doi: medRxiv preprint NOTE: This preprint reports new research that has not been certified by peer review and should not be used to guide clinical practice.

As one of the world’s most vulnerable populations, women with disabilities are frequent victims of physical, emotional, sexual, and financial abuse. Indeed, they experience abuse at higher rates than women and men who do not have disabilities and men with disabilities. They are also more likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV) than any other adult group. Yet there is not one psychosocial intervention tailored to the needs of women with disabilities who have experienced IPV that facilitates their recovery from complex trauma. This is largely the result of limited (albeit growing) research on the risk factors for IPV, barriers to leaving abusive relationships, and trauma-related issues that women with disabilities face, especially among racialized women with disabilities, 2SLGBTQ+ women and gender nonconforming persons with disabilities, older/aging women with disabilities, and other subgroups. In order to develop the most culturally competent, effective interventions and policies to address the prevalence of IPV among women with disabilities, an approach that is informed by a combination of critical disability theory, feminist disability theory, and complex trauma theory is recommended. IPV among women with disabilities is a global injustice; therefore, this concern is highly relevant to the field of social work and its mission to advance social justice.

Sleep quality and physical activity can affect the mental and physical health of pregnant women and their unborn babies. We investigated the feasibility of assessing sleep quality and physical activity among pregnant women in Peru. Twenty women maintained sleep logs and wore ActiSleep devices for seven consecutive days; 13 had sufficient data for analysis. Mean sleep duration was 6.9 hours (SD = 1.4). Sleep efficiency was 77.9%. Participants averaged of 6,029 steps per day (SD = 3,087). Objective assessment of sleep quality and physical activity was feasible. Wearable technology has applications in healthcare to improve sleep quality and physical activity.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 61 million Americans have a disability, which translates to about 26 percent of the national population. The most common types of disability are physical (13.7 percent), or those that impact mobility, and intellectual (10.8 percent), or those related to cognitive processing. The Bureau of Justice Statistics has reported that 32 percent of people in state prisons and 40 percent of people in county jails have at least one disability, rates that demonstrate alarming disproportionality. Yet the history of the disability rights movement, the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act for people with disabilities who are involved with the criminal justice system, and the implications of disability justice and critical disability theory for the field of social work are not well understood. The purpose of this article is to review these under-recognized topics and offer recommendations for addressing this neglected area of social work education, research, policy, and practice.