Sexuality is a key aspect of human development and identity, yet people with disabilities frequently encounter social and political barriers to achieving healthy, autonomous intimate relationships. Society tends to associate disability with asexuality and often labels sexual behaviors among people with disabilities as problematic or deviant. Faced with these assumptions and resultant policies, how can social workers meet the needs of this diverse population across the life course.

In Disability, Intimacy, and Sexual Health: A Social Work Perspective, Linton, Adams Rueda, and Rankin compile comprehensive research and candid interviews with social workers to explore the complicated intersection of disability and sexuality. The book begins by detailing historical violations of the sexual and reproductive rights of people with disabilities, including forced castration and sterilization. It then explores current issues of sexuality and disability throughout the life course, starting with childhood and adolescence. The authors examine the increased risk of abuse and victimization that people with disabilities face while in romantic or sexual relationships and provide practice recommendations to help combat factors that contribute to this vulnerability. Other milestones across the life course are also explored, such as pregnancy and parenting, marriage and cohabitation, and intimacy in older adulthood. Throughout the book, the authors examine the micro, meso, and macro systems that affect the lives and relationships of people with disabilities.

This book touches on psychiatric, intellectual, developmental, learning, neurological, and physical disabilities and gives voice to both practitioners and their clients. It is an unflinching look at the pressing challenges professionals can face while serving people with disabilities, essential for students, academics, policymakers, and practitioners in a variety of settings who wish to advocate for the full sexual citizenship of people with disabilities.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand definitions of disability as understood by social workers
• Understand the social model of disability as a critical lens to working with clients and within communities
• Identify current topics of sexuality and disability throughout the life course, particularly among people with disabilities
• Delineate issues commonly encountered in social work practice when working with people with disabilities
• Identify social and political barriers to achieving healthy, autonomous intimate relationships among people with disabilities
• Demonstrate an enhanced understanding of sexual health interventions for people with disabilities, including resources for parents/guardians, families, and teachers
• Demonstrate an enhanced ability to advocate across the ecosystem for effective sexual health and relationship services for people with disabilities
• Understand how everyone can play a role in creating safer living, learning, and working environments for those with disabilities

• Kristen Faye Linton, PhDBio
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Kristen Faye Linton, PhD Bio

Kristen Faye Linton, PhD, is an associate professor of health science at California State University, Channel Islands, in Camarillo. Prior to her research career, she spent over a decade as a social worker, supporting people with disabilities and their families to live independent, fulfilled lives in the community. Her research focuses on disability and health disparities with particular attention to sexual health, brain injury, race, and ethnicity. Her education and experience as a social worker and qualitative and quantitative methods researcher has prompted her to conduct community-based intervention research and evaluation that responds to community needs. 

• Lela Rankin Williams, PhDBio
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Lela Rankin Williams, PhD Bio

Lela Rankin, PhD, is a professor in the School of Social Work, Arizona State University, in Tucson. Her interdisciplinary training in psychology and human development and family studies is informed by an ecological perspective, including the importance of regarding cultural and societal values as meaningful contexts within parent-child relationships and romantic relationships. As an active leader in both academic and community settings, she places a high priority on conducting rigorous and culturally relevant research in collaboration with community partners to inform interventions that are both meaningful and accessible. 

• Heidi Adams Rueda, PhDBio
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Heidi Adams Rueda, PhD Bio

Heidi Adams Rueda, PhD, is an associate professor at the Grace Abbott School of Social Work, University of Nebraska Omaha. Her research focuses on adolescent dating and sexual relationships within ecodevelopmental contexts, particularly among understudied youth populations including Latino youth and youth with disabilities. Within a holistic approach to dating health, her work aims to prevent teenage dating violence and to foster strong foundations for healthy adolescent and lifelong partnering. She uses mixed methods to inform the design and evaluation of effective preventative interventions and social work practice with adolescents. 

• Emily Perez, LCSWBio
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Emily Perez, LCSW Bio

Emily Perez, a Licensed Clinical Social Work Supervisor, is currently Masters of Social Work Director at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Emily is a Professor in Practice with nine years of adjunct teaching experience at The University of Texas at San Antonio and Our Lady of The Lake University. Emily’s professional background includes early childhood intervention initiatives and school-based social work. In each role, she has widened direct practice to include a focus on community engagement and program development.