Insufficient Sexual Education for Learners with ID: Why and at What Cost?

Abstract

The United States currently provides poor options and resources regarding sexual education for learners with intellectual disabilities. The downfalls of the current methods in place in the United States are well-documented. Not only is the current situation a violation of the American rights for this group of people on multiple levels, the repercussions of the current neglect directly affect their safety, autonomy, access to pleasure, ownership over their lives, health, and awareness overall. To highlight the relationship between the causes of the lacking sexual education and the results of this poor education, articles were chosen using specific and consistent criteria, appropriately grouped, and analyzed for common themes and results. Individualizing sexual education for these students became an applicable aid upon deeper analysis into each study individually and as a whole. Though there are strategies accessible for proper sexual education for those with intellectual disabilities, it is a common pattern in this study that a variety of stakeholders are too uncomfortable with the topic of sex and would rather ignore the consequences affecting this vulnerable group than challenge their comfort levels to solve the current issue.