Disability Sexuality: Dating and Chat

Ian C. Langtree - Writer/Editor for Disabled World (DW)
Published: 2010/06/17 - Updated: 2025/02/08
Publication Type: Informative
Topic: Disabled Dating - Publications List

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main

Synopsis: Information regarding sex and disability communication when dating and using online chat communities for the disabled. Sex and disability are rarely discussed in the same sentence. As a result more than 50% of disabled people do not have any form of a regular sex life.

Introduction

Sex and disability are rarely discussed in the same sentence. As a result more than 50% of disabled people do not have any form of a regular sex life. Today's, and past societies, tend to believe that persons with intellectual and/or physical disabilities should be non sexual.

Main Item

Culture and Society

Culture has tended to set various rules and ideas on how people should look and act.

A person with a disability of some kind may tend to feel unattractive, or even less worthy of sexual partnership or relations, because they think that they can't live up to the idealized image today's society has set. If the disability happened later on in their life, the person may recall how they used to look and feel very unattractive by comparison to who they once were.

Due to the lack of most societies knowledge and sexual education, the disabled person's chances of meeting a potential sexual partner are greatly reduced. However if sex and disabilities was to be discussed more openly in our society today, then people would be much more educated about the topic.

Sexual ignorance is an enormous hurdle for most of us when we are trying to figure ourselves out sexually. Our situations are made a lot worse when we are denied access to the little bit of sex education most able bodied people receive. In a great deal of cases, sex education is being withheld from many persons with disabilities on the assumption that the individual 'won't need it'.

Persons who are intellectually or physically disabled, either from birth or through an accident or onset of disease later on in their life, may find it very difficult to express their own sexuality in satisfying ways.

Physical Disabilities Can Interfere with Sexual Functions

For example some males with multiple sclerosis (MS) may suffer from impotence or failure to obtain and maintain an erection.

Physical disability can most certainly prevent experimenting with many sex positions or cause problems with sexual arousal and reduce their general libido.

Some medical conditions, such as cerebral palsy (CP), can often cause uncontrollable muscle spasms or contractions, which can interfere with love making or masturbation and also cause clamping of the vagina making actual penetration impossible.

Some people with spinal cord injuries suffer reduced or lost sexual sensations in their genitals, but they may still feel the desire to have sex and feel sexual arousal.

Some forms of disabilities tend to impact a lot more in regards to a males fertility than a female, since men with some disabilities are troubled by impotence, whereas women with impairments are usually just as fertile as women without any physical disabilities or emotional disabilities.

Online Dating and Chat Sites for Persons with Disability

While many websites offer a variety of general chat rooms, and other websites provide adult chat rooms and dating services, there are far fewer focused adult oriented websites online that cover the more sexual side of relationships for persons with disabilities. here are a few we found.

Author Credentials: Ian was born and grew up in Australia. Since then, he has traveled and lived in numerous locations and currently resides in Montreal, Canada. Ian is the founder, a writer, and editor in chief for Disabled World. Ian believes in the Social Model of Disability, a belief developed by disabled people in the 1970s. The social model changes the focus away from people's impairments and towards removing barriers that disabled people face daily. To learn more about Ian's background, expertise, and achievements, check out his bio.