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SEXUAL ASSISTANCE

Commercial Sex, ‘Sexual Assistance’ and People with Disabilities

Garofalo Geymonat, Giulia. Commercial Sex, ´Sexual Assistance´ and People with Disabilities: A Qualitative Inquiry.
Finansierat av Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union (Marie Curie)

While the sexuality of people with disabilities has been included within the human rights agenda (UNCRPD 2006), the disability movement across Europe claims the issue has not been sufficiently addressed by research and policy, and has specifically demanded a change in the attitudes of health care professionals that would allow access to more accurate and practical education as well as to realistic sexual options for disabled people. This has exposed the problematic role that assistants, family and partners might be asked to play in supporting this access. In some countries, professionalization has been identified as one of the solutions to these tensions, with specialized providers offering ‘sexual assistance’. My research aims at furthering the empirical knowledge of this controversial practice by exploring the case of a European country where training classes are offered to sexual assistants, and of another European country, where sexual assistance is not legal but has entered the policy agenda following visible grassroots mobilizations started in the last few years. The project includes in-depth interviews with people with disabilities and sexual assistants, as well as participant observation with associations active in the field.

Funded by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union (Marie Curie), Project No. 302299

Researcher: Giulia Garofalo Geymonat. Professor Jens Rydström supervises the project.