Disabled Women: our bodies, our rights

In 2017, Engender received funding from the Tampon Tax Fund for a project researching disabled women's experiences of parenting and reproductive health services in Scotland.

Working with disabled people's organisations in Scotland, and led by an advisory group, the project saw us speak with disabled women across Scotland to hear about their experiences of puberty, sex education, relationships, family planning, maternity services, parenting support and the menopause. Through consultation events, an anonymous survey, round-table discussions with practitioners, and focus groups led by the Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory, we explored a huge range of issues relating to disabled women's reproductive rights.

All of this research has now been written up in to a report which outlines the barriers to disabled women's reproductive rights.

It is divided into the key areas of:

• Parental Rights

• Training and Education

• Reproductive, Sexual and Maternal Health

• Violence Against Women

and contains recommendations for Scottish Government, service providers and institutions to help realise the rights of disabled women.

You can access and download the report below, and contact Engender if you would like hard copies sent out to you.

Read 'Our Bodies, Our Rights: Identifying and removing barriers to disabled women's reproductive rights in Scotland'

You can listen to an audio version here:

We have also produced an easy-read project report outlining the key issues and recommendations.

Read the Easy Read project report here

Finally, Dr Jo Ferrie and Dr Phillippa Wiseman from the University of Glasgow produced an analysis of the survey and focus groups which were run as part of the project. You can access this additional research report here.