Information for Supporters and Services

Women with disability and sex

Whether you are a family member, friend or support person, it is important to recognise that women with disability have sexual desires just like everyone else. They have a right to have consensual sexual experiences.

Women with disability should never be denied the ability to make their own choices about their relationships or sexual health. Supporters and service organisations can support women with disability to make healthy choices by offering information that is reliable and accessible.

There are lots of resources at the bottom of this page which may be helpful.

Sterilisation and children

While everyone has the right to make decisions about their body, forced contraception and sterilisation of women and girls with disability is a practice that unfortunately remains common in Australia.

Women with disability have the same rights as everyone else to have children and get the support they need to be parents.

It is not OK to force sterilisation upon anyone, regardless of their disability. Forced sterilisation has been identified as an act of violence, a form of social control and a form of torture by the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Torture, and as a form of violence by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). For many years now, the United Nations has told Australian governments that Australia should have a national law that prevents women and girls with disability from being forcibly sterilised.

Accessible services

If you provide sexual health information or services, it is important to ensure they are accessible for people with disability. Some things you can do include:

• use the national Disability Standards (external link) to conduct an accessibility audit of your service and develop a code of conduct for staff that is inclusive of women with disability
• make sure that any information you provide is offered in a variety of formats, such as audio, video, print, digital and Easy Read formats
• make sure that staff are trained in providing sexual and reproductive health services to people with disability. Find training courses on the family planning website for your state or territory (external link)
• have information readily accessible for all staff about accessible violence response services that you can refer to, such as 1800RESPECT and use the 1800 RESPECT: Disability Support Toolkit (external link).
  To contact 1800RESPECT via SMS, you can text ‘HELLO’ or any greeting to 0458 737 732 to start the conversation.
• download and read the resources provided below.
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Footnotes

[1] Women With Disabilities Australia (2016) Position Statement 4: Sexual and Reproductive Rights
[2] Intellectual Disability and Health (2019) Parents with Intellectual Disability (external link).
[3] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2019) People with Disability in Australia: Sexual Harassment.
[4] State Government Victoria (2011) Pap tests and Victorian Women with Intellectual Disability (external link).