BOGOTÁ — Can you decide who can touch your body? Do they ask your permission before doing so? For most adults, these questions seem obvious. But for many people with disabilities — particularly those with reduced mobility — these are everyday and deeply relevant issues.
A situation in which individuals are restricted in their ability to decide about their own bodies leaves people with disabilities, especially women, exposed to multiple forms of violence. According to the World Health Organization, women with disabilities are up to three times more likely to be victims of sexual abuse. Whether at home or in healthcare facilities, people with disabilities are often neither asked for their consent nor is it even taken into consideration.
That happens because, when needing physical or emotional support in their daily lives, their caregivers often touch their bodies or make decisions without consulting them. This situation makes it difficult for them to express their feelings, talk about their bodies or set limits. This is why experts emphasize the importance of including people with disabilities in comprehensive sexual education.
Persistent stereotypes
Laura Ximena León, a psychologist and social projects specialist working with Profamilia, a sexual services and information agency, said to El Espectador that, while progress has been made, comprehensive sex education remains taboo in Colombia. She noted that many families and educational institutions avoid addressing the issue because of a persistent myth that “it encourages sexual relations in children and teenagers.”
Regarding people with disabilities, the situation is even more critical, with the persistence of ideas like, “they do not understand, do not live their sexuality or are children forever. So they are not told about ways of interacting with their bodies, about their privacy, dealing with other people or consent. And caregivers also do not receive information on how to positively deal with the sexuality of family members with disabilities,” says León.
Colombia currently has a General Law for Education, and an Education Project for Sexuality and Construction of Citizenship (or PESCC), which requires teaching these topics in schools and colleges. But structural exclusion of people with disabilities from the education system means they are often absent in environments where they could learn about sexuality and autonomy. According to data from the Comptroller’s Office, eight out of 10 students with disabilities were not registered in the Colombian education system by 2024.
Without comprehensive sexual education, we don’t know how to name the violence.
“It’s a very perverse cycle, because if I don’t have comprehensive sexual education, it means I don’t know how to name the violence. So many women without disability need time to identify a situation of sexual violence like rape, and that’s with the language, images and information at their disposal, which means that people with disabilities facing situations of sexual abuse, need even more time,” says Andrea Parra, a lawyer and head of Talleristas por la Justicia, a training workshop for activists and aid workers.
“Comprehensive sexual education is a very clear tool for establishing healthy boundaries,” Parra says. She explained that, even where a person with a disability has personal assistants who must have physical contact to care for them, there are consensual, clear and respectful ways of doing so. But this does not always happen, she warned, whether in families or an institutional setting, posing a constant risk to this population.
Additionally, our sources agreed that when sexuality is discussed among this population, it is almost always from a place of fear or violence, not pleasure, joy or the freedom to decide about their sexuality.
“Most of the time, they are thought of as asexual or, on the contrary, hypersexual, which means they must be ‘controlled’ — and that means for example, cases of forced sterilization,” Parra sats.
Accessing justice
Recently, the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences incorporated the disability category into its records, taking an important step forward in quantifying and revealing cases of sexual violence affecting this population group. Yet experts insist there are still many barriers hindering their access to justice in real terms.
Bubulina Moreno, a sexual and reproductive rights expert who herself lives with disability, told this daily that sexual violence is crossed by multiple factors. She said that while there is a perception that private or family spaces are “safer” for people with disabilities, the majority of cases of sexual violence handled by her occur within the family.
Moreno also explained that people with a disability face communication barriers when seeking justice, as the system doesn’t recognize or accommodate the diversity of ways in which people communicate. Although there are aids like tablets with digital voice or sign language interpreters, these supports are not always available or do not reach those who need them.
There is still mistrust toward testimonies given by disabled individuals.
“For example, for people with intellectual disabilities there is very little information available in easy-to-read format, and those who are ‘non-verbal’ often face major obstacles in expressing themselves or being heard,” Moreno says. She adds, “the criminal justice system demands accurate descriptions of aggressors, which is especially difficult for people who are blind or have communication barriers. These difficulties affect the credibility of their accounts and limit their right to defend themselves and receive protection.”
Experts warn there is still mistrust toward testimonies given by disabled individuals, which restricts their ability to report incidents and be heard. They may also not know about existing reporting channels, which further reduces their ability to act in risky situations. Moreno explained that it is firstly crucial for these people to know their rights concerning accessing sexual and reproductive health information, and services including the support they need. She said, “If a person needs support to access information on sexual and reproductive health, the EPS [local health office] must provide it, as set out in [the Health Ministry’s 2017] Resolution 1904.”
Separately, she points out, the Law on Legal Capacity recognizes that those with an intellectual, psychosocial or multiple disability can make decisions for themselves, and are “no longer declared invalid nor are they stripped of their legal capacity.”
Strengthening bodily autonomy
A guide recently published in Spain — called Educational Resources for the Prevention, Early Detection and Response to Sexual Violence in Women and Girls with Cerebral Palsy — proposes a series of guidelines that can be adapted to strengthen the autonomy of other individuals with disabilities, and their ability to identify situations of sexual violence. These are:
• Ensure bodily autonomy to allow women and girls to make free, conscious and informed decisions about their bodies and its care, and issues of mobility, relationships and sexuality.
• Avoid unnecessary or intrusive physical contact and respect personal space to avoid normalizing the idea that people with disabilities have no right to set boundaries.
• Do not infantilize or ridicule disabled individuals. They must be addressed in age-appropriate language, and their ability to understand must be respected, avoiding all condescension or patronizing tones.
• Validate their opinions and wishes about aspects like appearance or lifestyle, and recognize their personal preferences.
• Do not impose diets, exercise routines or cosmetic procedures without their consent, as this reinforces the idea that their body does not belong to them.
• The right to personal autonomy in communications (texts, calls, social media or medical visits) must be assured, to avoid excessive control in the guise of protection.
• Encourage their ability to express wishes, establish healthy relationships, and avoid the dynamics of emotional dependency based on fear of rejection or a constant search for approval.