" As a person with a physical disability, I know first-hand how difficult it is to determine if a sex toy is both accessible and suitable for my needs. Reviews from other people with disability is something I wish I had access to on my sexual health journey.".
Hello! My name is Jono. Welcome to the first of many reviews.
I want to start by giving a little background information about myself. I’m a 31-year-old man who has Cerebral Palsy (CP). I get around in a wheelchair and communicate with a tablet. My form of CP is called Spastic Quadriplegia, which indicates that my bodily movements (including both my arms and legs) are significantly limited due to muscle spasticity, causing increased stiffness. This makes it difficult for me to move my limbs or speak. In my case, the right side of my body is impacted more than the left. My left arm and hand contain the most functionality in my body. However, I can use my right side as a stabiliser; for example, I can hold a DVD in my right arm and use my left fingers to open the case.
As a person with a physical disability, I cannot do most things without support. This extends to masturbation. I’m unable to do this manually because I don’t have fine motor skills (even on my left side), so I rely on sexual assistive devices to support stimulation. When using a device, I need someone to set it up for me, leave the room while the device is being used and then come back in to help with the clean-up afterwards.
Finding a suitable device is extremely difficult due to my disability. Especially as there is no try-before-you-buy policy (obviously!), and non-disabled people write all the reviews. Over the years, I have wasted a lot of money on toys that weren’t compatible with me. Therefore, I’m excited to be partnering up with Stabilise to offer open and honest reviews on a range of sexual assistive devices that I have tested. While I’m aware that I won’t be able to cover everyone’s needs, I hope to offer some insight into how to operate these devices with limited physical capacity. Through these reviews, I aim to fill in some of the gaps in the sex-related content available for people with disability and hope to help others make more informed decisions about sexual assistive devices.