ABSTRACT
In The Sexual Politics of Disability, Kath Gillespie-Sells, Dominic Davies and I argued for a social model of disabled sexuality, based on the insight that the problem was not ‘how to do it’ but ‘who to do it with’ (Shakespeare et al., 1996). Ten years after our book, Article 23 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities stated that: ‘States Parties shall take effective and appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities in all matters relating to marriage, family, parenthood and relationships, on an equal basis with others’: this is now a legal obligation on the 127+ states which have ratified the Convention. Undoubtedly, attitudes towards disabled people’s sexuality are slowly changing, perhaps more rapidly for people with physical and sensory impairments than for people with learning difficulties (Morales et al., 2011). For example, there have been many TV documentaries and feature films that touch on the issue, or take it as a central theme, such as The Sessions (2012, director Lewin). Yet still the words ‘disability’ and ‘sexuality’ are often coupled with
the word ‘taboo’, and commonly there is shock among family members and service providers to find that a disabled person is partnered or sexually active. For example, an Australian colleague told me as I revised this book:
I once had a doctor respond with unreserved shock when I told her I was sleeping with someone (she hadn’t asked, I had to volunteer it because it was relevant). I was 23. When she referred
me to a specialist her referral said, ‘S has severe Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Surprisingly, however, she is sexually active.’
