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Disability and Sexuality: Toward a Focus on Sexuality Education in Ghana

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Abstract

Around the world, persons with disabilities (PWDs) experience disproportionate barriers to obtaining comprehensive, accessible, and inclusive sexual health education due to sexually ableist ideologies. Despite Ghana's more recent efforts to advance sexuality education, considerations for PWDs have not been addressed in the most recent Education Strategic Plan. To formulate future policy recommendations given limited PWD-specific research on sexuality education in the nation, the current status of sexuality education in Ghana is reviewed and an analysis of the international literature on barriers to sexuality education for PWDs is presented. Impediments to ensuring comprehensive sex education involve a western-colonist influence, current economic conditions, and religiously oriented educational structures and practices. The international analysis indicates that sexual ableism manifests in both policy and practice-based impediments to access. When sexuality education is provided, it is often inaccessible, devoid of disability-specific considerations, and communicates desexualizing messages for PWDs. To account for these barriers, recommendations consider the role of the Ghanaian Government in training and offering resources to educators as well as content-specific considerations such as accessible modalities, sex-positive messaging, and recognition of disability-specific needs. Together, these suggestions will promote inclusive sexuality education for PWDs in Ghana.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State University of New York At Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, USA

    Osman Wumpini Shamrock

  2. State University of New York At Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Hannah G. Ginn

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  1. Osman Wumpini Shamrock
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  2. Hannah G. Ginn
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Contributions

The project was conceived and initiated by the first author SWO. SWO developed and wrote all the Ghana-specific content throughout the manuscript and HGG developed and wrote the section on sexuality education for people with disabilities from the international literature. The authors co-wrote the discussion section.

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Correspondence to Osman Wumpini Shamrock.

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Shamrock, O.W., Ginn, H.G. Disability and Sexuality: Toward a Focus on Sexuality Education in Ghana. Sex Disabil 39, 629–645 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-021-09699-8

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