Through a personal lens

Abstract

The sexuality of people with disabilities in South Africa, as in other places in the world, has been a site of exclusion and oppression, with many myths and misconceptions being held. In the context of significant social inequalities and a major HIV epidemic, the exclusion of people with disabilities from being able to live fully sexual and sexually healthy lives presents an added personal burden. There is a small but growing body of research on disability and sexuality in South Africa, focused mostly on issues of sexual health risk. There is less focus on the social and interpersonal experiences of sexuality from the perspective of people with disabilities themselves. This chapter describes a participatory action research project, which aimed to challenge the myths about the sexuality of people with physical disabilities in South Africa. The project adopted multiple research methods, including innovative media and narrative methods, to explore societal attitudes as well as the subjective experiences of people with physical disabilities. The use of collaborative media methods allowed participants to challenge dominant, often stigmatising, representations of the sexual lives of people with disabilities, providing a personal lens in which to convey their experiences of sexuality, masculinity and femininity. (physical disabilities, South Africa, participatory research, societal attitudes, sexual exclusion)