Our curated list of sexuality and disability guides shows that people living with various disabilities or who have a disabled partner can enjoy sex. The options below offer sex education information, and first-person stories from disabled people, as well as one book that dips into sex and disability theory.
Read our for out list of sex and disability books and guides.
The Bump’n Book of Love, Lust & Disability
By Jess Tarpey, Katy Venables, and Andrew Gurza
A total of 50 disabled contributors share their stories in The Bump’n Book of Love, Lust & Disability. Filled with beautiful artwork and compelling poetry, the resource succeeds in its goal of delivering vulnerable and inspiring insight into sex, love, and relationship while living with a disability.
The book’s main authors are Jess Tarpey, Katy Venables, and Andrew Gurza. Gurza is also co-founder of Bump’n, a disability-focused startup that created a hands-free sex pillow specifically designed for people with limited dexterity.
The book is available to buy in hardcopy, as an ebook, or as an audiobook. According to Bump’n, all profit raised from selling the sex education resource will go toward developing its “first-ever line of sex toys, designed with and for disabled people.”
A five-star review on the Bump’n website called it “an important read for both the disabled and non-disabled community.”
A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability
by A. Andrews
For visual learners and comic lovers, A. Andrew’s illustrated book A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability is an entertaining and informative read.
The easy-to-read comic book shares tips on how disabled people and their partners can communicate better and have fulfilling sex lives.
Author A. Andrews is a queer and disabled cartoonist who writes for Autostraddle and developed the webcomic Oh, Hey! It’s Alyssa!
Sexuality for All Abilities: Sexuality for All Abilities: Teaching and Discussing Sexual Health in Special Education
by Katie Thune and Molly Gage
This comprehensive sex education manual was created for educators who teach special education students.
In the first half, Sexuality for All Abilities offers tools for partnering with parents, an overview of common roadblocks, and provides real-world examples. The second section explains how to carry out a successful sex ed program and addresses challenges that may arise in special education classrooms.
The book is a collaboration between Katie Thune, a teacher who has worked with adults and children with disabilities for more than 20 years, and Molly Gage, who earned an MA and Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota.
Sex and Disability
by Robert McRuer and Anna Mollow
While this book is not a sex guide, it may nourish the minds of readers interested in academic discussion and theory on sex and disability.
Acknowledging the limited scope and lack of overlap between the fields of disability and sexuality studies, the anthology features several essays questioning conventional definitions of sex and how sexual identities are constructed within the dominant heterosexual and able-bodied culture.
The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability: For All of Us Who Live with Disabilities, Chronic Pain, and Illness
by Cory Silverberg and Miriam Kaufman
For people with more time and energy, The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability is a 360-page book touted as the “first complete sex guide” created for people with a broad range of conditions.
They include but are not limited to chronic pain and fatigue, hearing and visual impairment, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and asthma.
This dense guide was written as a collaboration between a medical doctor, a sex educator, and a disability activist, and is often used as a reference in other educational materials. It offers ample information so readers can explore their sexualities in ways that suit them and encourages the development of positive sexual self-images.
PleasureABLE: Sexual Device Manual for Persons with Disabilities [pdf] by Disabilities Health Research Network
This 25-page online manual provides comprehensive sexual resources for people living with disabilities as well as healthcare providers who work with them. Presenting medical research and diagrams on human sexuality, it aims to educate readers on how people with various physical abilities can have fulfilling erotic lives.
First, the resource debunks the myth that people with disabilities aren’t interested in sex and addresses the lack of research into sexual health for them. It aims to fill the gap by suggesting different types of pleasure products, such as sex toys, lubricants, harnesses, and supportive props.
The manual organizes items and information according to how they could help people with different levels of ability, including limited hand function, no hand function, as well as limited body strength and flexibility.
It also provides visual illustrations of sexual poses and adaptations useful for people in wheelchairs as well as those who are not.
SexForEveryBody.com
Lastly, if you are seeking more information specifically on how to make love in a wheelchair, the adult sex education site SexForEveryBody.com shares a list of online guides. They include a safe-for-work YouTube video and illustrations of sex positions for wheelchair users.
