Q: What solutions would you propose to address SRH needs among people with disabilities?
A: In terms of the solutions around sexual and reproductive health, the role that we think is most important to play is, first of all, connecting these kids to school, to education. SRH is a major component of education programs, at least in Kenya…. Also to make sure it’s included in specialized learning programs. So, in terms of their education around SRH, we are trying to base that on the schools that we connect them to, where they have programs to do that.
We’re also talking with medical communities and community health workers to ensure that there’s proper access to these services for people with disabilities. And this could be for many different medical areas, including SRH. It’s important to ensure that stigma is not at the medical level. When people are coming for services, it’s important to ensure [healthcare providers] would accept them. [For example,] one woman—I think she was in Pakistan, who was a wheelchair user—went to the doctor for some other condition entirely, and he just kept asking her questions about her wheelchair and her abilities. It had nothing to do with why she was there. And I think that has happened to a lot of people in terms of pregnancy or wanting contraceptives, [people saying] “Why would you need that?” Going back to that asexualization.
But also—going back to what we talked about before with abuse of people with disabilities—people with disabilities are four times as likely to have HIV. And there is the stigma belief system that if you have sex with a virgin, that will cure you from AIDS. Therefore, there’s an assumption that a person with a disability, especially a young one, is going to be a virgin, and therefore they’re taken advantage of that way. So I just wish more people knew that people with disabilities need just the same access to SRH services as people who do not [have disabilities]. There needs to be more action in thinking about the challenges that people face with accessing appropriate services, with accessing the education that they need.
Also, this doesn’t have to do with people with disabilities in particular, but it has to do with stigma. There have been a lot of people in our workshops that believe that disability actually was caused by using contraceptives.
We do a lot of individualized counseling sessions, especially with young women who have been raped, and young women who are pregnant. Mostly we really are trying to connect them to the professionals. Our job is to ensure that the professionals dealing with sexual and reproductive health—whether it be education, clinics, so on—are accessible. For example, at a clinic, can a person in a wheelchair even get in? And will you serve them in the same way you would serve anyone else?