Over the past months, we at Innosign have been working on something that truly matters to us. Together with our partners — NKJT from Sweden and Turkoois from the Netherlands — we conducted a survey about gender-based violence in the Slovak Deaf community.
Why this topic? Because violence within the Deaf community is a problem that is barely talked about. In Slovakia, there is virtually no data on what Deaf people experience when it comes to violence. No statistics, no reports. We wanted to change that and understand the real situation on the ground.
We built the questionnaire based on a proven Swedish instrument from NKJT and adapted it for the Slovak context. Every single question was accompanied by a Slovak Sign Language (SPJ) video, and we simplified the text to make it as clear as possible. Accessibility was our absolute priority — if you want to hear a community’s voice, you first need to make sure they can speak.
During November and December 2024, we collected responses from 103 Deaf and hard-of-hearing people from across Slovakia.
What we found
Nearly 43% of respondents reported experiencing some form of violence. That is a striking number. Even more troubling is that 84% of violence cases involved women. Gender-based violence in the Deaf community is not gender-neutral — women are disproportionately affected.
But what struck us most was the gap between experiencing violence and seeking help. Only about 30% of those who experienced violence ever reached out for support. At the same time, 68% of them said they would want support services if they were available. People want help — they just have nowhere to turn.
The most requested forms of support were professional counselling, in-person support groups, and workshops focused on trauma awareness.
These findings confirm what we had long suspected — there is a massive unmet need in Slovakia for accessible, sign-language-based support services for Deaf people experiencing violence. And we want to be part of the solution.
Download the report: