Sexual implications of deaf-blindness

Abstract

For those individuals handicapped by both deafness and blindness, interpersonal communication and relationships are greatly hampered and restricted. This fact can better be understood when we examine the nature of the disabilities and their effect upon the learning about one's sexuality. We generally learn about our sexuality in three significant ways: (a) directly (from personal experience), (b) indirectly (from talking or reading about it), and (c) through observation (from listening to and watching others). When a physical and/or mental impediment interferes with this learning process, the more natural opportunities for learning about one's sexuality are limited and often not available. It is not difficult to imagine the possible affects both deafness and blindness have upon this learning process. When one's ability to read, talk, hear and see is impaired, it leaves only one primary source of learning for the individual, his/her experiences. This was reflected in the 1972 Grossman study that compared college students from Gallaudet College (the only liberal arts college for the deaf) and Pennsylvania State University students. According to this unpublished master's thesis the Gallaudet deaf students had less sexual knowledge, were more accepting of sexual myths and engaged in more sexual activity than the Pennsylvania State freshmen and sophomores with whom they were compared.