Sexuality and Disabled Parents with Disabled Children

This is not your typical academic article. Although it provides references and research information, the perspective is a little different. We intend to share stories from a lifetime of participant observation on disabled adoptive parents. The stories are part of the empirical evidence that makes up our collective lives. But they are not stories well represented in the literature—either qualitative or quantitative. We know we are not average. We are more than one standard deviation from the norm and we celebrate this. This article provides a radical reconceptualization of the sexuality experiences of disabled parents. Think of it as a participatory ethnography. Placed in the context of the growing literature base around families, adoption, and sexuality, our stories reflect the lived experience of the parents who have shared their lives with us.