Complaining while disabled: Disabled people's experiences expressing complaints within the context of sexuality

Abstract

Within critical disability research, little attention has been paid to the concept of complaint in relation to disabled people. While the demand for thankfulness has been studied to some extent, it is interesting to investigate how and if the complaints of disabled people are heard. This paper explored disabled people's experiences of expressing complaints within the context of sexuality, and the reaction such complaints stirred. The experiences of marginalised groups are often coloured by microaggressions that are not very visible and are regularly trivialised. Studies have shown that microaggressions are a dominant factor affecting the daily lives of disabled people and are thus important to examine further. The data were collected in 2019 and consisted of five interviews and three focus group meetings with 13 participants. Our findings showed that microaggressions are a leading factor in disabled people's daily lives and that they require constant reaction. One of the manifestations of microaggressions is the idea that disabled people should be grateful; thus, they have little room to complain, make demands, or set boundaries. Therefore, expressions of sexuality and desire are often accompanied by feelings of shame among disabled people.