The Automation of Sex Aids for Disabled Populations
Presentation Type
Paper
Abstract
Sex aids for physically disabled people have recently gone from only human assistants to being able to choose fully or semi automated aids. As western society continues to move towards general access to technology and technological knowledge as well as towards addressing intersectionality in accessibility needs and a growing concept and frank discussion of basic human rights and needs, the issue of access of disabled populations to performing their sexuality has intersected with a market in technological innovations to face this need that has been largely overlooked by the common culture and able bodied people in general. Work in the scientific community on both sex and sexuality as well as disability in a dynamic sense is a fledgling field of research and has yet to satisfactorily address orthotic and/or prosthetic sex act assistance in disabled populations. Current research in sex automation and mechanicalization tends to come from an able bodied perspective and usually assumes a cisgender male audience for these conceptual products. Until recently, there has been a marked dearth in information, research, and even acknowledgement of the intersection of sex and disability; the lack of a market or personal access to aids breeds a structural desexualization and cultural climate of infantilization and ignorance of the needs of disabled adults, specifically those who may not have human assistance available as an option. Long held scientific and social taboo is being shirked by researchers and manufacturers of late to make simple mechanical and robotic orthotics and prostheses that are available for medical professionals and vernacularized for common and personal use. Progressive scientific and cultural thought has allowed for the inception of an emergent and significantly overdue modern market for a timeless and pervasive issue for those with disabilities as a whole throughout history and in modernity. This paper will focus on the diachronic growth of mechanical sex aid's economic accessibility, the switch from solely human assistance to the progressive entry of automation to the sex aid industry and market, and discussion on the increasing space for sex aid innovation in the tech and scientific community at large.
The Automation of Sex Aids for Disabled Populations
Sex aids for physically disabled people have recently gone from only human assistants to being able to choose fully or semi automated aids. As western society continues to move towards general access to technology and technological knowledge as well as towards addressing intersectionality in accessibility needs and a growing concept and frank discussion of basic human rights and needs, the issue of access of disabled populations to performing their sexuality has intersected with a market in technological innovations to face this need that has been largely overlooked by the common culture and able bodied people in general. Work in the scientific community on both sex and sexuality as well as disability in a dynamic sense is a fledgling field of research and has yet to satisfactorily address orthotic and/or prosthetic sex act assistance in disabled populations. Current research in sex automation and mechanicalization tends to come from an able bodied perspective and usually assumes a cisgender male audience for these conceptual products. Until recently, there has been a marked dearth in information, research, and even acknowledgement of the intersection of sex and disability; the lack of a market or personal access to aids breeds a structural desexualization and cultural climate of infantilization and ignorance of the needs of disabled adults, specifically those who may not have human assistance available as an option. Long held scientific and social taboo is being shirked by researchers and manufacturers of late to make simple mechanical and robotic orthotics and prostheses that are available for medical professionals and vernacularized for common and personal use. Progressive scientific and cultural thought has allowed for the inception of an emergent and significantly overdue modern market for a timeless and pervasive issue for those with disabilities as a whole throughout history and in modernity. This paper will focus on the diachronic growth of mechanical sex aid's economic accessibility, the switch from solely human assistance to the progressive entry of automation to the sex aid industry and market, and discussion on the increasing space for sex aid innovation in the tech and scientific community at large.