What do we mean when we say consent? Do we mean empowered decision making, a legal exchange, or what? Here are a few ways to look at it. Find the entire discussion about consent in the 2018 webinar series, webinar #2.
- Autonomy/Agency (empowerment)
- Self-determination; i.e., my decisions impact what happens to me and the world around me;
- Possible for everyone through supported decision making;
- Power is located within the individual and executed through the individual’s decisions;
- Power is shared in the mutuality of equitable sexual decision making.
- (Legal) Consent
- Requires competency and capacity in sexual decision making
- Legal and medical systems interact to enact decision making power (system over individual)
- Comprehensive culturally affirming sexual health education not required in every state, but competency is always required for legal sexual consent
Culturally Affirming Healthy Sexuality Resources
Pre-screen individuals using trauma-informed processes as a sexual consent tool can trigger trauma-related memories. Healthy sexuality classes are part of comprehensive violence prevention efforts that include organizational assessments and policy changes as necessary to support health and wellness for all people.
- Elevatus Training (formerly Disability Workshops) offers training for staff, parents, people with developmental or intellectual disabilities on sexual health. Elevatus offers “Trauma Informed curriculum, online training and in-service/live workshops to help staff, educators, direct support pros, self-advocates and parents confidently navigate the topic of sexuality.”
- (Free) Capacity Assessment for Sex, 2011
- ($$$) Verbal Informed Sexual Consent Assessment Tool (VISCAT), 2009
- Taking an umbrella into a hurricane: why consent education should be step two in our work to eliminate sexual violence by the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence Prevention Team
- Check out the Sexuality & Disability Consortium, where you will find: In my voice: sexual self-advocacy (free book)
- ‘‘Remember Our Voices are Our Tools: Sexual Self-advocacy as Defined by People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Sex Disability” (2014) 32:515–532
- Fact sheets that are awesome!
Credit
Post written by Cierra Olivia Thomas Williams, Prevention Specialist at Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Consent Resources for People with Cognitive and Developmental Disabilities
Discover more from Disability Justice and Violence Prevention Resource Hub
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
