Exploring Sexuality and Disability

Offering a current, comprehensive, and intersectional guide for students, practitioners, and researchers, this book synthesizes existing scholarship on culturally responsive practices that assist in exploring, understanding, and affirming the sexuality(ies) of disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent, and Mad individuals. Drawing on an intersectional framework, it integrates insights drawn from an interdisciplinary body of scholarship including psychology, social work, sociology, history, political science, women and gender studies, cultural studies, and education along with perspectives from the practitioners who are actively defining the next generation of best practices. By highlighting the incredible resilience and resistance of disabled individuals' and communities' sexuality and sexual well-being, this book challenges narratives that rely primarily on a one-dimensional view derived from the medical model and the view of disability as something to be "fixed" - or at least tolerated - rather than celebrated. In a world that pathologizes and devalues the sexual existence of disabled individuals, it illustrates how to create thriving communities and relationships, and how they can organize to find their voice, providing a counter-narrative of empowerment that fosters hopefulness, power, and health. It will be of interest to all scholars, students, and professionals across a variety of professions, including social work, psychology, counseling, policy, healthcare, education, community organizing, and multiple social service settings.

Shanna Katz Kattari, PhD, MEd, CSE, is a certified sexuality educator, an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and Department of Women's and Gender Studies, and the director of the [Sexuality | Relationships | Gender] Research Collective. Their work focuses on disability and ableism; sexuality and sexual health; and queer- and trans-affirming care. Find out more about their work at ShannaKattari.com.

0.Introduction. Part One - History and Community Work. 1.A (Very Brief) History of Disability and Sexuality Policy. 2.Able-Bodied Women Killing Disabled Babies: How Modern Narratives on Disability and Abortion Erase Disabled People from the Reproductive Justice Movement. 3.For Us, By Us: Mutual Aid Efforts in Disabled Queer and Trans Communities. Part Two - Exploring the Specifics. 4.Infinity and rainbows: Supporting the sexuality of neurodivergent people. 5.Access Isn't Optional: Sexuality and Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities. 6.Sexuality, Hearing Loss, and d/Deaf Individuals. 7."Love is Merely a Madness": Sexuality and Madness in a Cisheteropatriarchal Culture. 8.Blindness and Sexuality. 9.No Spoons for Spooning: Navigating Sexuality, Chronic Illness, and Chronic Pain. Part Three - Diverse Types of Practice. 10.Disability-Affirming Sex Therapy. 11.Exploring a methodology of care: Creating research with disabled queer individuals and community. 12.Ready, Willing, and Able: Sexuality Education for Disabled Individuals. 13.Disabled and/or Chronically Ill Survivors of Sexual Violence and Intimate Partner Violence. 14.Exploring the Intersections of Sex Work and Disability: What Helping Professionals Should Consider. 15.Resisting "Too Young": Anti-Adultism in Disability and Sexual Health Justice Advocacy. Part Four - Across Intersecting Identities. 16.Racialization of Disability and Sexuality: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective within the U.S. 17.Navigating Disability and Sexuality in Old Age. 18.Trans Enough, Queer Enough, Disabled Enough: Exploring Issues of Gatekeeping and Legitimacy of Trans, Queer, and Disabled Identities through Sexuality. 19.We'll Make Our Own Space: Making LGBTQ+ Spaces Accessible. 20.Sexual Well-Being Among Young Disabled People. 21.Compulsory Monogamy is Disabling: Connecting Disability Justice and Critical Non-monogamy. 22.Caring for Disabled Kinksters: Context & Practical Guidance for Providers. 23.Weight Stigma, Desirability & Disability.