(voice-over) FutureLearn.
[pop-rock music] UNSW Australia.
Disability and Sexuality.
-So, when it comes to sexuality and disability,
we often hear that disabled people are asexual or the rest of it.
That's just nonsense, I mean, that's just so silly.
If you think about the entirety of disabled people,
most disabled people are having sex,
having relationships just like everybody else.
So let's start with that.
Let's just not think there's a problem.
And then we need to think, well,
what are these different groups of disabled people?
Some folk are born with disability
and sometimes they face barriers,
particularly people with intellectual disability,
and that's usually to do with empowerment.
It's usually to do with knowledge,
to do with other people's attitudes, um,
to do with the fact that their carers--
parents, care homes, whatever--
think, "Whoa, they shouldn't have sex."
Um, so they need information, they need empowerment,
they need some support and some protection
because they're vulnerable to abuse.
Then you have people who are born with disability
who don't have intellectual or cognitive issues,
but they have physical or communication issues.
Now, a lot of us-- and I'm in that category--
have had relationships, sex, marriage, children, whatever.
Like everybody else.
But some people face particular barriers.
I think this is often when they have a complex disability,
profound disability, and particularly communication problems.
So it may be difficult for them
to form relationships.
The third group is people who become disabled.
Maybe a spinal cord injury, or something like that.
Now, often they've been having sex,
so the question is, are they going to continue having sex?
Sometimes their partnerships break up.
Often they have new partnerships which might even be better.
Um, so the question there is making sure that rehabilitation
includes information about sex.
That's virtually the first question people think about
when they come round after the anesthetic.
"Oh my God, am I ever going to have sex again?"
So, helping people understand yes, they can.
They may have to have it differently, but it can still be good.
That's really important in rehabilitation.
And then the fourth category is people who
are disabled through aging,
and we have this idea that older people don't have sex.
Well, again: nonsense, of course they do,
and we need to support them.
We need to have sex positive images,
we need to be able to deal with any physical changes
that happen with aging.
We need to confront this issue of people with dementia,
and again, it's questions of capacity and consent.
But we need to have the conversation,
whichever group, whatever age,
we need to have the conversation,
not start from the idea it's a problem,
and of course, there are various resources we have
to support people with their sex.
Sex education,
sex therapy or surrogacy,
sex work in jurisdictions which allow that,
sexual facilitation,
which means basically helping somebody prepare for
or get into the sexual situation,
but not having sex with them.
Um, and then there are various forms of support and facilitation
for people with physical and intellectual disability.
So there may-- and of course, counseling
and psychotherapy and so forth.
So, like everybody else,
disabled people may need some input around the sexual issues.
Not all disabled people, not all of the time.
But we need to make sure that we have services that are set up
to meet those needs as and when they occur,
to enable people to have the same sort of sexual intimacy,
relationships, family that other people do.
Because disabled people, surprise, surprise,
are like everybody else.