The Voiceless Minority

What does it mean to experience intimacy? Are disabled people even capable of it? These are good questions, and hopefully this post will provide some answers.  There are several types of intimacy one can engage in during a relationship. However, intimacy is generally defined as “a feeling of close connection and deep understanding between two people” (Dictionary.com). For the purposes of this post, we will discuss the following areas of intimacy. Emotional, Physical, Sexual, Intellectual, Spiritual, Social. Seeing that I’m no expert in psychology, having taken only enough psychology classes to earn a minor in College, I will rely heavily on other resources for this piece.  The idea for this piece came about after reading an article in Rolling Inspiration magazine. It talked about how to maintain boundaries and intimacy after someone becomes disabled due to a spinal cord injury. The article, which I will link at the bottom of this piece, prompted me to think about my family’s ...

Almost two years ago, I wrote a blog about disability parenthood called "Who Says We Can't Have A Family?"  http://thevoicelssminority.blogspot.com/2013/07/who-says-we-cant-have-family.html  In it, I discuss several issues about being a parent and having a disability. When I wrote the blog, I had just turned 27 and had a different view on life. As I am approaching my 29 th  birthday, my perspective on the world is somewhat the same, but on the disability and parenting issue, I don't know if I still hold the same belief.             In that first blog, I laid out the following arguments: It is natural to want to pass genes to offspring, considering human life is just a blip in the cosmic makeup of things, and all we have are the legacies we leave behind. While I still agree with that argument, I find myself internally struggling with the question. Although I believe disabled people as a group have the right to b...