Physical abuse occurs when another person intentionally injures or inflicts pain on another person. People with disabilities who have been physically abused report being hit, kicked, punched and tripped. Children and adults with disabilities have a unique risk of being restrained in dangerous, often deadly, ways.
Despite federal and state laws that prohibit or severely limit the practice, teachers, caregivers and others in a position of power use restraints as a way of controlling behavior. The U.S. Department of Education reports that over 70,000 students were physically restrained in the nation’s schools during the 2017-2018 school year. Of those, approximately 78% of the students had disabilities, even though students with disabilities represent just 13% of the entire student population.1
People with disabilities experience violent victimization at nearly four times the rate of people without disabilities, and those with cognitive disabilities face rates almost six times higher. Rates of simple assault are more than three times higher for people with disabilities. Violent crimes against people with disabilities are reported to police less often (38%) than crimes against people without disabilities (45%), with even lower reporting for people with cognitive disabilities (36.4%) and multiple disabilities. Strangers account for a smaller share of perpetrators (32% vs. 41%), while other relatives account for a higher share (14.4% vs. 6.5%).2
2 Frawley, P., & Fitzsimons, N. M. (2026). Flipping the story on disability and violence people with intellectual disability and allies… leading the change. ROUTLEDGE.
