(TW ableism, medical invasiveness, institutionalized ableism)

gimpunk:

I need to get a shower chair; the one I have now is very old, falling apart, and I’ve grown too weak to be able to sit up straight in it or be able to move within it so I can bathe properly.

I went to the arduous channels necessary (the doctors visits, the physical therapist assessments, the…

gimpunk:

This book’s target audience is disabled people interested in dating, sex, and alternative lifestyles. The intention is to have essays that can educate people that range from the young novice who might not believe that disabled people even can have romantic relationships to people who want applicable information on safer and more accessible sexual practices. What we need you to do is pick something you know about, even if you’re not an expert in it, and write an essay to people of visible and invisible disabilities who might rely on what you write to change their lives.

Suggested topics are:

• How to speak to someone you’re interested in
• How and when to discuss your disability with the would-be partner
• What to prepare for when meeting a partner’s friends and family
• Accessible dating options
• Online dating and inevitably how to mention you are disabled
• How to express your specific sexual needs or inabilities to your partner
• Tips on how to have sex with limited movement, sensation, etc. and how to avoid pain or injuries that would otherwise not be a problem
• Tips on Masturbation with limited movement, sensation, etc.
• Participating in the LGBTQ community and making sure your limitations are accounted for
• Introductions into the BDSM community and information on how dom–sub relationship can be beneficial and healing for disabled people
• Introductions into the devotee community
• Suggestions and advice on how to identify someone who may be dangerously fetishizing you
• Information on the high rates of abuse and molestation of disabled people with practical advice on how to protect yourself despite an array of limitations
• Risks in pregnancy and information on how to have the safest pregnancy and birth possible
• Advice for the social condemnation that comes with being a disabled parent
• And any other subject that falls within these themes.

Are you a disabled stripper? Are you a disabled matchmaker? Are you a disabled person that has a genuinely interesting and valuable personal story that can contribute to this collection? I want your submissions. Be as quaint or explicit as you like, be as poetic or textbook–esque as works best for you.

Not all submissions may be accepted due to the risk of having too much of one subject being rehashed, so my suggestion to you is to be as informative as possible as well as to put a real signature touch with personal examples in your piece. I will not reject anything that I find educational and empathetic; if this results in encyclopedia size book, so be it.

Submission guidelines
Genre: Nonfiction. All submissions must be an essay on either specific subject or your personal experience
Length: No limitations
Content rating: No limitations. If you are writing about sexual practices we encourage you to be specific as possible given that you must address people’s limitations and methods of accessibility
Number of submissions per person: one unless otherwise agreed upon with the editor (me)

Submissions are open and must be e-mailed to me at hgiel@live.com no later than December 31, 2012. Your submission must be in document format, in English, have a title, and have a short biography of the writer at the end. You need not use your real name; we will accept pennames.

There will be no monetary payment for submitting, as this book will be nonprofit but each person who gets accepted will receive a free paperback copy.

It was recently believed that I would be funding this project out of pocket but Good Mourning Publishing has decided to publish this book for us as a companion to the book Accessible Love Stories, an anthology of romance stories featuring disabled people that they published earlier this year. They’ve been gracious enough to understand the purpose of this new book and will set the price at cost as planned, which means they’ll make no profit from the sales so if you can, please buy a copy of Accessible Love Stories because the profits will go into funding this new book. The e-book version is only a few dollars on Amazon.

The book’s title and cover are still pending but I’m accepting submissions right away. If you have any questions or concerns send them into my blog Gimpunk or e-mail me personally at hgiel@live.com