News flash: paraplegics and quadriplegics want to be sexually active. Research over the years has continually found that disability doesn’t mean a lack of sexual interest, with a 2004 survey in the Journal of Neurotrauma, on 681 spinal-cord injured people in the U.S., reporting that regaining sexual function was the highest priority of paraplegics.

Paraplegic sex and quadriplegic sex is happening, but the healthcare industry hasn't been listening.

SCI: Sex Ranks Highest
Participants ranked this priority higher than improving bladder and bowel function. Yet the medical community hasn’t been responsive to helping this population sexually express themselves, literally adding insult to injury when it comes to handling – or rather not handling - this matter. With one’s sexuality often dismissed in rehabilitation efforts, many spinal cord individuals are left to fend for their own sex lives.

Some are actually quite successful, with research  conducted in Iceland, involving spinal cord injured individuals, finding that 71% of the 45 (mostly male) respondents had an active sex life post-injury. Still, as Disaboom.com has found, many are looking for guidance on disabled sex, including best sex positions for spinal cord injured women and new sex positions for spinal cord injured men.

SCI Vibrator in Test Phase
Thankfully, professionals are working on ways to assist and enhance the sexual experiences of those with physically disabling conditions beyond good sex positions.

Researchers at the B.C. Institute of Technology have been helping paraplegics and quadriplegics realize a satisfying sex life. The Vancouver-based institute has developed, and is testing, eight prototypes of a vibrator for males and females with paraplegia or quadriplegia.

Such a sexual enhancement promises to assist people with spinal cord injuries in simply providing mental sexual arousal, if not more powerful touch in being faster and harder. Hence, people with spinal cord injuries may feel more pleasure via altered arousal and even climax.

Offering more powerful vibrations than the vibes sold in sex toy shops, these new vibro-stimulators will also be easier for spinal cord injured persons to use, having components that can be interchanged to better suit each individual in terms of grip, manipulation, control, and functioning of the device. Stay tuned!

Photo courtesy C. M. Keysers.