Intimacy, intercourse, and adjustments: Experiences of sexual life of a group of people with physical disabilities in South Africa

There is a growing recognition of the sexual and reproductive rights of people with disabilities, and, since the World Report on Disability (WHO, 2011), increased international attention has been given to these issues. Past research, however, suggests that this group encounter barriers to sexual and reproductive rights, which are both physical and attitudinal. Against this backdrop, this paper employs a sequential mixed qualitative methodology to explore the practical and subjective experiences of 13 people with physical disabilities in South Africa, with regards to their sexual lives and experiences of sexuality. These experiences were marked by concerns about their ‘fitness’ as sexual beings, and indicated that social forces were key in shaping their expectations for their own sexual life

The sexual and reproductive rights and benefit derived from sexual and reproductive health services of people with physical disabilities in South Africa: beliefs of non-disabled people

There is a body of theoretical work, and some empirical research, which suggests that non-disabled people assume people with physical disabilities not to be suitable romantic partners, not have sexual drives or desires, or not be sexually active. Access to sexual and reproductive health services for the latter group is a challenge: it has been proposed that people with physical disabilities face barriers to sexual health care access which are structural (such as inaccessible health care provider offices) as well as social (such as health care providers suggesting that people with physical disabilities should not procreate). The present paper explores non-disabled South Africans’ beliefs concerning the degree to which individuals have sexual and reproductive rights, and benefit from sexual and reproductive healthcare, for people with physical disabilities and people without disability. Using a survey, we asked 1,989 South Africans to estimate the degree to which people with physical disabilities and people without disability have sexual rights, and benefit from sexual and reproductive healthcare services, respectively. Respondents were more likely to support the idea that the population without disability were deserving of sexual rights compared to people with physical disabilities. Respondents were also more likely to rate the degree to which people with physical disability benefit from sexual and reproductive healthcare as less than that for people without physical disabilities. These findings provide some of the first empirical support that nondisabled people perceive people with physical disabilities as having fewer sexual and reproductive rights, and deriving less benefit from sexual and reproductive health services, than the population without disability. To have diminished sexual rights, and benefit less from sexual and reproductive healthcare, we suggest, evinces a negation of the sexual and reproductive needs and capacity of people with physical disabilities