Working for change 183
What women with disabilities can do:
• Meet with caregivers and families of
women with disabilities to explain
how important it is for everyone
to have good information about
sexual health.
Educate other
disabled people
about HIV/AIDS
and sexual health.
• Work with health workers and other
groups to make sure HIV/AIDS and sexual health services
reach people with disabilities.
• If someone is taking advantage of you sexually, tell someone you trust—a family
member, a neighbor, a health worker.
What families and caregivers can do:
• Make sure disabled women have
information about sexual health and
how to prevent HIV/AIDS and STIs.
Give the information in a way that is
respectful and private.
Make sure no
one takes sexual
advantage of women
with disabilities.
• Help other parents of disabled
children understand that when their children grow up, they will want to have
sexual relationships, just like people who are not disabled.
What communities can do:
It is important for everyone in the community to know how HIV/AIDS and STIs
are spread and how to prevent them. With this information, people can realize that
these infections can happen to anyone and they can act to prevent them. And this
knowledge can help people understand that women with disabilities need the same
health care services as everyone else in the community.
It is very important to fight against the conditions that lead to the spread of
disease and not against the people who are infected. HIV/AIDS and STIs can best
be prevented by fighting for fairer social and economic conditions so that women,
including women with disabilities, will have more decision-making power, so that
families do not need to separate to find work, and so that people do not need to
sell their bodies for sex.
• Make sure all people—including women with disabilities—have access to
information and sexual health services, including latex condoms, to keep HIV
and other STIs from spreading in the community.
• Make sure medicines, clean water, and nutritious food are available for people
living with HIV/AIDS.
• Educate people in your community to prevent girls and women with disabilities
from being taken advantage of sexually, and to understand that having sex with
them will not cure AIDS.
A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities 2007