Risky business? Organizing sexual facilitation in Swedish personal assistance services

Despite nearly two decades of disability research highlighting the need to take greater account of disabled people's sexualities, sexuality is still largely a taboo subject in disability services, thus limiting service users’ possibilities to express their sexuality. In this article, I aim to show how Swedish personal assistance managers organize sexual facilitation, that is, assistance from personnel in service users’ sexual engagement. The article draws on findings from a focus group study with managers of municipal and private service providers. Three main themes are discussed: the managers’ different ways of organizing sexual facilitation; how they conceptualize sexuality and normality; and risk management practices. I argue that societal discourse on sexual normality greatly influences managers’ views on and strategies for organizing sexual facilitation. Hence, sexual facilitation in personal assistance services is viewed as a non-normative form of sexuality and a work-related risk rather than a possibility to increase service users’ sexual rights.