CVPSD’s Melissa Dill to Discuss Personal Safety and Self-Defense for Women with Disabilities On Zoom
Live Zoom Interview with MOCEANS Center for Independent Living Set for January 21, 2027
The Center for Violence Prevention and Self Defense (CVPSD) is pleased to announce that Melissa Dill, CVPSD co-founder and instructor, will participate in a live Zoom interview with the MOCEANS Center for Independent Living on January 21, 2027.
The discussion will focus on an important and often overlooked topic: personal safety and self-defense for women with disabilities.
Melissa will discuss practical safety skills that can help women with disabilities recognize potential risks, establish boundaries, respond to threatening behavior, and develop strategies for protecting themselves.
Safety Skills Designed for Real-World Situations
Personal safety is not one-size-fits-all. For women with disabilities, traditional self-defense advice may not always be practical or accessible.
The interview will explore how safety strategies can be adapted to an individual's abilities, environment, circumstances, and level of mobility.
Topics are expected to include:
Recognizing potentially dangerous situations and behaviors
Situational awareness and identifying warning signs
Establishing and communicating personal boundaries
Verbal de-escalation and conflict management
Responding to unwanted attention or threatening behavior
Creating personal safety plans
Using available environmental resources to increase safety
Understanding when to disengage and seek assistance
Practical physical self-defense concepts that can be adapted to individual abilities
Developing confidence and a safety-oriented mindset
The goal is not to teach women that they must physically fight their way out of a dangerous situation. Instead, CVPSD emphasizes a layered approach to personal safety, beginning with awareness, prevention, communication, and avoidance whenever possible.
Making Self-Defense More Accessible
Traditional self-defense programs can sometimes assume a particular level of physical ability, mobility, strength, or coordination. CVPSD's approach recognizes that effective self-defense needs to account for the individual.
A person using a wheelchair, walker, cane, or other mobility device may face different risks and have different options than someone without a disability. Someone with a sensory, cognitive, or other disability may also encounter unique challenges when communicating, recognizing threats, or obtaining assistance.
Effective safety training should therefore focus on practical options rather than a single prescribed technique.
Dill will discuss ways women can think about personal safety before a crisis occurs, including understanding their surroundings, identifying trusted resources, recognizing concerning behavior, and developing responses that work for their individual circumstances.
Prevention, Awareness and Empowerment
CVPSD's violence prevention philosophy goes beyond physical techniques.
The organization teaches a layered safety model that incorporates situational awareness, verbal skills, boundaries, behavioral awareness, de-escalation, mindset, and physical skills.
This approach is particularly important when discussing personal safety for people with disabilities because physical confrontation is not always the safest or most realistic option.
The objective is to provide people with more choices when faced with difficult or potentially dangerous situations.
Live Interview on January 21, 2027
The interview with Melissa Dill will be conducted live via Zoom on January 21, 2027, through the MOCEANS Center for Independent Living.
Following the live interview, the program will be made available on YouTube, allowing the discussion to reach women with disabilities, caregivers, disability-service professionals, families, advocates, and others interested in accessible personal safety education.
CVPSD believes that everyone should have access to practical information that can help them recognize risks, establish boundaries, and make informed decisions about their personal safety.
The organization looks forward to participating in this important conversation with MOCEANS and helping expand access to violence prevention and self-defense education for women with disabilities.
