This system requires people to essentially remain financially insecure.
This is not limited to the United States; studies from around the world have shown that gender equality, income, and disability are all related. Research comparing data from 23 different countries found that “Macro-level societal gender inequality is significantly associated with the probability of disability onset for women.” It’s also important to note that economic safety nets outside of traditional employment are especially important to women with disabilities, as disability can sometimes have an impact on their ability to seek traditional employment
The culmination of these factors makes it clear that women with disabilities experience higher rates of violence in general. In 2024, the World Health Organization released a briefing note calling for more research into the relationship between disability and violence. It showed that people with disabilities consistently reported higher rates of GBV.
While more information is needed in general on the relationship between GBV and disability, even less is known about the relationship between disability and TFGBV specifically – this is a critical blind spot. Research conducted in North Macedonia, while very limited in size, shows how TFGBV impacts women and girls with disabilities. This report also highlights how ideas about this population, particularly the experience they have of being infanticized, impacts their experience of TFGBV. While this study provides a good starting point, it’s extremely limited in scope as only 13 people were interviewed.
To correct this lack of information, the first step would be to listen to the voices of women and girls with disabilities and learn how they define TFGBV and how they have experienced it. Once that is better understood, the next step is to take that information and implement programs and policies, led by women and girls with disabilities, that center their rights, dignity, voices, and safety when using technology and interacting in online spaces.
Research on this topic should focus on the following questions:
- By using qualitative and quantitative data, how can we best identify the impact of TFGBV on those with disabilities, at what rate is this happening, and where is it happening online the most?
- How do ideas and cultural norms related to disability and technology impact the response to TFGBV against women and girls with disabilities?
- How do different types of disability impact risks for certain types of TFGBV?
- What does prevention look like in this context?
- What does justice look like for women with disabilities who experience TFGBV?
- What policies, laws, or technology innovations can be made to respond to or mitigate these forms of harm?
As the understanding of TFGBV and how it relates to women with disabilities grows, solutions must be backed by funding and programming. Organizations working to make technology and online spaces safer for women and girls should be reviewing the research being conducted and incorporating the results into their work as much as possible.
As technology becomes increasingly relevant to everyday life, the time is now to ensure that women and girls with disabilities can use it safely. If this opportunity is missed, this population will become even more vulnerable to TFGBV, and the barrier for them to participate fully in society will grow larger.
The moment calls for action: governments, civil society, and technology actors must commit to inclusive solutions that center women and girls with disabilities and ensure digital spaces are truly safe and empowering.
