Before: “I kind of floated through my sex life prior to disability. I had relationships; I had sex; I had crushes; I loved…sexual possibility seemed limitless. And then came disability.”

After: “I’m here. I’m disabled. And I do it. Yes, I do. Even in this body that you cannot imagine anyone [doing it with] and loving.”

 

Welcome to www.sexualityanddisability.org, a website that starts with the premise that women who are disabled are sexual beings – just like any other woman.

sexualityanddisability.org is constructed as a bunch of questions a woman with a disability might have – about her body, about the mechanics and dynamics of having sex, about the complexities of being in an intimate relationship or having children, about unvoiced fears or experiences of encountering abuse in some form.

sexualityanddisability.org discusses a wide range of topics related to sexuality without shying away from them – parts of it are explicit. People have different views of what is and isn’t appropriate and we’ve included them all.

sexualityanddisability.org is accessible to people with disabilities; special features have been included to ensure this.

sexualityanddisability.org has been created with the active support of women with disabilities, disability rights activists, counselling professionals, and organizations working on disability. More and more women with disabilities are reclaiming their sexual selves, speaking out through blogs External Website that opens in a new windowfilms External Website that opens in a new windowbooks External Website that opens in a new windowperformances External Website that opens in a new window, websites External Website that opens in a new window and offline activism.

sexualityanddisability.org is brought to you by Point of View External Website that opens in a new window and (CREA External Website that opens in a new window). Based in Mumbai, Point of View is a non-profit platform that brings the points of view of women into multiple domains through media, art and culture. Based in Delhi and New York, CREA is a feminist human rights organisation that promotes, protects and advances the sexual rights of all people; as part of its programs, it runs an online course on disability, gender and sexuality.

sexualityanddisability.org aims to provide women with disabilities and related constellations – partners, families, health workers, counsellors, organisations – a platform to explore this further.

We would like to thank all those who helped, guided and encouraged us – we couldn’t have done it without you.

  • Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped (Mumbai)
  • Janet Price, disability rights activist (UK)
  • Kanchan Pamnani, advocate and solicitor (Mumbai)
  • Malini Chib, author and activist, ADAPT Rights Group (Mumbai)
  • Prabha Nagaraja, TARSHI (New Delhi)
  • Ratnaboli Ray, Anjali Mental Health Rights Organisation (Kolkata)
  • Shampa Sengupta, Sruti (Kolkata)
  • Smitha S.S, Tejas – Self Advocacy Group for Disabled Women, Vidya Sagar (Chennai)