What, When and How to Learn About Sex: The Narratives of Students With

Sex education program among youth with disabilities is pertinent to their overall physical, emotional, health and well-being. However, due to its sensitivity and taboo, the topic is rarely addressed in the Malaysian context. The aim of this study is to explore the understanding about sex among disabled youth and how teaching sex education among disabled students can be improved. To obtain meaningful data, a qualitative interview was conducted. Six students, ages from 20-27 years old, with various disabilities including impaired vision, impaired hearing, physical disability and autistic were recruited via the snowball sampling technique. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze data. The results show that all participants agree that sex education is important. They believed that sex education is essential as a tool for prevention from sex-related diseases and ensure their sexual safety. It appeared that the participants prefer health personnel and disabled educators Disabilities to deliver the subject in a more casual manner and on one-to-one basis. The participants also reported that disable educators will make them more confident to communicate and share their sexual concerns and they feel more cared. Finally, learning about sex through the covert way has led to some confusion. Therefore, parents, teachers and health personnel should provide appropriate avenue, knowledge and resources to discuss about sex with disabled children similar to their non-disabled friends.