Disability & Sexuality

Disability and sexuality is an ever-evolving issue worldwide, from the interplay of laws which determine someone’s capacity to consent, to community attitudes, health care and education. There is a large movement, generally by PWD with lived experience of this, campaigning for their right to be recognised as a being with a right to intimacy, relationships, and respect. As well as to be adequately educated and to have access to sexual health care, to have the opportunity to seek what they want freely. As this is often an uncomfortable topic for much of society to debate and discuss openly and freely – it can further limit the extent to which the experiences and knowledge of people with a disability are listened to and valued, restricting PWD involvement in these leading roles where decisions are made.

People often view PWD as either asexual or hypersexual (Chen, 2020; Scott, 2021 ). Societal attitudes often mean people are infantilised and their rights often contested without fair or adequate input from PWD – with the intersection of other diverse identities such as being a woman, or being queer, adding further  exclusion (Addlakha et.al., 2017). This is seen throughout communities but is evident also within the health and education systems for instance.

To further understand the intricacies around sexuality and disability, there is much discussion around asexuality and disability and how these intersect and are perceived by community. Keshia Scott (2021) describes how she often felt as if others defined her sexuality by her disability, but also in identifying as asexual, she feels as though community  assumption is that her asexuality is directly linked to her  disability, rather than an independent variable within her identity and experience.  Highlighting the need for asexuality to be extricated from disability, whilst they are intersecting identities, binding them together contributes to the stigma both communities face - “asexuality is not caused by disability” (Chen, 2020).