Disability and Sexual Health: A Critical Exploration of Key Issues

The sexual lives of people with disabilities are rarely discussed. It is as if, because someone has a biological or psychological impairment, they do not exist as a sexual being. As such, many people with disabilities feel marginalised and powerless not only in their day-to-day lives, but also in their ability to form sexual relationships. A range of health issues are raised as a result.

Illustrated by research drawn from a range of international contexts, Disability and Sexual Health: A Critical Exploration of Key Issues is the first to examine this important but seldom acknowledged issue. Beginning with an understanding of how both disability and sexuality are socially defined phenomena, the book discusses the implications for the sexual health of people with disabilities, from sexual health education and access to information to STDs and possible sexual exploitation. The book concludes with a chapter recommending inclusive practice in line with the aims of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

Disability and Sexual Health will be important reading for researchers and students in health psychology, critical psychology and the psychology of sexuality, gender, disability and nursing. It will also be of interest to professionals working with people with disabilities in health care and social work.

Poul Rohleder is a clinical psychologist and reader at the University of East London, whose research interests cover psychosocial aspects of health, sexual health and disability studies.

Stine Hellum Braathen is a research manager at SINTEF Technology and Society, Department of Health Research, in Norway. For more than a decade she has done research and published extensively in the area of disability and sexual health.

Mark T. Carew is a Research Fellow at the Leonard Cheshire Research Centre, based at University College London. His experience and research interests lie in tackling problematic issues and barriers that affect people with disabilities globally, including exclusion from sexual health.