“Disabled” is a very
versatile label that can encompass a wide range of people: anyone who is
confined to a wheelchair to someone diagnosed with Down’s syndrome. Some
estimates predict that 660 million people throughout the world cope with a
disability that interferes with everyday life (Fact Sheet: HIV/AIDS and Disability, 2011) .
Despite the enormous number of individuals who have their own unique
characteristics and qualities, people who acquire such a vague status have a
long and controversial history of interference with and denial of their sexual
rights.
Much of the prejudice the
disabled face has roots in the United States’ movement for eugenics, led in
particular by the state of California. Across the United States, legislation
mandated those deemed a “burden to society” to be sterilized against their will
to create a more ideal population. Chillingly, many states did not repeal the
legislation until the 1960’s and 1970’s. By then, nearly 60,000 U.S.
inhabitants had been sterilized (Kaelber, 2012) .
Impressed by the eugenics
movement and sterilization programs throughout the United States, the German National
Socialist Party implemented their own program, that, in a span of 11 years,
sterilized about 350,000 disabled people (Kaelber, 2012) . The Nazi sterilization program was but
one of the precursors to the Holocaust that claimed millions of lives.
Nearly 50 years after
sterilization programs in the United States were eradicated, the struggle for
disabled people’s sexual rights is not quite over.
Several erroneous
assumptions based largely upon people’s ignorance leave the disabled at a
disadvantage. First, many incorrectly relate having a disability with being
asexual. Others simply don’t understand the mechanics of how the physically
disadvantaged could participate in sexual behavior. At an AIDS conference, a
HIV positive man in a wheelchair was once asked: “’How did you get it? He said,
‘Sexually.’ She looked at [him] up and down and said, ‘But how?” (Schleifer & Knight, 2012) .
Still more people strongly believe the disabled lack the mental capacity to
give proper consent to sexual activities, and, like those in the eugenics
movement, believe the disabled should not be permitted to reproduce.
Contrary to popular
notions, a disability does not mean the end of one’s sexuality. However, a disability
does have an immense impact on one’s sexual life. McCabe & Taleporos (2003)
found in a study of men and women with physical disabilities that the more
severe the physical disability, the more negatively the disability impacts
sexual esteem and sexual satisfaction. A decrease in sexual esteem and
satisfaction should not, however, be mistaken for a lack of sexual desire. Even
men and women with spinal cord injuries may still be capable of sexual and
physiological arousal, and some even experience ejaculation and orgasm (Kaelber, 2012) .
Misguided assumptions and
beliefs regarding the sexuality of those with disabilities often directly
impact a disabled person’s access to education and interfere with his or her sexuality.
Particularly in developing countries, those with physical handicaps are often
denied an education simply because schools are not capable of meeting
handicapped needs. In 2007, the United Nations Education, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimated that out of 72 million children not
attending school, a third did not attend because of a disability (Disability and HIV Policy Brief, 2009) . Those that do make
their way into the education system, even in developed countries, often never
make it into a sexual education program (Schleifer & Knight, 2012) .
Many severely disabled people cannot easily be taught. “It may be difficult or
impossible to teach more severely affected people how to engage in safe sexual
behaviors,” (Yarber & Sayad, 2013) . At the end
of the day, the disabled are often left in the dark, struggling with their
emerging sexuality but lacking the education to do so in an informed, safe
manner.
The HIV epidemic’s hold
on those with disabilities served as a wakeup call. Even though people with
disabilities were previously considered at low risk due to their assumed lack
of sexual activity, HIV has considerably affected the disabled people as a whole.
Although there has not been extensive research on the prevalence of HIV in the
disabled, the studies that have been done indicate the HIV infection rate is as
equally high or higher than the rate in the general population (Disability and HIV Policy Brief, 2009) . Many HIV positive
people with disabilities were simply unaware of the consequences of risky
sexual behavior because of flawed educational systems. Others, especially those
in the deaf community, had and continue to have difficulty communicating with
health care professionals about their sexual health (Schleifer & Knight, 2012) .
Living with a disability
is difficult enough. The general population’s ignorance and attitudes towards
those with a variety of disabilities has a particular tendency to compound the
issue and often negatively impacts the sexual health of those with
disabilities. If progress is to be made towards a greater sexual health for all
and the disabled educated, we, the general population, are going to need to be
educated first.
-Elie P.
References:
Disability and HIV Policy Brief. (2009, April). Retrieved from World Health
Organization:
http://www.who.int/disabilities/jc1632_policy_brief_disability_en.pdf
Fact Sheet: HIV/AIDS and
Disability. (2011, June 8). Retrieved
from Human Rights Watch:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/06/08/fact-sheet-hivaids-and-disability
Kaelber, L. (2012). Eugenics:
Compulsory Sterilization in 50 American States. Retrieved from Presentation
about "eugenic sterilizations" in comparitive perspective :
http://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/
Schleifer, R., & Knight,
K. (2012, December 1). The disabled often are denied information about sex
and HIV. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/12/01/disabled-often-are-denied-information-about-sex-and-hiv
Yarber, W. L., & Sayad,
B. W. (2013). Human Sexuality: Diversity in contemporary America. New
York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
